"We tried to make you be like us and, in so doing, we helped to diminish the sacred vision that made you who you are"(??)"Thus, we demonstrated that we did not fully understand the gospel we were trying to preach". Wow.

'The Gospel' is: Jesus Christ died to pay for sins which allows every person, as a born enemy of God, to repent and become a child of God at the time when the individual fully accepts this payment and relies on none of his/her own merits. 

Here Rev.Karns drags culture & education styles/methods into a different 'gospel'-which isn't "the Gospel" nor Christ's biblical mission. When I'm long gone as an educator, nobody-especially those generations later who were not in the classroom -can genuinely 'apologize' for (accusations of) how I taught lessons or disciplined students! 

With sin, meaningful apologies come from those individuals who are sorry they've sinned to those sinned against. This is cowardice toward those teachers accused, and diverts from God's Gospel work.