Multiculturalism Breeds a Modern Inquisition in Oregon Schools
by William "Bill" Bonville
"I, Galileo, being in my seventieth year, being a prisoner and on my knees, and before your Eminence, having before my eyes the Holy Gospel, which I touch with my hands, now abjure, curse and detest the error and the heresy of the movement of the Earth."
The date was 21 June 1633, at the Vatican. There Galileo was found guilty of heresy by the Inquisition. His sin? He shared the opinion of Copernicus that the Earth was not the unmoving center of the universe. His choice: Recant or burn at the stake. Thus the tired old man recanted and died in peace at his natural time.
Fast forward to 21 June 2007. A prospective teacher or school superintendent seeking licensure is facing a modern Inquisition mounted by the Oregon Teacher Standards and Practices Commission (TSPC). The candidate must not only prove to have the knowledge and skills necessary to the profession, but must demonstrate cultural competence. By definition of the TSPC, cultural competence turns out to be a required dispositional attitude or belief, not unlike a religion, lately woven into the broad context of the licencing rules for educators in the State of Oregon.
This is no isolated instance. In fact there is a strong national movement among the faculties of the education colleges establishing a "cultural competence" criterion for graduation --- which in Oregon will thus assure the new graduate of successful licencing and employment per the regulations of the TSPC.
Not only the public universities and departments of education are pursuing this track. David Limbaugh, in his article, False promises of academic freedom, May 6, 2005, relates it to private schools as well. He wrote:
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"If you want to get a real glimpse of the thought-tyranny of the academic Left, you should look at the case of Scott McConnell, who was recently expelled from Le Moyne College in Syracuse, N.Y., because his personal beliefs didn't fit within the school's indoctrination grid.... "McConnell was pursuing a masters in education at Le Moyne. He achieved a 3.78 grade-point average for the fall semester and an "excellent" evaluation for his outside classroom work at a Syracuse elementary school when he made the mistake of relying on the university's promise to honor students' academic liberty and due process. "Among McConnell's unforgivable sins were his audacious dissent from the university's dogma extolling multicultural education and his gross insubordination in asserting in a paper that "corporal punishment has a place in the classroom." |
Limbaugh comments, "The Left, through an extraordinary process of self-deception, routinely congratulates itself for its enlightenment and open-mindedness, but the slightest scrutiny of its behavior in academia alone puts the lie to its claims..."
Nowhere is Limbaugh's judgement more valid than here in Oregon, long caught in the embrace of liberal doctrine that is fully in place with our educational establishment. E.g.: The dictum of the TSPC: Thou shalt "advocate" and "believe" and "embrace" our standards of cultural competence else you can forget about being an educator in the State of Oregon. (Which is probably better than being burned at the stake.) It is a dictum intended to apply to every current or future educator at all levels from kindergarten upward through the university level. This was the conclusion reached at the Cultural Competency Summit attended by more than 100 of "the State's leaders in education," on 19 May, 2004. The proceedings were sponsored by a consortium of public education agencies including the TSPC and the State Department of Education.
This new definition of cultural competence is not about the "American Way" or the culture of the "melting pot." It merges with the current educational fad of multiculturalism. In this instance it applies not directly to the children in the schools, however. It is about transforming the leadership of our schools. "The pool of potential leaders must be expanded to reflect the demographic characteristics of the emerging culture. Men and women of color, men and women of diverse social class backgrounds, and men and women who think differently must be supported as emerging leaders," according to the report of the Summit proceedings. That suggests that white, middle-class Protestants need no longer apply.
The Summit report was issued by Superintendent of Public Instruction Susan Castillo. On page 3 she asserts that the group found "a consensus that cultural competence is more than just effectively meeting the needs of all students by providing teachers with the requisite knowledge and skills. Rather cultural competence entails actively challenging the status quo and advocating for equity and social justice." That involves "the need to incorporate 'institutionalized notions of power, privilege, and oppression' into the definition...(and) the need to 'acknowledge power differences and silencing.' Thus, for many," Ms Castillo's report continues, "cultural competence is transformative and political."
In short, the goal is admittedly and unashamedly to politicize education.
Such was the consensus of the "leading educators" who gathered at the Summit in order to take the educational fad of multiculturalism one step further in our schools. Now it shall be no longer just a mandated curricular element. It also shall be mandatory that teachers and administrators, including superintendents, think and act multiculturally as well --- else they must seek employment elsewhere. Why? Because the TSPC inquisitors will weed out the unbelievers or those of little faith when they apply for initial licensure or for relicensure.
Superintendent Castillo and Governor Ted Kulongoski sought in the current legislative session to put the force of law behind the cultural competency movement. They stood behind Senate Bill 50, which was passed by the Senate but rejected in Committee by the House. SB50, section 1, specified that the TSPC "shall establish standards for cultural competency and require an applicant for a teaching license to meet those standards." What that means is nothing less than the candidate for licensure must, in the words of the report, "Apply competencies and believe it." (P 6)
The Bill never made it to the floor of the House. When Rep. Linda Flores and her legislative staff studied the Bill and the Summit report, they concluded that the law is unconstitutional because the TSPC, guided by the Summit decisions, effectively demanded that individuals be tested to assure that they possess specific attitudes and beliefs as a condition of employment. In the words of the report, "A culturally competent teacher must embrace and implement the (state) standards." We repeat, they must "apply competencies and believe it."
The US Supreme Court (West Virginia State Board of Education, etc., al., Appellants, v. Walter Barnette, Paul Stull and Lucy McClure (319 US 624-671) ) has in fact declared that such "standards" are unconstitutional. Particularly cogent is the remark of Mr. Justice Jackson. He found that (634), "To sustain the (standard of behavior, e.g., an educator's cultural correctness) we are required to say that a Bill of Rights which guards the individual's rights to speak his own mind, left it open to public authorities to compel him to utter what is not on his mind."
As to the issue of politicization of education, the Justice adds, (637) "Free public education, if faithful to the ideal of secular instruction and political neutrality, will not be partisan or enemy of any class, creed, party, or faction." He further remarks, "...The Fourteenth Amendment, as now applied to the States, protects the citizen against the State itself and all its creatures --- Boards of Education not excepted.... That they are educating the young for citizenship is reason for scrupulous protection of Constitutional freedoms of the individual, if we are not to strangle the free mind at its source and teach youth to discount important principles of our government as mere platitudes."
Despite legislative rejection of their plan, the TSPC forged ahead with incorporation of cultural competence into its administrative rules, and asserts its intent to enforce them, commencing in 2007.
The intent of the TSPC was made clear by Vickie Chamberlain, Executive Director of the Commission, who stated (p 25 of the report) that "Rather than testing knowledge, we need to measure an educator's commitment to valuing human differences across cultural lines. We need to develop the requisite standards to measure any teacher's multicultural awareness and capabilities." In brief, a knowledgeable, experienced and able educator who somehow fails to convince the TSPC inquisitor that he/she really believes in and will advocate multiculturalism and all the nonsense that goes with it in the schools, will be expelled from the profession, perhaps in favor of a true believer who otherwise doesn't know very much about educating children.
So what have we here? One more reason why our best and brightest will continue to shun careers in education. Why should one wish to face the intolerance and bigotries of a modern Inquisition?
And as multiculturalism rises towards a crescendo in our schools, perhaps it is one more reason why many parents will decide to shun public education.