The Problem with Setting a Goal
Many people who set a goal to run a marathon never run again after they’ve complete it. It’s dope that they accomplished such a feat and they missed something meaningful.
They spent weeks or months preparing for this singular event, followed by a return back to their “normal” way of life. What is their identity? If they adopted the identity of a runner, they would be back on the track or the road, continuing to do what runners do.
For many independent schools equity initiatives -
add more diversity to the curriculum
hire more diverse faculty
*sidenote: it bothers me that “diverse” has become conflated with “Black” or “person of color.”
- are well-intentioned goals that fall flat if identity change is not present. What is our identity? If schools adopt an anti-racist, pro-accountability identity, then they will find ways to live their identity, passing those goals while they keep going.
I read the “diversity” book in the first two years of high school English and neither experience was memorable or enjoyable. Our last two years required us to pick electives and there were little to no other Black authors or characters present outside of the African American literature course. Even with the mandatory inclusion, Black literature was not valued by the department; multicultural education was not their identity. And it showed. Including and reading a Black novel was done to accomplish the diversity goal. They did not shift their identity away from the Eurocentric cannon.
After this summer, most independent schools shared renewed promises to diversify their curriculum and their staff. While I hope that they accomplish their goals, I worry that the progress will stall and will be revisited in a few years if they are not also engaging in serious conversations about their identities. Who are we? Who do we want to be?
