Part 1: There are no Hyperpolyglots In Cultural Proficiency: Culture trumps Strategy because they do not speak the same language

By Don Allen, M.A. Ed./MAT 

“As a matter of self-preservation, a man needs good friends or ardent enemies, for the former instruct him and the latter take him to task.”  

~Diogenes Laertius, (c. 404—323 B.C.E.) Lives of Eminent Philosophers, Book 6, Chapter 35.

He “Diogenes of Sinop, (Turkey)-School of Cynicism”, is labeled mad for acting against convention, but Diogenes points out that it is the conventions which lack reason citing that most people, he would say, are so nearly mad that a finger makes all the difference. “For if you go along with your middle finger stretched out, someone will think you mad, but, if it’s the little finger, he will not think so” (Diogenes Laertius).  Logic and common sense scare many good natured foundational folks in education. When you look at challenges in our public educational system, it’s even more scary to see the actions of good natured people that have generationally ignored best practices outside of their own cultures and just simply put, best practices. For me, I’ve been going through a bit of a  spell lately and have missed my 3000 words per-day mark in writing (for the second day) - it’s mostly Google Doc stuff that I can easily access and work at will. I have several ideas for both academic pieces, and for editorial opinions but have yet to go through my “writing process” -  (everyone has one), to come up with some solid content for my blog, Journal of a Black Teacher -  a blog specifically used for my Ed. S course at Hamline University (more about that later). Most of my attention has been focused on writing lesson plans for 12th graders that meet or exceed standards to make sure I’m doing my part in developing soon to be independent learners. When reflecting about how I go about my writing, thinking, and storytelling, this thing called learning has shaped me into more of a critical thinker about education because just the foundation of learning has so many moving parts, sequences, and destinations that it has inherently bonded itself to chaos. The current chaos is evolving inside of  cultural relevance and how the unaccepted, non-dominant cultures (mostly in Minnesota, Native Americans, Black men and women) are purposely sorted and categorized into a system that has historically been done badly by the leadership caste that knows better but doesn’t have the empathy to address the ‘conceptions of hued leadership. ’ We have to be honest and accept the critique, the  humans inside the manmade, patriarchal, white construct have lost vision, collaborations, and forward progress pledging their allegiance to today’s version of cultural proficiency. This makes for stunning revelations in people management, human connections, and cultural acceptance that in some educational institutions simply do not exist. There is no such thing as ‘equity’ inside of K-12 systems that are majority-minority.  One cannot ‘policy’ a moral compass or human connections on any caste of people in a school building - it’s never happened! You cannot make any non-believing educator or administrator on any level believe a Black educator is their carbon copy, because they are not - and the race game in the United States is still in full gamer mode.  In my mind, celebrating having the ‘first’ of a culture or race being appointed or elected to a position is testament enough that something is wrong and has never been addressed no matter how many DEI folks are in the company's system.  I sit here today, reflecting on who I am in this system, but also why are there two distinctly different constructs for people that don’t look like the dominant culture, and the dominant culture; why is this still allowed? So much training on culturally responsiveness, inclusion, equity, diversity these days that I have to take a deep dive into the culture of educational leadership to look at the reasons that historically, a Black or Brown person is historically assumed never ‘ready’ to participate. 

We have a problem folks. 

Three things you should know about me: 

1. I cannot be a victim to bad decision-making; 2) I’m not a racist, 3) I’m cursed to see systems, and I love opportunities (diversity/inclusion)  - commonly misdiagnosed as chaos. 

Passive-aggressive responses about historical assumptions is  a hot-button issue with too many variables and derivatives. From my point of view, people don’t want to talk with anyone not in the dominant culture about solutions - it’s a breakdown in management and leadership that have pushed and promoted a no-results agenda that border on some of the worst in educational and institutionalized racism in history - this phenomenon grows exponentially inside majority-minority school houses. 

It doesn’t matter if you don’t like standardized testing, the data can’t lie about the results of the few students that actually took the test; the neighborhoods don’t lie; if there is poverty on any level for any group of K-12 students and families (always man-made), there is an overwhelming achievement gap, one that cannot be fixed by a policy for ‘those categorized and sorted kids who are Black and Brown children, English learners that have suffered at the hand of leaderless decision-making workgroups and the lack of teachers of color in a system ravished with cultures and silos of mistrust, and misunderstanding about what it means to walk the earth other than being a part of the dominant culture (empathy). If we are data driven, the term ‘at the bottom of the rankings’ is synonymous with Black children in public schools in Minnesota and all across the United States. Its perfect brain altering chaos, allowed, unchecked, and unbound in an era of a requirement to teach using cultural responsiveness, proficiency, and the required acceptance of the abnormal in education - but don’t talk about the numbers (data). 

I’m not the first to write or notice this, but the best dancers always adjust their styles to the movement of their partners. When we look at the beauty of the human brain and its connection in social, personal, group, and like-minded relationships, we can see a system interrupted from its norm working against culture and proficiency in policies. Why haven’t educators in these systems been allowed to adjust to current time and keep time with their learning partners? 

What about Cultural Proficiency and the Essential Tools?  

If you didn’t know, I am currently a graduate student at Hamline University - School of Education, enrolled in the  Administrative Licensure course for Superintendent (Ed. S. or Ed.D.). One of the many things we have to think about is our personal ‘competencies’ in a broad range of areas in people facing leadership, like do we understand how Human Resources operates? What does a school budget look like? The significance of budget and staff cutting - all emotionally draining but very important systems to understand. There’s a huge difference between leadership and management; education has been stuck in a perpetual re-cycle of bad ideas, people, and policies that operate in a daily ‘safe from critique zone’ that lets failures be measured as success, and clandestine measures of biological determinism grow at an unprecedented rate mostly blanketing the population of Black kids that soon will be the majority (in Minnesota) by 2023 - under 30-years old (Source: MN YMCA Equity Report). 

I’m currently finishing the book, Cultural Proficiency -  A Manual for School Leaders 4th Edition (2019). I finished for the second time, Culturally Responsive Teaching and The Brain by Zaretta Hammond (2014); for fun and personal professional development I’m reading Words Like Loaded Pistols - Rhetoric from Aristotle to Obama by Sam Leith, and the two most interesting, Push has come to Shove - Getting Our Kids the Education they Deserve Even if it Means Picking A Fight by Dr. Steve Perry (2011), and The Will to Lead, the Skill to Teach - Transforming Schools at Every Level by Anthony Muhammad (2011).   In this course, Hamline University 2022 Spring - GED 8150-1 - Initial Leadership Assessment, I am learning about what’s missing in educational leadership, and what should be there. 

Part 2: Travel Agents and Tour Guides in Educational Leadership