Pause and beware of ‘separate but equal’ – News from southeastern Connecticut – theday.com

This was sent tothe Board of Education and the superintendent of schools, East Lyme Public Schools.

I'm a retired educator. I was a teacher, NYC,Hartford, Director of Pupil Services, Assistant Superintendent, West Hartford Public Schools, Interim Superintendent ,Hartford ,Waterbury and Bloomfield.

I was out of town in April when you approved your "Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Strategic Plan." I just recently received a copy and am quite dismayed.

You cite your core values as countering racism, advancing diversity, promoting equity and fostering inclusion. You plan to use DEI teams to achieve these goals.

As I read the document my eye was drawn to one of the glossary terms, Multiculturalism. "Multiculturalism within individuals is the degree to which they know, identify with and internalize more than one culture." That should be your end game.That is E Pluribus Unum. That is unity and the singularity of humanity that is Martin Luther King Jr.'s way.

The methodologies proposed therein will not lead to multiculturalism. Rather, they will lead to races being separate but equal. They dictate that we must have a member of each cohort represented because only that person can identify and represent that group. That's not multiculturalism; and who is that single person who is like all those in that diverse cohort?

The Constitutional protections that you must endow on all children are Equal Opportunity and Equal Treatment. Are these a problem in East Lyme? Do you believe you'regoing to find that we are exclusive and that we treat children inappropriately because of race, creed or color?

You have a second major goal to "develop students' capacity as independent thinkers."

Given the direction you're going in, part of the instruction will include demonizing the white race and the democratic process, under the heading of "white supremacy." How do you expect to get to unity through blame, based on questionable data? Are you willing to trade Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Redemption" for "Reparations"? When you deal with equity in the classroom, what will you do when the argument is made that as long as there are children who are not on goal that you cannot offer AP courses because it's giving more to the privileged few?

The arguments made by this group have their underpinnings starting in the '70s by the Black Panther Movement, the Critical Race Theorists movement by the Nationalist movement and, more recently, BLM. All of these groups have based their positions on anger and resentment and called for the separation of the races. At the last board meeting I shared with you direct quotes showing this animus.

I plead with you, don't go forward with this process. You are in loco parentis from 9 to 3, at such time all of our children become your children. The decisions you make in this area are not just as Board members, they are as parents. Please pause, be absolutely sure you understand not only the rock going into the water but the ripples that will hit the shores of this community and country. You need to be sure that you believe that this is what you would teach your child in your home and that you would expect your church to teach. As an educator and a parent, I can't believe that you wouldchoose separate but equal, rather than we are all God's children. That we are not all personally responsible for our actions. That we can hide behind a global term called race as the factor that defines us.

I beg you, please rethink your position on this matter, pause, be sure you know everything you need to know before moving forward on this course.

Matthew Borrelli resides in Niantic.

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Pause and beware of 'separate but equal' - News from southeastern Connecticut - theday.com