Like Father, Like Son (I Report Proudly)

Here's a letter that my 13-year-old son, Thomas, wrote to the New York Times:

Charles Blow says that "Private schools by their very nature discriminate. Their students are literally the chosen ones – special, better. This sort of thinking has a way of weaving itself into the fibers of a family and into the thinking of the children, particularly young boys in a male culture where even the slightest deviations from the narrowest concepts of normality are heretical" ("Private School Civility Gap," Oct. 30).

I disagree.

I've gone to private school my whole life.  My parents send me there because it provides a superior education.  They don't send me to private school because they think I am "special" or "better."  They also don't raise me to think like that.  Nor does my school teach me to think like that.  My classmates and I are taught tolerance and civility in addition to formal subjects like math and Latin, so none of us are bothered by people and ideas just because these might be different from ones that are more familiar.  And I myself especially enjoy how I am different from my classmates.

Sincerely,

Thomas M. Boudreaux

Eighth Grade

Westminster School

Annandale, VA 22003