Education Student Complains About Diversity Training
Posted on Sat Nov 12, 2005 at 12:24:00 PM EST
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by TChris
A public university cannot train teachers to teach only white Christian kids. Teachers must be equipped to teach a diverse student population. A university might therefore legitimately be troubled when a student in its education program insists that “diversity is perversity.”
Ed Swan thinks the College of Education at Washington State is discriminating against him because of his political views. Swan was told to complete diversity training if he wanted to remain in the program. If he is correct that WSU is trying to force him to change his fundamental beliefs about abortion or gay marriage, he has a valid gripe. But WSU has a legitimate interest in producing teachers who do not favor students of a particular race or background, and diversity training is a reasonable vehicle for achieving that goal.
"We want prospective teachers to realize they are going to be teaching all children," said Judy Mitchell, dean of education. "We want to make sure a teacher appreciates and values human diversity and others' varied talents and perspectives."
WSU’s educators evaluate their students as potential teachers using a variety of criteria, including whether the student “exhibits an understanding of the complexities of race, power, gender, class, sexual orientation and privilege in American society.” Surely the ability to understand and work fairly and equally with kids from all walks of life is a legitimate skill for the College of Education to develop in its students.
WSU evaluated Swan four times and he failed, on that issue, four times. Whether his failure was unfair is a question that would require close examination of facts presented by Swan and by the faculty members who evaluated him. But Swan’s supporters want to turn his predicament into another attack on political correctness. Diversity training, they maintain, is nothing more than a reeducation camp, designed to transform conservatives into liberals. Ah, if only it were so easy (sarcasm in italics).
Again, Swan and his helpers would have a point if diversity training attempted to persuade Swan to change his opinion about abortion or gay marriage. But training Swan to treat gay students, or Muslim students, or nonwhite students, with the same openness and respect that he would give to a white male Christian student, isn’t thought control. It’s behavioral control, and schools have a right to control the behavior of their employees by assuring that teachers do not violate anti-discrimination laws or policies. Schools are also entitled to teachers who teach every student effectively.
Did the university go too far by asking Swan “to sign an agreement to respect community norms and appreciate diversity”? What Swan “appreciates” is solely in Swan’s head and therefore gives rise to a legitimate claim of thought control. That’s presumably why the university withdrew the proposed agreement. (Asking him to respect community norms, on the other hand, is unobjectionable, at least if interpreted as seeking agreement that he will treat each of his students with respect, even if they aren’t mini-me versions of Swan.)
In any event, Swan completed the training (which he grumblingly characterizes as a “grilling”) and is off to the real world, presumably with no significant violence done to his conservative beliefs.
After finishing classes this month, he will spend 3 1/2 months student-teaching in Othello, which is overwhelmingly Hispanic.
The experience should be good for him.
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