Michael D. Breen: School curriculum shows hypocrisy in anti-discrimination teachings

To The Daily Sun,

I taught in Connecticut for eight years. It is proper to investigate a Connecticut school official after his bragging about his illegal discrimination, but the larger issue will evade scrutiny — a public education condition that authorizes these civil rights violations.

Consider the teacher union’s shameless memorandum that ignores the inherent illegalities revealed, yet advises its members to enhance secrecy to avoid having like issues detected. Consider the $6 billion grants for schools that authorize the same bigotry Connecticut is now investigating. Are we to pretend that anti-intellectual calls for discrimination and claims of white moral inferiority are not taught in our schools?

Consider: “White people raised in Western society are conditioned into a white supremacist worldview because it is the bedrock of our society and its institutions” (Robin DiAngelo). Consider Ibram Kendi’s claims that only white citizens are racist, are irredeemably racist from infancy, and due to this moral inferiority, need to be discriminated against in the future. Should we pretend that these racist conventions are not core to teacher trainings, reflected in children’s curriculum, and are not the subject of parents’ protest nationwide? Really?

How do we expect one not to illegally discriminate against others while also ensuring a generation of children under his school’s tutelage are instructed in bigotry? Does Connecticut’s attorney general understand that the illegal discrimination being investigated is manifested in this school’s curricula’s condemnation of civil rights efforts and equality theory itself? Should we address the genuine issue or continue to admire the king’s new clothes? The U.S. was the world's leader in civil rights. So many of us yearn for the days of mutual respect and understanding grounded in transparency and honesty. These values should be passed on to children.

Michael D. Breen

Moultonborough