Submitted by Candyce Hernandez.
I see a lot of them supporting the equity policy, but what are we really putting on their plate?
One of the best predictors of student outcome is parental engagement. We can try all the ways to encourage parental engagement, but we cannot make them value their child’s education enough to keep them engaged in a real way. What does this mean for teachers? Teacher’s carry the responsibility of our kids’ minds and parent’s truly take that for granted.
Now, the district is telling teachers who are in “positions of institutional power” that they are implicitly biased against kids who are from “historically marginalized” communities and they have to atone for that by overcompensating their biases and “shutting up and listening.” What level of moral injury are we imposing on our teachers? I feel bad for the ones who are being bullied into silence over this new pedagogy. Especially when they were told that their retention is less important than Educators of color, even if they have better academic outcomes in the classroom.
Overall, I feel bad for all in-class educators who are now responsible for rectifying all of local society’s ills, lack of parental engagement, and lack of in-classroom support (especially during COVID when parents aren’t allowed on campus) by parents or adequate paras. ALL while being told that they are doing it wrong. Maybe we are placing too much of the collective responsibility of bad societal outcomes on teachers.
Water flows down hill and so will the “equity policy” to the teacher level where individual teachers will have to implement what the Board, Superintendent, administration and staff lay on their plate. The Clover Park Education Association (CPEA) May 2021 memo bemoaned the lack of support for teachers straining under increasing loads of administration generated requirements. According to CPEA the typical answer to teachers is “figure it out”: so much for an implementation program for equity. Ultimately it totally depends on the individual teacher, what they will teach and what they will not; a prescription for failure.
The District administrators (principals) CP Association of School Principals’ (CPASP) statement (8/4/21) in support of the “equity policy” piles another layer of guilt and responsibility on teachers.
“We acknowledge our collective responsibility to identify the many existing systems of power that grant privilege and access unequally, and pledge to dismantle barriers of exclusion such as racism, heterosexism (NOTE: promote homosexuality?), ablesim, discrimination, and unexamined privilege. We are committed to take action through the proper implementation of restorative practices (NOTE: reparations?) in schools, ending zero-tolerance discipline (NOTE: based upon race?), and teachings ‘ (sic) inclusive curricula (NOTE: critical race theory?) to create a vibrant and equitable community of excellence as examples.”
Does this paragraph even make sense? What’s up with the inclusive “we” that leftists always attempt in spreading their “mea culpa” to the rest of society? Speak for yourself and not the rest of us! “Collective” like you mean in “communism”. Every single one of these principals should resign and find another career field other than education if indeed they are so aware of their own personal responsibility for the current state of affairs,
Why would you trust people self admittedly racist, discriminatory, privileged, people responsible for the problem for years to suddenly have a change of heart and fix it? The CPASP is merely “virtue signaling” and passing the “buck” for fixing things to the teachers and ultimately the students. It’s easy to take a stand when you don’t have to face the consequences.
The bigger issue, that you’ve mentioned elsewhere, is that we cannot make teachers (even the ones who are all in with this equity) responsible for the wrongs of society.
We need to encourage a cultural shift that prioritizes education and the schools can’t do that. This equity police undermines it and instead encourage the pedagogy to focus around things in society instead on education.