Bad Dream

 I guess that I shouldn't be surprised that the goof that wants to close up the Department of Education is continuing his efforts to make my job more difficult. 

The Tariff King made an executive order that struck down the work being done to limit the disparity between races when it comes to school suspensions. That order is modestly titled, "Reinstating Common Sense School Discipline Policies." The preamble goes a little like this: "The Federal Government will no longer tolerate known risks to children’s safety and well-being in the classroom that result from the application of school discipline based on discriminatory and unlawful 'equity' ideology."

If you didn't flinch a little at the phrase "discriminatory and unlawful 'equity' ideology," you might not want to read any further. 

I am one of those bleeding hearts who has experienced the reform of equity ideology and seen the effects. The positive effects. The work being done to shift from punitive discipline to restorative justice in our nation's classrooms has not been easy. The idea that there are "bad kids" flies in the face of everything that I have experienced as a teacher, parent, and a kid myself. It was my father who, back in the earliest years of conscious parenting used to announce that "there are no bad kids, just bad behavior." This coming from the man who helped raise me and my brothers carries some weight. 

How we treat those kids is the key. If they show up in our schools and neighborhoods as damaged goods, it becomes increasingly likely that they will adopt that persona. If we close one eye to the dangers of reinstituting this "color blind" approach ordered by a convicted felon, we run the risk of pushing kids farther away from the education they so desperately need to try and escape their circumstances. 

Let's not pretend for a moment that this is the racist pendulum swinging back after years of trying to correct the inequity that exists in our nation's schools. In our nation. Giving those backward enough to believe that somehow our kids will be "safe" because we "get rid of" the ones who are causing the trouble aren't looking at what the trouble really is. 

Imagine a world where orange people were looked upon with fear and derision. Instead, let's look at the content of their character. 

We can dream, can't we.