Peter Swanson wants a piece of the honorarium that Lisa Westberg Peters turned down when the Monticello, MN, school board asked her not to talk about evolution in some its classrooms. She was supposed to show up to teach kids how to write. She's a writer. It would seem she could do that, but she felt censored.

If I'm a good writer -- and some days I think I am -- and if I had an interest in helping young people learn to write -- which I assume Peters has -- I think I could do that without needing to introduce a debate to second and third graders. Ms. Peters is free to accept or reject conditions on a contract to teach, but one wonders if she was looking to pick a fight.