Issue link: http://educator.cta.org/i/939681
L E T U S K N O W W H A T Y O U T H I N K . We accept signed email and letters; we excerpt user posts from CTA social media platforms and californiaeducator.org. Content subject to editing for clarity and space. Photos must have identifications and permissions. Opinions expressed by the writers are not necessarily those of CTA. Editor@cta.org; #WeAreCTA Sensitive Topic Thank you for your article " Teaching About Religion" (December/January). As a middle school educator, I have had to speak to both my community of parents and my students on the place of Islam and other religions within the California content standards and their importance in the social science curriculum. Your article addresses quite well the role of a social science teacher to be objective and teach how these belief systems of various religions are important to helping our students understand the world from a global perspective. By keeping our teaching academic and not devotional, by helping our students understand the historical significance of systems of faiths, we truly can impact, as David Fulton mentions, how we behave as a society, being more courageous and empathetic to the needs of those around us. RUSS KLINGER San Mateo Elementary Teachers Association Not Internment Camps I am a retired science educator of 39 years. I am now volunteering at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles. In your item about Fred Korematsu Day (December/January, page 8), you used the word "internment" in mentioning that Korematsu refused to go to the internment camps. A careful dis- tinction should be drawn between the internment of enemy aliens and evacuation of military zones. Enemy aliens deemed unsafe are placed in intern- ment camps, under guard, and the conditions under which they are held are in accordance with the pro- visions of international law. Internees are people who have individually been suspected of being dangerous to the internal security of the United States, have been given a hearing on charges to that effect, and have been ordered confined in an internment camp administered by the Army. The evacuation of a military area is an entirely different matter. The evacuees are not "internees," they have not been "interned." (President Roosevelt's Executive Order 9066 authorized the military to divide the West Coast into military areas and exclude any persons deemed dangerous.) JAMES TANAK A Former WRA Minidoka Relocation Center evacuee, family number 16,152 Caption This! The winning caption for our CaliforniaEducator.org GIF caption contest: " Go into teaching," they said. "It'll be a breeze," they said. "You only have to work ten months of the year," they said. Congratulations to PAUL A BR ANNON, Val Verde Teachers Association, who wins a stylish, zippered CTA tote. Honorable mentions: That moment when all 30 of your students brought back their field trip forms but you only made reservations for 25. — FERNANDO J. FIGUEROA , San Mateo Elementary Teachers Association "Doh! 5 years, 4 TPAs, 3 CSETs, RICA, a thesis, $65,000, and I'm still not prepared for all of this!" — ALICIA ROMERO, Hesperia Teachers Association See CaliforniaEducator.org for our next GIF contest. While you're there, take in all the great Educator content as well as relevant news and information. 3 F E B R U A R Y / M A R C H 2 018 F E E D B A C K #OurVoiceOurUnion #WeAreCTA For our full social media directory, see cta.org/social facebook.com/ wearecta @WeAreCTA youtube.com/ californiateachers @WeAreCTA WeAreCTA