Decolonizing Through Dialogue: Authentic Teaching in the Age of Testing and Common Core by Steven Singer

Originally posted at: https://gadflyonthewallblog.wordpress.com/2017/04/03/decolonizing-through-dialogue-authentic-teaching-in-the-age-of-testing-and-common-core/

If you’re not careful, being a public school teacher can become an act of colonization.

This is especially true if you’re a white teacher like me with classes of mostly black students. But it’s not the only case. As an educator, no matter who you are or whom you teach, you’re a symbol of authority and you get that power from the dominant structures in our society.

Believe it or not, our schools are social institutions, so one of their chief functions is to help recreate the social order. Students enter as malleable lumps of clay and exit mainly in the shapes we decide upon. Therefore, as an educator, it’s hard not to fall into the habit of molding young minds into the shapes society has decided are appropriate.

In some ways this is inevitable. In others, it’s even desirable. But it also runs against the best potential of education.

In short, this isn’t what a teacher should be. My job in front of the classroom isn’t to make my students into anything. It’s to give them the opportunity, to generate the spark that turns them into their best selves. And the people who ultimately should be the most empowered in this process are the students, themselves.

But it’s easier said than done.

The danger is best expressed in that essential book for any teacher, “Pedagogy of the Oppressed,” where Paulo Freire writes:

“Worse yet, it turns them (the students) into ‘containers,’ into ‘receptacles’ to be filed by the teacher. The more completely she fills the receptacles, the better a teacher she is. The more meekly the receptacles permit themselves to be filled, the better students they are.”

In most cases this means Eurocentrism – a kind of worship of all things white and denigration of all things black, brown and all pigments between.

We take the status quo and find every blind justification for it. In fact, this can become the curriculum, itself. Every counter-narrative, every criticism of the power structure then naturally becomes a danger. Revisionist history becomes history. European philosophy becomes the only accepted definition of rationality. Ideologies of empire become obvious and inescapable. White becomes the norm and racism, misogyny, homophobia, xenophobia all become hidden and internalized.

You’ve heard the criticism of curriculums focusing exclusively on dead white males. This is why.

And not only does it silence minority voices, it reinforces a false view of the world. Folk singer Tom Paxton made that clear in this classic song:

“What Did You Learn In School Today?”

What did you learn in school today,
Dear little boy of mine?
What did you learn in school today,
Dear little boy of mine?

I learned that Washington never told a lie,
I learned that soldiers seldom die,
I learned that everybody’s free,
And that’s what the teacher said to me,
And that’s what I learned in school today,
that’s what I learned in school.

What did you learn in school today,
Dear little boy of mine?
What did you learn in school today,
Dear little boy of mine?

I learned the policemen are my friends,
I learned that justice never ends,
I learned that murderers pay for their crimes,
Even if we make a mistake sometimes,
And that’s what I learned in school today,
That’s what I learned in school

What did you learn in school today,
Dear little boy of mine?
What did you learn in school today,
Dear little boy of mine?

I learned that war is not so bad,
I learned about the great ones we’ve had.
We fought in Germany and in France
And some day I might get my chance.
And that’s what I learned in school today,
That’s what I learned in school

What did you learn in school today,
Dear little boy of mine?
What did you learn in school today,
Dear little boy of mine?

I learned our government must be strong;
It’s always right and never wrong!
Our leaders are the finest men
And we elect them again and again,
And that’s what I learned in school today,
That’s what I learned in school

We can see why this kind of teaching is valued. It reinforces the status quo. But at its core education is essentially subversive. It supports new ways of thinking. It is by definition revolutionary. When you encourage students to think for themselves, some may come to conclusions that differ from the norm. This is entirely healthy and the only way societies can grow and change. But it’s inimical to the people in power who often are in charge of the educational system. They don’t want new ideas if those ideas will challenge their hold on the reigns of power. Socrates wasn’t forced to drink hemlock, after all, because his lessons supported the Athenian elite.

So we’re left with a real quandary. How do teachers remain free to inspire while being a part of a system that doesn’t value inspiration?

The natural forces of society work against authentic teaching like gravity pulling at a rocket. Unless you’re actively pushing against the ground, the most natural thing in the world is to just go with the flow. The textbook says this is the way. Teacher training programs often agree. Cooperating teachers who have been in the classroom for decades back it up. This is the best method. Just keep it up.

But it’s not. And you shouldn’t. There is another way even though it’s hard to see. And THAT’S often what you need to be doing for your students.

Let me pause at this point to make one thing clear: I don’t have all the answers.

I am no expert in how to do this. I have fallen victim to it, myself, more often than I’d like to admit. It may be next to impossible to avoid the accepted route much of the time. But if we want to be good teachers, we need to try.

If we really want to provide the best service to our students, their parents and the community, we have to break out of the mold. We have to allow our students the chance of seeing the world and not just our version of it.

The best ways I’ve found to do this are through selection of texts, use of Socratic Seminars and allowing as much choice as possible in assignments.

When selecting texts, you want to be as inclusive as possible. Provide students with the widest possible range of authors and opinions. In Language Arts, this means purposeful multiculturalism. It means authors of color being prized equally with the European cannon. It means women and transgender authors. It means authors subscribing to a wide range of beliefs and skepticisms. And it means accepting genres and forms that are often devalued like song lyrics, rap, Manga, graphic novels and anything that can be considered deep, substantial texts.

Finding such sources can be exhausting, but it’s also exhilarating. Unfortunately, not all schools permit teachers to do this to the same degree. Some districts mandate teachers only use certain texts already approved by the school board. Others provide a list of approved texts from which teachers can pick.

Each educator will have to find ways to navigate the system. It’s best if you can find support from administrators and in the community for what you want to do and go from there. But this can be a challenging road especially in our era of high stakes testing and Common Core which values authentic teaching not at all.

Another essential tool is class discussion. You may or may not be able to broaden the texts being discussed, but you can usually provide space for students to discuss those texts in class.

My 8th graders and I use the Socratic Seminar method of discussion extensively.

With almost every piece of literature, I write guided open-ended questions for the students to consider. The questions come out of the text, but I try to focus on queries that will get students thinking about how the text relates to their lives, gender and economic issues, questions of theme, race and opportunities to make connections of every type. Eventually, I even allow students to begin writing these questions, themselves.

The way I see it, my role is essentially an opportunity maker. It isn’t about finding an answer that will please me, the teacher. It’s about exploring the subject. It’s not about what I think. It’s about what students think. And that makes all the difference.

Finally, I’ve found it beneficial to allow students choice in their assignments.

There are many ways for students to demonstrate knowledge. They can write essays, take a test, create a collage, design a power point presentation, make an iMovie, act out a scene, etc. I try to expose students to multiple formats the first half of the year and then give them increased choice in how they’d like to express themselves in the second half.

Not only does this free students to think, it encourages the deepest kind of learning. It makes the lesson vital, important and intrinsic.

All of these approaches share a common feature: dialogue. They put the student, teacher and the author in a vital relationship. They take steps to equalize that relationship so that one isn’t more important than the others. It’s not just what the author, teacher or student thinks – it’s the interrelationship of the three.

Ultimately, it’s up to the student to decide the relative value of the results. Sure, they get grades. Sure, the system will judge students based on those grades. But the value of those grades isn’t as important as the resultant learning and the value students place on the experience.

To me, that’s the best kind of learning. And it’s the result of authentic teaching and dialogue.

It is the most inimical thing to colonization. Students are not enslaved to a system. They aren’t in servitude to a prepackaged group of ideas and norms.

They are valued and empowered.

Isn’t that what we’re supposed to be doing for them?

ABCs of LGBTQs by Kristi Jackson

While LGBT is still a popular term used to describe the queer community, it has grown to LGBTQQIP2SAA. For this reason, I will often simply use LGBT+ or LGBTQ+ in my writing as a way to be inclusive of everyone. But just what DO all of those letters stand for?

L – Lesbian: Female identified person who is romantically and/or sexually attracted to other women.

G – Gay: Male identified person who is romantically and/or sexually attracted to other men. Gay has also been adopted by some people as a general term referring to themselves as LGBTQ+ in some way, especially among younger generations.

B – Bisexual: Once defined as romantically and/or sexually attracted to both men and women, many bisexuals today say they can be attracted to all genders and/or sexes.

T – Transgender: A person whose gender identity and/or gender expression differs from the sex they were assigned at birth.

Q – Queer: An umbrella term that includes all sexual and gender minorities, including those who do not fit into, or reach beyond the LGBT terms… used to be a slur, and may still be used as such. One should not use that term to refer to someone unless that's how they have explicitly said they identify.

Q – Questioning: Someone who is exploring their sexual orientation and/or gender identity.

I – Intersex:  People born with anatomy or chromosomal makeup that doesn’t correspond to male or female.

P – Pansexual: Can be attracted to members of all gender identities and biological sexes.

2S – 2 Spirit: A term used by many indigenous groups to describe the gender, sexual, or spiritual identity of those not identifying fully as either male or female.

A – Asexual: Experiences little to no sexual attraction, but can have romantic, emotional, or aesthetic attraction to another person. Asexuality is a spectrum. For instance, some may only experience sexual attraction to people they already have a strong romantic bond to.

A – Ally: Does not identify as LGBTQ but supports the rights and safety of those who do.

So, how do we go about supporting our students, friends, family members, neighbors, coworkers and everyone else around us who fall anywhere along these gender and orientation spectra? I’ve come up with some ABCs of my own to help us do just that :) Mine focus specifically on LGBT+ youth as an educator, but can certainly be applied to people of all ages in many diverse situations…

A	ACCEPT and ALLOW	Acceptance is the very thing that these kids need most. They need to know that you, a caring adult in their lives, accept them for who they are and allow them to express their identity in the way that is best for them. This has nothing to with religious beliefs or condoning specific behaviors and everything to do with simply letting this child know that you care about them for who they are as a person.  Kids don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.
B	BE an Ally	Allies take acceptance one step further, to stand up for and support the rights of LGBTQ+ kids. In a school setting, this could be simply attending GSA or other LGBT club sponsored events, publicly displaying your support with a Safe Space or rainbow sticker, or speaking up when you hear other students use Anti-LGBT language.
C	CREATE an inclusive atmosphere	Let classes know from day ONE that your space is a safe, welcoming space for ALL students, regardless of race, nationality, religion, sexual orientation, gender or gender identity.
D	Understand DYSPHORIA	Dysphoria is the feeling that your body does not reflect your true gender. Especially in children, gender dysphoria can cause severe distress, anxiety, and depression and can be so intense that it interferes with the way they function in normal life, for instance at school or work, or during social activities. Consistently using students’ preferred names and pronouns can do a LOT to help them manage the effects of dysphoria. There is no such thing as “not trans* enough”. Transgender people do not have to be 100% passing or “stealth” for their identity to be respected.
E	ENCOURAGE	Encourage ALL students to not only be themselves, but to accept their classmates for who they are. Let them know that discrimination of any sort will not be tolerated in your presence. When a student seems to be having a hard time with something, encourage them to talk to you or another trusted adult about their situation.
F	FOCUS	Focus on your students for who they are as young people. Their gender and sexual identities only make up a piece of that, so don’t get caught up focusing on just those aspects of their identity. See them for the whole, beautiful, amazing kids they are!
G	GROW with them	It’s okay to say “I don’t really understand this, but I care about you, so I am willing to learn.” And then actually take the time to learn, do some research, talk to some LGBT people in your community, and get their input on how you can best support your kids. This is the avenue that many parents and grandparents take to get to a place of acceptance when the kids they love come out to them. It doesn’t happen overnight, but you can’t put new knowledge and ideas into a closed mind. Remember, minds are like parachutes…
H	HONOR	Honor your students’ identities in and out of class. If you hear a student or another faculty member referring to your LGBT students in any way that is not respectful of their identity, speak up. If you happen to slip up with names or pronouns, simply correct yourself and move on. Ignoring the mistake can make students feel like you don’t care enough to fix it, and making a big deal out of the mistake simply puts a spotlight on that student in front of their classmates, both of which, for most, are extremely unpleasant situations to be in.
I	INCLUDE	Include and provide positive representations of LGBT people, history and themes into your curriculum to ensure that your LGBT students see themselves reflected in your lessons. This also creates opportunities for all of your students to gain a more complex and authentic understanding of the world around them and encourages respectful behavior, critical thinking and social justice.
J	JOIN	Join an advocacy group or educator network that deals with LGBT student issues. GLSEN’s Educator Network is a great place to start, with the largest network of K-12 educators working to create safe, supportive school environments for all LGBT students. Another awesome teacher’s group is The Badass Teachers Association (or BATS), a network of over 62,000 educators who advocate and lobby for an “Excellent public education for all students, regardless of economic status, race, nationality, gender, religion, or sexual orientation.” They have many subgroups on facebook and other social media, including a BATS lgbtqs support group.
K	KNOW when help is needed	Know when and where to seek help. LGBT+ youth are often subject to abuse, homelessness, suicide, harassment, and physical violence. Enlist the help of your school’s counselors, nurses, and/or administration to create a list of appropriate referral agencies for crisis intervention, mental and physical health services, emergency assistance, etc. If a child in your care reports any of these situations to you or you start noticing signs that they may be in a dangerous situation, DON’T keep it to yourself, but DO keep the child’s safety and privacy as the top priority. Many of these kids aren’t “out” to their families and outing them could put them in an even worse situation.
L	LISTEN	(I really wish L were the FIRST letter of the alphabet!) Sometimes, these kids just need someone willing to listen to them. Let them talk and let out their stories, their experiences, their fears and emotions. Being allowed to feel and vent their emotions is so crucial; because too many LGBT youth grow up having to hide their feelings or keep them all bottled up inside. This can lead to cutting and other self-harming behaviors. Self-harm becomes a tool that they use to purge themselves of those emotions that they can’t show through tears, and sometimes it’s just a way for them to feel anything at all. Listen to them, validate their feelings, and let them know that it is okay to just sit with your feelings. We don’t need to try and fix everything; sometimes we just need to let them feel.
M	MOTIVATE	Your example can help motivate other faculty in your organization to start creating safer, more accepting spaces as well. Encourage teachers and administrators to sit down and talk to the LGBT students, get to know them, and learn how THEY feel about the school climate. If there is bullying or harassment going on in your school, these kids are likely seeing the majority of it, but many are afraid to come forward for fear of “outing” themselves.
N	NON-DISCRIMINATION policies	If your school district does not have a non-discrimination policy that includes orientation and gender identity, encourage your students to start a petition to present to the school board.Change.org is a great online format for creating and sharing petitions. Just remember, not all students are "out" to their peers, teachers or even families, so make sure you protect their privacy and safety at all costs.
O	OPPOSE Stereotypes	There’s a solid chance you yourself may currently hold some misconceptions about the LGBT community-THAT’S OKAY. Be willing to learn, unlearn, and grow from the knowledge you encounter. If you’re willing to put in the effort and evolve from the new things you discover, you WILL make a difference in these kids’ lives!
P	PROTECT	This one bears repeating: Protect the privacy and safety of your LGBT students at all costs. Many of these kids could face very difficult and even dangerous home and social situations if they were to be “outed” unintentionally, even with the best of intentions behind it.
Q	QUESTION	Ask, ask, ask, ask and ask some more. If there is something you don’t understand, just ask. Ask one of the kids (they love talking about themselves when they know that it’s safe to do so), ask a friend who is involved in the LGBT community, ask your school’s GSA Sponsor or another adult Ally. When questions are asked from a legitimate place of wanting to learn and understand, they won’t be offended.
R	RESPECT	Not only should you respect all of your students and their multifaceted identities, but also respect the beliefs and opinions of your fellow staff members. Not everyone is going to be a supportive Ally, but together, hopefully we can get everyone on board with simply respecting people for who they are, even when they don’t fit their version of “normal”.
S	STAND UP, SPEAK OUT	Don't be afraid to stand up and speak up for your students. If your school does not promote an accepting, inclusive environment for LGBT students, schedule a meeting with your administrator and let them know that you would like to help improve the school climate. Even better, since we're teaching students to advocate for themselves, invite your administrators to a round table discussion with your GSA or other LGBT student leaders.
T	TEACH	Sometimes we need to Educate the Educators. If you have a supportive school board and administration, you can request a representative from a local LGBT advocacy group to present a workshop or professional development. Many of these groups already have educator training programs in place! A little bit of knowledge can go a LONG way! If there isn't a group in your area that does professional development, I recommend that you request a Safe Space kit from GLSEN (Gay and Lesbian Student Education Network).
U	USE proper pronouns	Sometimes it takes some getting used to, and sometimes transgender or gender non-conforming kids aren’t 100% passing or “stealth” as they call it, that doesn’t matter. You do not get to determine someone else’s identity. If a student has asked you to refer to them by a preferred name and/or preferred pronouns, please make every effort to do so, not only in their presence, but all of the time.
V	VALUE	Value the many differences of ALL of your students, don’t ignore them or pretend “you don’t see them”. Being “colorblind” (for example) sounds great in theory, but can lead to being dismissive of characteristics and culture that make up a large part of a person’s identity. SEE those differences, EMBRACE the diverse characteristics and LEARN from each other, and teach all of your students to treat diversity in this manner as well. Don’t be blind to our differences, VALUE them!
W	WELCOME	Welcome opportunities for professional development on LGTBQ topics, and invite others to join you. Welcome opportunities to voice and discuss concerns regarding school policies and practices that lack appropriate provisions for LGBTQ students. The time for sweeping these conversations under the rug has long past…
X	Be the X-FACTOR	Be the Change-Bringer, Be the Difference-Maker. You could be the one teacher with the ability to reach that student that no one has been able to reach before.
Y	YIELD	Yield to professionals who are knowledgeable in working with LGBTQ youth; don't think that you have or need to have all of the answers.
Z	Z???	Okay, can’t really think of anything with Z, so just know that by reading this, if you’ve made it all the way to the end, I thank you and I appreciate that you are taking the first step in making life better for some awesome kids (including mine!).  Continue taking those steps and you WILL make your little slice of the world a little sweeter <3

About the Author: I am a High School Spanish teacher in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia, and a single mom to a 15 (almost 16) yr old transgender son, Charlie. In the past 2 years, by going through this transition with Charlie, I have become an advocate and an activist for LGBTQ+ youth in our community. I sponsor one of the largest and most active GSAs in our area and have also founded Hampton Roads PTK, a support group for parents of Trans* and Gender Non-Conforming kids. The group is on Facebook - "Hampton Roads Parenting Trans Kids". The blog is hrptk.blogspot.org

Trump’s Supreme Court Nominee Neil Gorsuch Denies Education for Some Disabled Children.

Gorsuch Then Misrepresents Why at a Senate Hearing

                                                                    By John C. Fager

John C. Fager

                                                                             Neil Gorsuch, a George W. Bush appointee to the Tenth Circuit federal appeals court and now President Trump’s first appointee to the United States Supreme Court, in 2008 wrote a decision, Luke P. v. Thompson School District, that dictated a very weak standard for the rights of students with disabilities.

          And last year another Tenth Circuit case, Endrew F v. Douglas County School District, not one of Gorsuch’s but with the same weak standard he used in Luke P., reached the Supreme Court. 

But this time something joyful – yes joyful – happened at our Supreme Court.  The very conservative Chief Justice John Roberts lead the court to an 8-0 decision overruling the low standard used by the lower court judge in the Endrew F. case.  And, of course, what Chief Justice Roberts wrote about Endrew F. applies to Gorsuch because he used the same weak standard in his Luke P. decision.

          On page 14 of Roberts’ Endrew F. opinion (March 22) he wrote about what rights students with disabilities have today given the standard used by the lower Tenth Circuit Court.  He wrote, “When all is said and done, a student offered an educational program providing ‘merely more than de minimis’ (underlining added by writer) progress from year to year can hardly be said to have been offered an education at all.  For children with disabilities, receiving instruction that aims so low would be tantamount to ‘sitting idly…awaiting the time when they were old enough to ‘drop out.’” 

          “Hardly… offered an education at all” and “awaiting the time when they were old enough to drop” out is a shocking condemnation of the standard used in Endrew F. and Luke P.  In other words the very weak standard that Gorsuch had used to set the adequacy of educational benefits that disabled children were entitled to, “merely more than de minimis,” was really not offering disabled children an education at all. 

          And when Chief Justice Roberts used the phrase “sitting idly…awaiting the time when they were old enough to ‘drop out,’” he was citing the first Supreme Court decision, Board of Educ. v. Rowley, about the lack of rights of children with disabilities before the 1975 passage of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)

            The enactment of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) in 1975 was “in response to Congress’ perception that a majority of handicapped children in the United States were either totally excluded from schools or were sitting idly in regular classrooms awaiting the time when they were old enough to ‘drop out.’”

I had a personal and unforgettable experience with the dark days of  students with disabilities.  When I was living with my grandparents in Florida in 1949 I went to “kindergarten” with Julie who had cerebral palsy.  Julie was living with her grandmother who was a retired teacher.  She was there because her mother in Boston had rejected her. 

And when she arrived in Florida the local schools refused to provide her with an education as was true of many states at that time.  And even if she had been in a state that accepted children with disabilities most of the schools did not provide special education.  As Chief Justice Roberts reminds us, she and millions of other children would have been waiting to “drop out.”

 She had no parents or siblings, she had no friends, and she had no school to go to every day except when I was there.  I was only five and didn’t understand what was going on; I just thought I was going to a special kindergarten with Julie three blocks from my grandparents lived.

But I will always remember one thing: in my whole life I have never been with someone who, every day, was so happy to see me.

          Today there are 6.5 million American students with disabilities.  But as Roberts’ decision reminds us, some 42 years after the passage of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), there are still students with disabilities who are back in the dark days when there was no special education. 

          Take for example Gorsuch’s case, Luke P v. Thompson R2-J School District, that involved a student with autism, whose parents’ request for residential treatment was rejected by the second elementary school that Luke attended.

          At Luke’s first school Niwot Elementary School in Colorado’s St. Vrain Valley School District he made significant progress in kindergarten and first grade.  But, like other autistic children, he couldn’t apply his behavior skills, temper control, toilet training, etc. to his home environment. 

In the fall of 2002 Luke’s family moved to a new school district where he attended second grade at Berthoud Elementary.  Gorsuch writes that there was progress in both schools for three years though his opinion contains more positive information about Niwot and more negative information about Berthoud.

However, there was no disagreement about Luke’s behavioral problems.  Learning self-control and how to get along with other students and the teacher are part of what is called social-emotional skills that should be part of the education of all children.  

But Luke was described as being unevenly tempered, sometimes violent at home and in restaurants and grocery stores.  He would also spread nighttime bowel movements around his bedroom

          Gorsuch wrote, “Understandably, these behaviors took a tremendous toll on Luke’s family.  Worried that, without intervention, Luke’s behavior would become only more dangerous as he continued to grow physically, the family began looking into residential placement options.”

Gorsuch neglected to write that these behavioral problems also took an enormous toll on Luke.  I guess we should be grateful that the judge showed some sympathy for the parents.

Luke’s parents also worried about his behavioral problems interfering with his ability to become educated and make a life for himself. They appealed the decision by Berthoud Elementary that denied the need for residential treatment. 

The appeal was made to the Colorado Department of Education and an impartial hearing officer (“IHO”) made a determination that the school had failed to provide Luke with a “free and appropriate public education” known as a FAPE.  The IHO agreed that Luke needed a residential placement and that the district, under IDEA, was required to pay for it.

The Thompson R2-J School District, appealed this decision to the Colorado Office of Administrative Courts where an Administrative Law Judge (“ALJ”) agreed with the “IHO” decision.

The school district then brought the case to the federal district court and a federal judge agreed with the “IHO” and the “ALJ.”   Luke and his parents were on a roll; they were up three decisions to zero for the school district.

But the diligent work of Luke’s parents and their lawyers was about to hit a wall: Judge Neil Gorsuch and his “merely more than de minimis” standard.  The school district appealed to the Tenth Circuit federal appeals court where three judges, including Gorsuch, heard the appeal and Gorsuch wrote the opinion.

On page 12 of his decision Gorsuch wrote about what Congress intended when it enacted IDEA and what guidance the Supreme Court’s 1982 Rowley decision offered.  He cited “access meaningful” to schools, “more to open the door of public education to handicapped children on appropriate terms than to guarantee any particular level of education once inside,” and students should achieve “some education benefit.”

The court’s decision came down to what was the standard for determining what level of education benefits Luke was entitled to under IDEA.  Gorsuch wrote, “We have concluded that the educational benefit mandated by IDEA must merely be ‘more than de minimis.’”(Underlining added by writer).  

He cited Urban v. Jefferson County Sch. Dist., a 1996 Tenth Circuit decision, as the source of this standard.  The three-judge panel then overturned the district court’s decision in favor of Luke and his parents.  Luke’s parents would not be reimbursed for his residential care.

          Gorsuch’s interpretation of the rights of students with disabilities contrasts sharply with Roberts’.  The chief justice praised IDEA’s vision and standards.  “A focus on the particular child is at the core of the IDEA.”  He then quoted from the IDEA law about what students are entitled to.  “The instruction offered must be ‘specially designed’ to meet a child’s ‘unique needs’ through an ‘[i]ndividualized education program.’” (Italics added by Roberts).  

          Roberts is saying that with the “merely more than de minimis” standard we are in essence back in the disability dark ages of the early 1970s and before when there was no IDEA law.  At that time disabled students were either denied admission to a public school or placed in regular classes, with no special education, waiting to drop out.

          The question is, how did we get from “specially designed,” “unique needs,” and “[i]ndividualized education program” in the Individuals with Disabilities Act in 1975 to “merely more than de minimis” in the ENDREW F. case of 2017 that Roberts harshly condemned and in Gorsuch’s Opinion in Luke P in 2008?

         

Two weeks ago (3/21-23) during the Senate hearings to determine if Gorsuch was qualified to be a Supreme Court justice the Endrew F case was decided by an 8-0 vote.  This was an emphatic rejection of the “merely more than de minimis” standard.  All the justices including Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito rejected the standard.  That puts Gorsuch to the right of them.  This places Gorsuch way outside of the judicial mainstream.

          During the senate hearings Gorsuch was criticized for using the “merely more than de minimis” standard in the LUKE P case in 2008.  He told the senators that he was merely following precedent. 

As weak as such an excuse is on this issue, the real truth is worse.  It turns out that contrary to what Gorsuch told Senator Dick Durbin, he didn’t follow the precedent he cited.  The precedent (Urban v. Jefferson County Sch. Dist.) and its standard was “more than de minimis” but Gorsuch wrote in LUKE P. “must merely be ‘more than de minimis.” In fact he cited the precedent and then weakened it by adding, “must merely be.” 

When deciding the Luke P. case Gorsuch had some discretion.  He could have strengthened the “more than de minimis” standard used in Urban, he could have left it alone, or he could weakened the standard by weakening more by adding merely more.  Gorsuch chose to weaken the already weak standard and in essence threw Luke, his parents, and who knows how many other students with disabilities under the bus.

          Therefore the equally explosive question is: why did Gorsuch tell the Judiciary Committee that he had merely followed precedent when in fact he had weakened it?

          So which is more reprehensible? 1) denying disabled children their right to a Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) under IDEA by undermining a weak standard and then using it, or 2) is it telling the Senate Judiciary Committee that he had merely followed the standard in a precedent (earlier case) when, in fact, he had weakened it?

          And more importantly does Neil Gorsuch deserve to be promoted to the highest court in the land?

          Do we want a judge with such callous disregard for children with disabilities to be a justice on United States Supreme Court for the next 30 to 40 years?

 About John Fager:  John is a  former education columnist for the NY Daily News. He was also an Emmy-winning investigative producer/reporter at 20/20 ABC News. He was a parent leader and a retired teacher in NYC. His articles and opeds have appeared in The New York Times, the Washington Post, The Nation, The New York Post, and Huffington Post, and  Newsday.