Donna Taylor is the principal of a middle school in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, called the “Brooklyn School of Inquiry.” The school is a highly competitive school for gifted children. Its incoming class has 66 places, and it receives thousands of applications. One out of every fifty applicants is admitted.
A few days ago, at an open house for prospective students and their teachers, she was asked whether the school offered any instruction in foreign languages. Taylor answered that she was hoping to offer Spanish, and to illustrate the importance of learning Spanish, she said something to the effect of “In New York City, if you don’t speak Spanish, you’re going to clean your own house.”
A firestorm erupted, and Taylor responded with the usual cliches. At first, she blamed everybody but herself, saying that she was “misunderstood.” When that didn’t work, she admitted that she used a “poor choice of words” and made a “mistake.” And then she became “proactive,” and called the incident a “teachable moment.”
Here is an example of the type of nonsense you can find at her school blog. Note the punctuation errors. This is an “elite school!”
Despite the fact that the kids had to face a public mistake that I made, and that was difficult, they were able to see interesting aspects of the learning we can all do around these issues and I think it was powerful. At one point, someone said” “One of the unintended consequences is that some of us may think less of Ms. Donna as a result of this.”
http://brooklynschoolofinquiry.org/
Yea, ok, but nowhere does Taylor actually explain what she was trying to say. If this was a mistake, and a poor choice of words, why not tell us what she really meant, so that the world understands her correctly?
In a TV interview the next day, she explained that she was sharing a personal anecdote about her Hispanic housekeeper, in order to illustrate why, in Taylor’s opinion, Spanish is a really important language. Taylor also expressed her hope that the “Spanish families in New York City, and their children” will give her another chance.
Good grief! Taylor hasn’t got a clue. Does she not understand the difference between Hispanics and “Spanish families?” Taylor thinks that her comment was offensive, because she associated Hispanics with housekeepers. But she remains totally unaware that the more disturbing aspect of her comment was that when Taylor wanted to illustrate the value of learning Spanish, the only thing that came to her mind was talking to one’s housekeeper. In this sense, her words were not a mistake at all — they expressed exactly what she was trying to say. And that is precisely the problem.
This is not so much about race as it is about culture. Spanish is the third most spoken language in the world. There are more Spanish speakers in the United States than in Spain, and it is the predominant language from the Mexican border to Tierra del Fuego. It is the language of eleven Nobel laureates. It is the language of an incredible range of musical genres. With Spanish, one can enjoy great films from Spain, Mexico and Argentina, to name just a few. It is invaluable for travel on at least three continents. And there is so much more.
I would like to think that the principal of an “elite” school knows most of this. If not, she surely should not have the job. So the question is why did she feel free to make the tasteless comment about her housekeeper, which anyone with a modicum of sense would have known not to do? I suspect that she lives and works in a bubble. Her school is located in a racially segregated neighborhood, and the school itself is almost entirely White (75 percent) and Asian. In a bubble like this, “diversity” is a politically correct buzzword, as opposed to simply an appreciation for the world’s great variety of cultures. Taylor probably assumed that her audience shared her values, her world view, and her problems communicating with the housekeeper. In other words, she thought the remark would be well received, a witticism on the problems of life in the big city. She miscalculated. A mistake? Yes, and a very telling one.
Here is my suggestion. There are numerous struggling middle schools in the City’s less affluent neighborhoods, who could use an administrator with Ms. Taylor’s supposed talents. Transfer Ms. Taylor to one of those schools, where she can use her language skills to communicate with “Spanish families and their children,” some of whom may indeed be housekeepers. I believe it would be a great learning experience for Ms. Taylor. In her words, “powerful.”