The Review of the Peel District School Board Strikes Again

School libraries the latest casualty

Book Wars

By Igor Stravinsky (Teacher & Education Commentator)

Images of empty library shelves are all over the media and people are asking what is going on. Why would so many books be purged all at once, and what exactly were the criteria for removing them?

Let's look at the second question first. On November 7th, 2019, Education Minister Steven Lecce ordered a review of the PDSB in response to allegations from a well-organized group of community activists and their supporters among the board’s senior administration that the board was “systemically racist”. The activists pointed to the relatively low academic achievement and the high levels of discipline being handed out to black (especially male) students and demanded that the board adopt “anti-racist” policies based on Critical Theory principles being promoted by well known CT practitioners such as Ibram X. Kendi and Robin DeAngelo. 

The PDSB review was undertaken by “equality rights” lawyer Ena Chadha, career bureaucrat Suzanne Herbert, and family and estate lawyer Shawn Richard. With this trio doing the review, any hope that it would be a dispassionate, rational, and impartial attempt to ascertain the reason why so many black (mostly boys) students were being unsuccessful in PDSB schools was dashed from day one. But this has turned out to be far, far worse than an opportunity lost.

The reviewers started out with the assumption that systemic racism was the cause of the woes of black students and, unsurprisingly, found anecdotal evidence to support that conclusion. They essentially invited anyone who thought systemic racism was the problem to talk to them and confirmation bias did the rest of the work for them.

So the reviewers came up with a long list of recommendations which the Minister of Education then used to formulate a series of 27 directives. Although no objective proof had been found that “systemic racism”, or anything else happening in the schools was even a significant part, let alone the sole cause, of poor black student achievement and higher rates of discipline, the board was ordered to eradicate disproportionate outcomes in four years (directive 14 and 22)

The Board shall establish a comprehensive four-year strategy and action plan to address and eliminate statistically significant disproportionalities in enrolment, achievement and outcomes of Black students…

The Board shall, in accordance with the requirements of Ontario’s Data Standards for the Identification and Monitoring of Systemic Racism, also known as Ontario’s Anti-Racism Data Standards (ARDS), shall set thresholds to identify notable racial disparities in all in-school and out-of-school suspensions, exclusions, and expulsions, and shall set targets with the aim to reduce the identified disparities by 50% by September 2021, and completely by September 2022.

Even if you accept that the main cause of disproportionately poor outcomes for black students were the result of racism in the schools, these directives are obviously not feasible. Academically, the best you could hope for is to start to see significant improvements in that time frame. And if you do not, then what? Would the activists take a step back and start to consider other possible reasons why black kids, overall, are lagging behind Asian kids? Not likely! They are true believers in Critical Theory and will never give an inch of ground. To even suggest such a thing will get you branded a racist. As for the disciplinary policy, it is easy to reduce suspensions- you just stop addressing inappropriate behavior, which is exactly what has happened, and school climate has deteriorated drastically, including a major uptick in violence. 

So it’s a double whammy. The directives put the schools on the wrong track, and they force the board to hurry up with it. That’s a formula for disaster, which brings us back to libraries. This is directive 18:

The Board shall, through its Equity Office, established pursuant to Direction 10, undertake a comprehensive diversity audit of schools, which shall include naming, mascots, libraries and classrooms. The Board shall evaluate books, media and all other resources currently in use for teaching and learning English, History and Social Sciences for the purpose of utilizing resources that are inclusive and culturally responsive, relevant and reflective of students, and the Board’s broader school communities. The Board shall ensure that the audit is among the first priorities of the Equity Office and allocate the appropriate resources to conduct a detailed audit

School librarians were told near the end of last school year that they had until the end of June to complete this audit. If they didn’t, they would not receive funding for next year. They were not given any additional staff or any other kind of support to get this done. The results were predictable. Although technically there was a weeding process in place, the cull ended up being largely arbitrary, mostly based on publication date and any topic that could conceivably be considered out of line with the board’s current thinking (which is based on Critical Theory and gender ideology).

That brings us to the second question. It would be nice to think that, if given enough time and resources, this process would have resulted in “the right books'' being sent to the recycling center, but sadly even that is not the case. Here are the criteria that were supposed to be used to determine which books had to go:

1. Is the information in the book factually inaccurate or obsolete? 

That seems reasonable, but the problem is someone has to make the determination as to what constitutes inaccuracy and obsoleteness. If you are not a fan of Critical Theory or gender ideology, you may not have much confidence in the board to make those determinations. For example, a book which states that black kids are far more often raised by less educated, single mothers which may account for some of the Asian/black school achievement gap might well be considered inaccurate, or one that states the view that there are only two sexes which are defined by the body’s reproductive strategy may be considered inaccurate and obsolete.  

2. Is the book, physically, in poor condition?

Okay fair enough. But are you going to replace it? 

3. Is the book of no literary or scientific merit or just poorly written?

Another judgment call and does make you wonder why such a book was purchased in the first place.

4. Does the book meet the needs and interests of the library’s community? 

Do we really want our communities to be limited to their own traditional interests and perceived needs? And again, how do we determine this? Also, the two hypothetical books mentioned in #1 above would likely be deemed racist/transphobic (harmful).

5. Can the book, or the information in it, be obtained elsewhere?

You could get rid of the whole library on that basis.

A library should be a place where people can find the greatest possible range of perspectives and ideas, but what is in fact happening is that librarians are being forced to undertake a rushed process which will ensure that about 40% of all books are culled and will be replaced with new books which align with the board’s current pedagogical philosophy. 

This is not a case of individual librarians zealously throwing out books that advocate for one human race, individual civil rights and liberties, or compassionate opposition to racism and intolerance that is rooted in dignity and our common humanity (all of which stand in opposition to Critical Theory). Nor are librarians, as a rule, keen to stamp out any notion of the definitively binary nature of the sexes while respecting people’s gender identities (which would question the wisdom of gender ideology and “affirmative care” for gender-confused youth). But those will be the effects of the process, because books presenting these kinds of views will not be among the new acquisitions. 

If you don’t think the board knows that, you're pretty naive. 

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Thanks for reading. For more from this author read, Ding Dong, the Witch is…Fired

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