A couple of weeks ago, Falmouth public school students were treated to yet another respite from academics in favor of participating in “Diversity Day,” a time to reflect on their prejudices and to be “trained” by self-proclaimed public sector experts – “the professionally informed” as Rousseau would have called them – about the proper way to interact with homosexuals, people with physical and mental disabilities, historically under-represented ethnic/racial groups (known as minorities to the less affected) and various other factions who perceive they’ve been ill-treated at one time or another by society.

A couple problems with these sorts of programs: 1) They presuppose that our youth are prejudice against certain groups, ignorant about said groups’ culture and/or unaware of their own pre-conceived notions toward them. 2) If 1) above were true (no evidence offered by advocates to support the premise), the policy assumes that state bureaucrats know better than parents regarding the best approach to combat such feelings and/or ignorance.

Of course the great irony here is that public school educators are one of the least diverse labor force elements in America, reliably proponents of big government, “evolving” social institutions and progressive taxation while often disdainful and sometimes downright intolerant of those with different viewpoints.

The Falmouth School Board needs to get back to a curriculum that focuses on academics and less on sensitivity training and the culture of self-esteem.

Russ Mathews
Falmouth

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