Is a school's impact on children exaggerated? How much influence do families and the internet have on child rearing and the formation of moral values? Which of the following are true or false?
By the time they graduate from 12th grade, children will have spent approximately 15-20% of their lives in school.
Schools reflect society more than they shape it.
The Role Of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
The Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) industry has been around for a long time in schools. In fact, it was in 2002 that Heather MacDonald wrote about the “diversity industry” and the role elite schools play in keeping America obsessively focused on racial divisions. In her article, The Prep-School PC Plague, she asserts:
"With their arcadian campuses, rich endowments, and freedom to reject the pedagogical garbage peddled by government, ed schools, and teachers’ unions, private schools can create whatever sort of educational utopia they choose. So why not try something really radical: stop yakking about race and gender all the time, and see what happens when gifted young people of all races are encouraged to bond together. It’s not as if, when the graduates get to college, they’ll be starved for identity politics."
Now, twenty-one years later, the DEI industry has infiltrated almost every institution and company. Its reach, scope, and pitch have grown exponentially. Why? A few thoughts:
2016 Presidential election results — School boundaries/norms were broken when faculty and staff did not model restraint. Suddenly “neutrality” was no longer a goal, and it seemed “ok” for politics to enter the classroom. Very few were modeling civility.
Summer of George Floyd — Prior to 2020, many schools already had DEI offices/programs (diversity training began in the 90s in corporate America). In response to the national racial reckoning, schools accelerated and enhanced their DEI. It became THE priority for many institutions.
Social media amplification and declining civil discourse — DEI chills and compels speech because it does not include viewpoint diversity. At Stanford, for example, DEI offices became weapons to intimidate and limit speech" (as described in The Tyranny of the DEI Bureaucracy).
A Positive Development
On Tuesday, April 4, 2023, MIT’s chapter of the Adam Smith Society, working with the MIT Free Speech Alliance as co-host, hosted an Oxford Union-style debate around the following resolution:
Resolved, that academic DEI programs should be abolished.
Arguing for the affirmative:
Heather MacDonald, Thomas W. Smith Fellow (Manhattan Institute)
Patanjali (Pat) Kambhampati (Professor of Chemistry, McGill University)
Arguing for the negative:
Pamela Denise Long (CEO, Youthcentrix Therapy Services and contributor, Newsweek magazine)
Karith Foster (Founder, Inversity Solutions)
Watch for yourself, and be sure to listen to the student questions at the end.
Resource
by Bonnie Kerrigan Snyder
"He who knows only his own side of the case, knows little of that.” — John Stuart Mill