Virginia Regulatory Town Hall
Agency
Department of Education
 
Board
State Board of Education
 
Guidance Document Change: In 2021, the Virginia General Assembly passed House Bill 1904 and Senate Bill 1196, and was signed into law by Governor Northam. The law establishes new requirements to support culturally competent educators in the Commonwealth. The Guidance on Cultural Competency Training for Teachers and Other Licensed School Board Employees in Virginia Public Schools was developed for the Board to fulfill the statutory mandate to provide guidance on the minimum standards for the local training requirement.
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1/5/22  10:24 pm
Commenter: Joanne G

Oppose cultural competence top-down guidance
 

People become culturally competent when they interact in good faith with others on the basis of human dignity and equality.  This push to dictate teachers' training that is likely to teach reductive ideas about culture will have unintended consequences.  Will cultural training put focus on skin color? Will CRT be a component? That's going backwards.

Culture is so broad and vague and could be expanded to force teachers to accept ideologies they do not hold. Look at Tanner Cross being put on leave for not participating in transgender cultural  norms. A teacher doesn't have to approve of all cultures even if they are aware of them.

The trend of trainers ordering psychological self-scrutiny on identity in the workplace is pseudo psycho-counseling where it does not belong. This is performative waste of money. It will enrich diversity consultants and bloat the educational administrative system. I do not think better teachers or more competent students will be the outcome.  Let teachers teach and don't put pressure on them to conform to groupthink about equity or culture.  Equity has become a loaded word. Let's focus on equality and high expectations. Focus on real academic skills.

I strongly oppose the guidance to embolden diversity activists to heighten the divides in our society.

Will teachers have to learn about every culture and every tenet of every religion? Always remember that the "cult" in culture stems from religion. Unfortunately, there is a new secular religion that worships utopian ideas about collectives and leaves little space for individual privacy or agency. 

CommentID: 119112