The Newtown Board of Education has adopted a new academic freedom policy, distinguishing between teaching and indoctrination.  The policy says schools should teach students how to think, not what to think--and that classrooms are forums for inquiry, not arenas for the promulgation of particular viewpoints. Board members say the key focus of this policy is to protect the freedom of speech and the association of Newtown teachers while ensuring instruction is based on district practices and that all students feel included.  Newtown’s new policy becomes the basis for more specific regulations requiring the district to maintain an atmosphere of academic freedom within the schools that are without partisan, embrace diversity of thought, foster equity in perspectives, and inclusion of ideas. The vote earlier this month followed several meetings of debate about diversity, equity and inclusion.  The district hired Wesley Johnson in October as coordinator of diversity, equity and inclusion.