MADISON – “(R)acism is caused by white people, by our attitudes, behaviors, practices, and institutions … How do you justify it for yourself?”
That’s the heavy-handed question asked of Wisconsin’s public school teachers, one of many similar assertions found in a conference handout from a controversial state Department of Public Instruction initiative to combat “white privilege” in the classroom. […]
The view that public schools often fail to teach minority and disadvantaged students by failing to reach them culturally is a widely accepted tenet among the left-center education school of thought.
“Many American schools in general, attempt to deny the minority students of their culture,” notes a blog written by students enrolled in Philosophy of Education at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. The entry is headlined, “Keeping Minority Culture and Students in their Place.” “This happens because the social institutions reward those for living distinctly traditional American lives and punishes those who deviate from the norm. The American education system, as a social institution, attempts to mimic this reward-and-punish structure by creating a system where education is standardized.”