Minorities value education

As a Utah schoolteacher, I am dismayed by the racist implications of Maureen Gale's letter (Readers' Forum, Oct. 1). Gale suggests that indifference toward school attendance is a characteristic of minority parents and that minority parents refuse to "learn English and acculturate to an achievement-oriented society," thus dooming their children to academic failure.

I, too, have taught low-achieving students but have not experienced the same situation as Gale has. On the contrary, the parents of minority students that I've taught are extremely supportive and concerned for their children's education. To suggest that these families come from a cultural background that is not concerned with their children's achievement is blatantly racist and not representative of Utah teachers that I know.

Laurie Oberg Hadden

Salt Lake City