On Thursday afternoon my 3rd grade daughter put up her Science Fair experiment at school. Less than an hour later the school had removed it. No questions, no appeal.
Why was it removed? In one word - censorship.
The experiment was entitled, "Does Skin Color Make a Difference?" and her hypothesis stated: "I think people will choose the white Barbie because they are used to seeing Barbie's that are white." She had dressed two Barbie dolls, one white and one black, in attractive outfits. She then asked 15 adults, "Which one is prettier?" Next, she switched the dresses and asked an additional 15 adults the same question. Among the adults surveyed, the Barbie wearing the lavender dress received the most votes - regardless of skin color. (The adults were all employees at a high-tech company in Westminster.)
She then did the same experiment among the 5th grade classes at her elementary school. In one class all 15 students picked the white Barbie. In the other class, 9 of 15 picked the white Barbie. She reported the results and stated her conclusion as: "I discovered that most grown-ups liked the lavender dress on the black or white Barbie. On the other hand, kids mostly liked the white Barbie. Only six kids liked the black Barbie."
What I was told the next morning in a meeting with the school principal, a teacher and the Director of Elementary Education for Boulder Valley Schools, was that 7 to 8 teachers, as well as some parents, felt that the exhibit should be removed and that the teachers would not allow their classes to see it. (And does anyone doubt that if the kids also chose based on the dress rather than the skin color that they would have put a spotlight on the exhibit and broken their arms patting themselves on the back?)
The official excuse given was that the experiment would make the children of color in the school uncomfortable. This experiment was not derogatory. It was not racially discriminatory. It did not create racial animosity. The display features pictures of six beautiful white, African-American and Indian Barbie's and its conclusion was about as innocuous as could be for the results she found. Arguably, it discussed a sensitive issue and sensitive issues do cause discomfort. I have also had daughters in tears over learning about the Holocaust but that was not a reason to refuse to learn about that tragedy. If we do not teach our children about things that might make them uncomfortable, how will they ever learn?
What the experiment did do was to expose the Emperor's New Clothes. It pointed out that the children at the school did take skin color into account when judging beauty and this made people so uncomfortable that they decided to make it go away - to sweep it under the rug. This sends two messages to my daughter and the other students at her school:
Number 1 - You may not do a science experiment that is not politically correct or that has unacceptable results. In the city with the highest percentage of advanced degrees in the country, with government labs on every other block, our public schools are teaching the children that science is not about protocols and facts - it's about what is politically acceptable.
Number 2 - Discussions of race are to be limited to those issues that the school chooses to bring up and only when the school chooses to bring them up. The subject is limited to bad people elsewhere who did bad things in the past, never about how biases might actually exist here in own schools and within our own community. If we only discuss uncomfortable issues exactly when and how the school wants to, how will the children ever learn to think for themselves?
Some say that race is too sensitive and too political an issue to allow free-form discussion. I agree that it is the most sensitive topic in America, and one of the most important problems we face. But if we don't encourage children to discuss it, can we ever solve the problem? Elementary school children do not view race as adults do. They don't see it as a taboo subject. Elementary school is one of the most valuable places for discussions about race and racism to occur.
Others argue that children cannot handle discussions of race. I disagree. Children can handle it fine - it's not that big of a deal to them. Adults are the ones that have trouble handling it and it is actions such as these that teach children that discussions about race are off-limits. In Selma, Alabama in the early 60's, black elementary school children, some as young as age 6, walked calmly up to white police officers, snarling German Shepards, and fire hoses that sent them hurtling down the street. Day after day they walked calmly toward them to be arrested and beaten. If those children could face such horror in the quest for racial equality, is it too much to ask our children to face their own perceptions of beauty? Children can understand and discuss this subject.
I am disappointed in our school and the segment of our community who insisted that this experiment be censored. I expected much better from both teachers and parents. This could have been an opportunity for the children to learn something about race and stereotypes. Instead they shut it down. How are we going to address racism if the schools refuse to allow even the exposure of facts that support the need to address this issue? If we cannot discuss race freely, if we cannot answer questions as they arise, if we cannot allow a student's work to touch on race, then how can we ever hope to solve the racial issues facing this country?
Censorship has always been the handmaiden of tyranny and control. Censorship has never been an agent of change. Freedom of the press is sacrosanct in this country because it is the ultimate guarantor of all of our freedoms - the ability to expound and discuss any issue from any point of view. Racism can never be eradicated by using censorship. It can only be eradicated by opening up the discussion.
I am devastated by the pain that this has caused my daughter. She poured her heart and soul into this experiment. She worked very hard and did an excellent job. Imagine the devastation to a child who thought she had done an outstanding job, and was then told that her project was so terrible it had to be removed. How are we going to attract children into the sciences when the schools violently squash interesting experiments? (And the really interesting experiments do generally make people uncomfortable, from Galileo to the present.)
Unquestionably the greatest thing this country has done in the last 50 years is to address the civil rights issues in this country. It has moved in fits and starts. The progress we have made has been immense, but we have not finished the journey. Most senior executives are still white and male while the poor are predominately female and of color. Now we seem to be stuck. We live in Boulder, Colorado, a community that takes pride in its open-mindedness and acceptance. If we cannot move beyond our present discomfort and unwillingness to confront issues of race, how can we expect the rest of the country to do so?
I believe my daughter should be commended for handling such an experiment with care and tact. She should be congratulated for tackling such a difficult topic. She should be thanked for bringing this opportunity for learning to the school. Instead she was punished. Is this what we want from our schools?
Shame on all of them for forgetting that their primary job is to educate our children.
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