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| John Taylor, Bay Village Board of Education candidate, with cartoon |
Bay Village Board of Education candidate John Taylor took on the equality vs. equity debate recently via video. You can watch the video on his campaign website or via YouTube.
Taylor wanted to show Bay voters an illustration he found on the Bay Village School District’s website and share his interpretation of illustration.
Here’s the illustration:
“Let me do some interpretation of what we’re saying here,” Taylor says, explaining that each child’s height represents their individual capabilities. The tallest student, he’ll later explain, represents the “high achiever,” while, presumably, the shortest student represents the low achiever.
Taylor Time: Equality
The boxes, he says, represent school resources - teachers, computers, books - and the fence is an A+ average. “The goal is to get past that A+ average with the resources available.”
Taylor is all on board with what the first frame depicts, equality, which he interprets as “everyone has the same amount of resources, and they’re trying to get beyond that A+ fence.
"But not everybody is above the A+ fence,” he adds.
Taylor Time: Equity
“Frankly, when I took a look at this as a definition for equity, I was puzzled, because it does not seem fair or equitable at all,” Taylor says. At issue? No boxes - or resources - for the tall student. “If they would have left that box, those resources, with that student and just added one to the other student, I'm all on board.”
The narrator later asks Taylor if the illustration suggests that by giving the shortest student, the low achiever, an extra box, it indicates "you think they're actually taking resources and financial elements away from one [student, and giving them to] the other?”
“That's my interpretation,” Taylor says.
Taylor Time: Empowerment
How it works, Taylor explains, is through “a lot of hard work” and “a lot of support.”
“And it just doesn't happen with everybody,” Taylor says. A lack of hard work and a lack of support is not bad, Taylor then explains. “It's just the way it is.”
The difference between equality and equity
Before we get into it, let’s make sure we understand the
difference between equality and equity - and maybe look at a better example than the cartoon shared by Bay Schools and misinterpreted by Taylor.
Equality: Each individual or group of people receives or has access to the same resources or opportunities.
Equity: Allocation of the exact resources and opportunities needed to reach an equal outcome based on an individual’s circumstances.
Or as the National Association of Colleges and Employers explains: “Whereas equality means providing the same to all, equity means recognizing that we do not all start from the same place and must acknowledge and make adjustments to imbalances.”
And if that doesn’t do it for you, here’s how MIT grad John Maeda, the 16th president of the prestigious Rhode Island School of Design, explains it:
Equality: When everyone gets the same opportunity, that’s considered fair to those who come with an existing (and often unconscious) unfair advantage.
Equity: When everyone gets the opportunity to be on a level playing field with their peers, it means that there is an unusual level of fairness to compete.
Let’s look at a different illustration
For a moment, forget the wall, the boxes and the tall, middle and small boys. Instead, look at a much simpler explanation in graphic form, from The Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University, using art by Maeda, inspired by Shel Silverstein’s Giving Tree.
“In the illustration,” it is explained, “two individuals have unequal access to a system — in this case, the tree that provides fruit. With equal support from evenly distributed tools, their access to the fruit still remains unequal.”
The boys are identical. They have equal access to the tree and equal resources, in this case, hands for catching apples. While there is equality in resources, inequality remains. How?
The problem is the tree. “While the tree appears to be a naturally occurring system, it’s critical to remember that social systems aren’t naturally inequitable,” it is explained. In other words, the tree represents a human construct - like mortgage lending or C-level promotion - which might seem equitable at first glance, but can be - and are often - inequitable.
Equity, then, should be viewed as a solution for addressing imbalanced social systems. Here, in the equity panel, each boy is allocated the exact resources needed to reach an equal outcome. Both get the length of ladder needed to reach the apples. The tree - or the system - remains unbalanced, however. The boy on the left has access to more apples and a shorter and safer trip up the ladder to pick them.
Empowerment, or “justice” in this example, takes equity a step further by fixing the system, which leads to long-term, sustainable, equitable access for generations to come. Now, with the tree straightened and the apples (by cartoon logic - remember, it’s metaphor) growing equally on each side, the boys boy use the same resource to reach a the desired outcome - the opportunity to pick apples from an equally stocked tree.
Before you wag your finger and say “Wait a minute,” realize that the example doesn’t say each boy picks the same amount of apples or that each boy are required to pick and equal amount of apples. In an equitable and just system, capitalism still thrives. One boy might work twice as long as the other. One might be the better sales person and makes a fortune selling his apples. One boy may care more about picking oranges, so only picks the apples he necessarily needs.
In an equitable system, individuals remain responsible for their own success - and the sky is the limit. It’s just that no one starts with a disadvantage they can’t control because its hardwired into the system.
Revisiting the original cartoon
Knowing what we know now, let’s take another look at the cartoon posted on the Bay School District’s website.
Now we see that the first panel depicts an equal distribution of resources, but inequality still exists because the smallest child cannot see the balloons, even though he has received a box to stand on like the other children.
Taylor’s interpretation overcomplicates the illustration. The children want to see the hot air balloons, but the fence stands in the way. Nothing more.
The fence does not represent an “A+ average” either, as Taylor interprets. Like the apple tree, the fence is a metaphor for a system that prevents the smallest child from playing on a level field with his peers.
So when Taylor says he is “all on board” with what the first frame depicts, Taylor is inadvertently championing inequality in Bay Schools.
In the next frame, equity, each child is allocated the exact resources needed to reach an equal outcome. All three can see over the fence. The barrier still exists, however, meaning that two of the children will still require some sort of assistance to level the playing field until the system is corrected.
Taylor, however, suggests the second frame shows resources “taken away from the highest capability student and given to the lowest capability student.” I can understand Taylor’s confusion, since there are three boxes in the first frame and three in the second, and the tall boy no longer has a box to stand on.
What this frame is really showing, though, is that the tall boy, because of his individual circumstance (he’s tall) never needed a box to begin with, while the smallest boy, because of his individual circumstances (he’s small) needs two to see over the fence.
If this is still confusing, consider two patients - identical twins - in an Emergency Room. One has a migraine and the other was hit on the head with a brick. Those two patients require different resources based on their individual circumstances. You’re not taking anything away from the migraine patient when you give him Excedrin and give the head trauma victim several drugs and a lot of attention.
Also, when Taylor says, “If they would have left that box, those resources, with that student and just added one to the other student, I'm all on board,” what he’s really saying is I agree with the idea and definition of equity.
Because how is “adding one [box] to the other student” anything other than allocating resources needed to reach an equal outcome? Taylor’s only real beef is a contextual edit to the drawing.
Though there is a good argument to be made that, because the tall boy does not need assistance to see over the fence, giving him a box wastes resources and increases spending, since whomever is handing out boxes will need to purchase more than necessary. But that might be getting in the weeds a bit.
Finally, empowerment. Here we see a section of the fence removed, allowing all three children to watch the balloons unimpeded. In other words, the barrier, or broken system, is removed, giving the children long-term, sustainable, equitable access to the field to watch balloons whenever they appear.
Taylor’s interpretation, that the final frame is “frankly, either disingenuous or just naïve, because that's not how it works” is, frankly, either disingenuous or just naïve.
Either Taylor has knowingly misinterpreted the cartoon in order to suggest Bay Schools’ administration is hampering student success, or he’s poorly judged voters’ ability to properly interpret the illustration.
Or he never understood it to begin with, I suppose.
Still confused?
If you are still confused, lean on the simple dictionary definitions:
- Equality: The state or quality of being equal.
- Equal: Like or alike in quantity, degree, value, etc.; of the same rank, ability, merit, etc.
- Equity: Something that is fair and just.
Boiled down even further?
- Equality: The same.
- Equity: Fair.
Taylor was right about one thing
Taylor rightfully says that not every student is an A+ student. Hard work and dedication drive good grades. Some students simply understand the material better than others, and high achievers and competitive students will likely excel beyond their peers, while lackadaisical students will fall behind.
But equity efforts are never about ensuring every student achieves the same grade or excels equally with their peers. Equity isn’t about homogenation or handing out participation trophies.
It’s about identifying and dismantling systems and barriers that prevent student (and individual) success - and allocating the right resources to those students in need until those barriers are removed and the resources are no longer required.
If you believe everyone should have the opportunity to prove themselves by competing on a level playing field, then you believe in equity initiatives.
It’s just that simple.
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