Years ago, story after story would appear stemming from the developing “outlook” of what Social Work Graduate Schools were demanding their graduates adopt. They kept throwing out students who were either Conservative, Christian, or both, or just not hewing to the Narrative of how the world was to be seen and dealt with by these newly minted graduates.
Some were within months or even weeks of graduating but were being told, “Sorry that you just wasted two years of your lives, but we aren’t going to let you be one of us.” I was agape that most of these folks’ grades were perfectly fine – just that their beliefs didn’t match up with the professors.
Imagine being told, in effect, to “throw away your Christianity” simply to get a diploma. To have to lie to get that sheet of paper? Isn’t the current mantra of “LeftSpeak” “be your authentic self”? But they didn’t have the right “disposition” to be authentic social workers, according to the Leftard Professors who believed, seemingly across the nation all at once, that only people like them could be trusted to “serve the people.”
These folks were being true to themselves – and were getting rejected. It’s been this way, however, for decades. “Inclusion” seems to have a NewSpeak definition that has the unspoken undertones of “but only if you are one of us – we get to inclusively exclude you if you aren’t.” And do so without penalty or accountability.
So why do I bring up these three specific words? Because something rubbed me the wrong way – seemingly a “new” disposition?
Part of my four-month “hiatus,” at least an extremely good part of two months, was taking thirteen classes offered by UNH that were designed for DCYF to educate both Foster Parents and Residential/Group Home staff members (newbies as well as ongoing). Some were “gut” courses, some were rather rote (even if on materials that I’ve never seen before but seemed to be common sense), and a couple near the end required a lot of time, thinking, and writing—sixty hours of classes.
At the end of every class was a questionnaire that wanted to know what I thought of the class – and I certainly told them what I thought. However, one question was always present and near the end of each of these end-of-class surveys. While I failed to capture the survey pages (non-graded, so I didn’t bother), I should have. The question was (paraphrased) was:
Was this class taught in an inclusive, respectful, and equitable manner?
Huh? Say what? What is that question even trying to ask? Especially if most newly minting Foster Parents are just run-of-the-mill folks just wanting to open their homes to help kids in need and aren’t politically oriented like I am. I’m betting that they are wondering – huh? It’s only because much of my time is immersed in the viewpoints of the Left that I went, each and every time: WHY?
- Inclusive – well, everyone can take the class, right? Isn’t THAT inclusive?
- Respectful – well, almost everyone still recognizes what that means in the general sense, but the Left is slowly turning that definition around as well in that I (and you) are not to be respected.
- Equitable – OK, I have NO idea what or HOW that word even applies in this
So for each instance the above question was asked, I answered pretty much with this:
Why are “inclusive” and “equitable” even being used here?? Doesn’t “respectful” cover it all? Isn’t that the ONLY word that is necessary in your question?
Now realize that almost every class I took was self-paced. A number were supposed to take two weeks to do, a couple were three, and three were four weeks in length. I would generally do a class in a day with the four-week ones in a day and a half. So, I finished early and then went back to dealing, full time, with the Granddaughter, the school folks trying to work with her, DCYF, and now a host of “other party” folks being brought in to see what is ticking, kinda ticking, off-beat ticking, or not ticking within her. There is a consensus that is starting to build from all that, but that will be grist for a later post.
My point is that I rarely had to interact with an instructor unless I ran into problems (like dead links to external materials, outdated material, and things that didn’t make sense unless one was already an insider). I would have thought, after making it clear that TMEW & I were newbies to all this, that my question about the use of inclusive and equitable would have been taken seriously. After all, that WAS their role as “fixers” for such issues that I brought up. One would have thought perhaps ONE of these 11 instructors (two oversaw two of my classes each) would have taken my question seriously.
Sadly, now. Now, TO BE SURE, unlike the poor social work students at the top of this post, none of my grades were dinged even if I started to let my “authentic self” out in my answers. I had one 89% grade – all the others have been 100% with the exception of my last course (along with TMEW’s) for the title of Emergency Care Foster Parent – it is yet to be graded (due by 10/22).
Sidenote: I make no claim to be the smartest guy in any room – I’ve said for years that I’m just an ordinary schlub from Central New Hampsha; no better and no worse than anyone else. However, the one thing I’ve learned to do during my 40-year career in the computer industry IS to learn. Two STEM degrees and a whole FLOCK of technical certifications as technology changed and the companies I worked for said “Prove to use you’ve learned what we told you to do”. So, I know how to take tests and answer questions – that’s my “superpower” if I have any at all. I’m still just an ordinary guy…
So to that point (not dinged), at least there is still some intellectual honesty in the process. But it concerns me, 10-15 years down the line, that the Left’s outlook is sneaking into this kind of education in a matter-of-fact process: “Hey, this is normal – why are you complaining? WE are the experts, right?”. It is assumed that one is Woke to be able to answer the mandatory question (yes, I tried to leave it blank – they made it a mandatory answer text field).
It’s the institutional capture we’ve been dealing with all these decades: you are expected to accept our language.
All I wish, however, that ONE, just ONE, would have answered my question and leveled with me HOW inclusive and equitable were to be seen.