What does it mean to be "inclusive," Dublin City Schools?
A brief review of materials at your elementary child's library.
Four years ago, I was attempting to immerse my children in Chinese culture, including folklore and languages. But the public library section on different American ethnicities was barely large enough to cover half a shelf.
I thought this was strange. (Especially for a suburb in LA where I was often the only white person in the grocery store.)
Because America is not just a melting pot - but also a patchwork. A mosaic. A tessellation. Innumerable cultures, traditions, values and beliefs… merging and changing but still somehow maintaining their uniqueness right alongside one another. The core principles are there - freedom of speech, individuality, equality, the rule of law - but we remain largely undefined, making it up as we go along.
We are explorers, interlopers and kidnappers. Runaways, hostages and abductees. Sacagawea and Billy the Kid. Bruce Lee and Aretha. Gold diggers and puritans. Slavers and abolitionists. Gunslingers and pacifists. Einstein and Elvis. Jazz and Rock and Rap and Blues. Fredrick Douglas, Amelia Earhart, white bread, cheeseburgers, enchiladas, egg rolls, dosas, apple pie…
The Trail of Tears belongs to all of us.
As does the dream.
We are, basically, the island of misfit toys.
And no one really “looks” like you, fellow American, because here you are an individual.
And probably an oddball.
So when I think about inclusion and my elementary-aged biracial kids, I think of introducing their friends to things like kung fu, lion dances, red envelopes, birdsongs that are harbingers of fiery disasters, shrimp dumplings and bao buns.
I do not think of things like, say, rape:
Or knife fights:
Or… I am not sure how to succinctly describe this:
But these pages are from one of the books sitting in my elementary child’s library because DCS approved it - along with many others - via a $12,000 book donation in October 2021 from an organization called Harper’s Corner in the name of “diversity and inclusion.”*
Inclusion is important and everyone should be treated with dignity in our schools. But what are we willing to sacrifice in order to make our elementary schools more progressively inclusive?
Age appropriateness?
Neutrality?
Science?
Factual accuracy?
The undoing of harmful stereotypes?
Should we start telling six-years-olds not only our preferred pronouns but also our sexual preferences?
Most people in our community do not want to ban teachers from doing their jobs. And most people support equality for all marginalized groups including POC and trans and gay people. But most people do not think first graders should be introduced to rape, penile amputation and castration, hormone therapy or critical gender and queer theory - (a theory which ignores biology and conflates sex with gender) or taught that America is a hateful country and all cops are racist child killers.
In fact, politicization of children’s literature, in general, is not at the top of most people’s lists of things they want in their child’s elementary school. Because elementary school libraries are not public libraries. Students are a captive audience and young enough to be influenced by their teachers and other adults. That is why there are laws and policies barring certain content from K-12 teaching.
I am NOT a book banner. But I believe parents should be aware of what may be masquerading as “diversity and inclusion” in their child’s library. I know there are people who sincerely believe that children should be told that there are infinite genders, that their gender is a made-up concept but also the most important part of their identity, and that judging others by the color of their skin is the right thing to do in order to tear down an inherently hateful system. I believe these people are well-intentioned, but I also believe they are wrong.
If you are wary of religious indoctrination - as you well should be - are you also concerned that our schools appear to be headed down a path of indoctrinating children with a new dogma that is based on unproven academic theories and treated as incontestable truth?
Why or why not?
Discuss.
* If you would like to check out what is in your child’s library in DCS, please click HERE.