DEI in Texas Classrooms
In December, we explained to you how Texas teacher colleges are pushing critical literacy and critical pedagogy – that is, grooming future teachers to teach our kids to become activists…not literate, functional Texans.
But there’s a thick layer of DEI – diversity, equity, and inclusion – slathered onto the Texas teacher certification process just in case they don’t learn it in college.
A quick DEI primer, for those who don’t know or don’t fully understand it.
Diversity, equity, and inclusion center society on how people feel. Not all people. It seeks to cure negative feelings in “marginalized” people at the expense of those in the so-called majority.
D is for Diversity. People of a variety of backgrounds, skin tones, and viewpoints, working together toward excellence? Sign me up for that society!
Diversity in DEI doesn’t mean that, though. It means everyone looks different, but thinks the same. Differences in background, skin color, gender identity, sexual preference, and age fall under this heading. Diversity of thought does not. How much diversity training one has received is now a must on a resume. And when diversity of immutable characteristics is prioritized over merit, excellence suffers.
E is for Equity. The goal of equity is to guarantee the same outcome for everyone (except the so-called majority) at work, at school, in life. Equity is not equality. Do not confuse the two. Equality’s goal is that every Texan has the same opportunities to succeed but leaves the rest to the individual and their choices. Equity’s goal is that everyone gets a trophy, regardless of how much or how little they participate.
As you know, there are only so many resources in a school or society to go around. To achieve equity, those will have to be redistributed. Funny how that works. And if the best outcome will be handed to those not of the so-called majority, why would anyone strive, create, invent, or achieve?
I is for Inclusion. Like equity, inclusion sounds inoffensive…maybe even desirable. Don’t we all want to belong? Inclusion as we find it in DEI, though, means that if a marginalized group doesn’t feel included or validated or happy, members of the so-called majority must be punished or excluded to fix those negative feelings.
For a good example of this, see social media. If three people complain about how a post or tweet makes them feel, the person who posted it will be made to take it down, though thousands of others are not offended…provided the three complainers say they belong to an outgroup and feeling excluded.
Colleges and school districts spend millions of dollars a year on DEI administrators to make sure people feel good.
If you traffic in feelings, this is a very profitable time for you. Congrats. If you structured your life around the reality that life ain’t fair, regardless of your skin color, this is a very confusing time for you.
Now that we understand DEI, let’s talk about Texas schools and how our teachers get certified to teach…
It’s not enough for new teachers to know the subject matter they will teach, how kids develop intellectually, how to teach & govern a classroom, and what the state requires students to master. Nope.
Teachers must also show fealty to DEI to be certified.
Before an individual may become a Texas public school teacher, they are tested on knowledge about their subject, and on “pedagogy and professional responsibilities,” or PPR. A prep guide for the PPR exam, issued in 2017 by the Texas Education Agency, shows us how much mastery of DEI new teachers need.
Under Competency 2: A beginning teacher must “demonstrate knowledge of students with diverse personal and social characteristics (e.g. those related to ethnicity, gender, language background, exceptionality) and the significance of student diversity for teaching, learning and assessment.”
Should a teacher know how to teach all boys and girls? Sure. That’s baked into the education cake.
But why do we require teachers know the “significance of student diversity”? Because DEI says so.
A beginning teacher “accepts and respects students with diverse backgrounds and needs” and “knows how to use diversity in the classroom and the community to enrich all students’ learning experiences.”
“Accepts and respects” are subjective, emotional terms.
Who defines acceptance and respect? A DEI bureaucrat does.
Why and how would a teacher use diversity in a classroom and community? Why not just teach the subject matter and hold everyone to the same high standards? Because DEI says that would make some kids feel bad and feelings trump standards.
A beginning teacher “knows strategies for enhancing one’s own understanding of students’ diverse backgrounds and needs.”
Why do we expect teachers to study diversity? Because DEI says so.
In Competency 5: A teacher must “establish a classroom climate that fosters learning, equity, and excellence, and uses this knowledge to create a physical and emotional environment that is safe and productive.”
You cannot foster equity and excellence. It’s one or the other.
Equity kills excellence because it extinguishes the reasons we strive.
More from Competency 5: Teachers will emphasize “respect for diversity.” They’re required to “create a safe, nurturing and inclusive classroom environment that addresses students’ emotional needs and respects students’ rights and dignity.”
Safe. Nurturing. Respect. Dignity. All subjective. All emotional. All DEI.
In Competency 11, a teacher must “interact appropriately with all families, including those that have diverse characteristics, backgrounds and needs.”
This sentence should have ended at “all families,” but the DEI linguistic work isn’t done until you pay homage to diversity.
These competencies required for teacher certification are crafted by the State Board of Educator Certification, overseen by a board appointed by the governor. Standards anchored to emotions, not objectivity or merit, are why we fail Texas students.
We need teachers to be certified in classroom competence, not DEI.
Once teachers are certified, they’re not only required to do the job for which they’re paid – teaching a subject to students – they’re also responsible for developing the conscience, emotions, and mental health of the kids they teach.
In Chapter 19, Part Two, Chapter 149 of the Texas Administrative Code (Commissioner’s Rules Concerning Educator Standards), we find what is expected of teachers once they’re certified. Mixed in with what you’d expect a teacher to know is a little bit of diversity-speak and a lot of “social-emotional learning.”
What is social-emotional learning? According to CASEL, the organization that has been pushing it since the 1990s, SEL as a process through which students “develop healthy identities, manage emotions and achieve personal and collective goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain supportive relationships, and make responsible and caring decisions.”
They sell (and Texas bought) the idea that schools must do the jobs parents have done for millennia.
They sell (and Texas bought) the idea that social-emotional learning creates equity in education. Not equality…equity. They sell (and Texas bought) the idea of state-mandated morality.
“SEL advances educational equity and excellence through authentic school-family-community partnerships to establish learning environments and experiences that feature trusting and collaborative relationships, rigorous and meaningful curriculum and instruction, and ongoing evaluation. SEL can help address various forms of inequity and empower young people and adults to co-create thriving schools and contribute to safe, healthy, and just communities.”
Parents are the stewards of the social and emotional growth of their children, their kids’ developing identities, decision making skills, morality, etc. Teachers aren’t psychotherapists or counselors, nor should we ask them to be.
Texas parents want their kids to attend schools that align with and reinforce the values they teach at home.
How will they find that when DEI is such a big part of teacher certification and SEL is an integral part of public school education? How will kids learn when so much time is dedicated to their feelings and to equity, which is ruinous to excellence?
The answer to both questions is: they won’t.
