Illaria Dana, Education Major

In Exceptional Lives, the text for the education class called Teaching Exceptional Learners, the third chapter is called, “Today’s Multicultural, Bilingual, and Diverse Schools.” The course is designed to prepare future teachers with skills to help and understand their students based on the assumption that all students are capable of learning, success, and are wonderful human beings. Professor Mary Jo O’Connor tells her students they must “find the wonderful in everyone.” And she’s right. This is exactly the job of future educators, and of people living in a world together. But how do we go about it?

This text includes chapters on the minds and lives of students with disabilities, insight into these disabilities, and ways for teachers to grow so that they can assist the growth of all students. It also includes chapters on gifted and talented students and the aforementioned students of color.

This is a wonderful start. Students are being met at their levels of learning, at who they are. This is the hope reflected in laws such as the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA) and the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, which is controversial in its demands for testing. Exceptional Lives states that the treatment of students of color has been “problematic,” lists “theories about diversity,” and discusses “risk ratios” in a way that makes the reader concerned. How are standardized texts geared to specific populations and making it almost impossible for students of color to succeed? The United States is composed of institutions grounded in a history of racism that limit the accessibility and cause harm to students and people of color. And we, as a country, are unwilling to talk about it.

Socially competent white citizens are eager to say they are color blind. It is only through examining our own biases that we can become willing to change. The Beacon ran an article in its last issue called “The Perils of PC Culture” which discussed how language is becoming taboo “within the classroom and beyond.” Terms were cited that are associated with this taboo, such as, “trigger warnings, microaggressions, hypersensitivity, and logophobia- the fear of words.” (For more information on these terms, see The Atlantic article cited called “The Coddling of the American Mind”.)

Garrick Hoffman says, “Students of the Millennial generation are crusading to sanitize language to protect those whom needn’t be protected.” His use of the words “crusade” and “sanitize” aptly reflect the shift in universities across the country. They are accommodating students who do not want their professors to discuss topics in school that have to do with racism, sexism, ableism (found in people who have no physical or mental disabilities and systems that favor them), homophobia, and all other ideologies that dismiss people based on their humanity and personal histories with trauma. For example, some students do not want rape law to be taught in their law schools.

It is beyond the scope of this article to explain why students are reacting this way. Their reactions are personal, and no institution has the right to tell people their feelings are valid or invalid. It is time to address the failure of institutions to address this: racism still exists, and how are we going to adopt new policies and attitudes to support its victims?

The problem with a sanitizing crusade against language is that it limits conversation. This is the most harmful path we can take. By forbidding free speech, we do not allow those who suffer to be heard. We hide behind our competencies instead of creating avenues for people of color to speak for themselves. We lose the opportunity to listen quietly, to evaluate our actions, to be agents of change. What does this have to do with a textbook? The goal of Teaching Exceptional Learners is not cover the entire history of racism in schools. However, we are encouraged to use appropriate language for what occurs in schools. White, called European descent, is still the dominant race in our country. All systems are modeled to support this race above all others. Students of color are considered exceptionalities in a system that has failed to meet their needs and recognize their potential.

An article in The New Yorker from 2014 called “Sixty Years Later, We Need a New Brown” asked readers to examine racism in schools. Author Lee C. Bollinger said, “While public primary and secondary schools are becoming resegregated, we have seen the rise of various methods within states, primarily ballot initiatives, to end affirmative action in higher education.” Affirmative Action ensures that the populations in colleges and universities are not composed of all white students. Do we really think we have moved beyond racism as a society? If we cannot discuss racism in the classrooms and with our peers, where can we discuss it? If we cannot look inside ourselves, how can we know our faults? How can we grow?

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