The video above (also linked here for mobile phone app viewing) was apparently a mandatory watch for every employee of the Escambia County School District over the last several weeks heading into the new school year which begins tomorrow. I was tagged in a facebook post where this video was the subject. And subsequently several friends and other School District folks have shared the link with me.
So I watched it.
It appears to be some local teachers and administrators giving thier thoughts, mixed in with clips from another source with various scenarios spliced in. The common theme appears to be that some students must be treated differently and expectations from some students (students of color) should not be the same as expectations of others. It also seems to intimate that there is overwhelming and systemic racial bias toward some students, and many associated with the schools need to embrace this concept as they are probably guilty of contributing to this without even knowing it? Wow, that's a lot.
You know, I must be a neanderthal throwback because in the limited time I taught a third grade class in San Diego at McKinley Elementary School--I was taught by my mentor teacher and I embraced the concept that we should treat all students as equals and not differentiate (with the exception that students with limited English proficiency should be given different language arts classes to assist them in learning English.) And expectations were uniform--meaning all had to do the same work, follow the same rules, and meet the same classroom behavior expectations uniformly, not in a differentiated way. I'm no expert for sure, but I have taught in public school classrooms at multiple grade levels. And I don't think you ever go wrong having one set of rules and expectations which are equally applied across the board for all students.
In my 10 years as an Escambia County School Board member--I always took this same view when working with my peers to set policy--particularly on discipline. One set of expectations, uniformly enforced and applied.
But I did notice an unsettling trend toward treating some students differently when it came to discipline and behavior expectations. To put it bluntly: I saw evidence that some students were getting a "pass" on serious disciplinary consequences for severe transgressions based upon race. And I ALWAYS called that out when I saw it. I also saw "no zero grading" moves to help prop up some students (to move them through the system) and to actually do "social promotion" to keep students who were not meeting rigorous academic standards moving through toward graduation anyway. I thought "no zero grading" was garbage and I spoke out vigorously in opposition as I thought it was just another example of bar lowering.
So I see this video, and I see the concepts of treating some differently is now the official doctrine, apparently, of administration locally.
We will see what happens but many with whom I speak believe this will not be good. Some feel this is critical race theroy "lite". I think it is divisive. We will see what happens.
