Let’s not make race and culture too hot for our teachers to handle

Clarence Page, Tribune Content Agency on Feb 9, 2021

Nice try, but the proposal has an upstream swim against a tide of national pushback by conservatives against what they see as a promotion of lefty values in classrooms.

The feared tomorrow for conservatives in Illinois and elsewhere can be seen today in Cupertino, Calif., according to various news reports. At least one class of third graders, for example, was compelled to deconstruct their racial identities and rank themselves according to their “power and privilege.”

Third grade does sound a bit young to explore anything more complex than, say, the “white” and “colored” signs of desegregation that Martin Luther King Jr. successfully campaigned against. But what age is old enough? Those are the sorts of questions that are resolved, once we stop yelling at one another, through earnest efforts to break down the barriers of understanding between us.

Racism is not over, and diversity is not as simple as black and white. Race has been joined by issues of ethnic, religious and gender rights, to name a few other major divides — and let us not forget class among the differences that cause us to overlook or shortchange the many other qualities that we share in common.

Closing these divisions is more than a feel-good issue. Illinois, for example, is suffering severe shortages of teachers, particularly teachers of color. Diversity education can help students of all colors to be more motivated and, one hopes, reduce dropout rates. But the remedies cannot become so complicated that they become an unnecessary burden on good teachers and principals, whether during Black History Month or any other month.

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(E-mail Clarence Page at cpage@chicagotribune.com.)