What Those Working in Ontario's Education System Need To Understand

by Debbie L. Kasman in ,

Hello Ontario educators,

I’m hoping this post will provide some much needed clarity around Richard Bilkszto’s tragic death as it relates to DEI training.

First and foremost, let me say that I support DEI training, but it needs to be done by people who are “awake,” not by people who are “woke.”

This next part is going to be hard for some of you to hear.

Being “woke” is not the same thing as being “awake” or “enlightened.”

“Wokeism” is on the rise and it is a backslide away from healthy pluralism and diversity. It is a developmental trap that many well-meaning and intelligent people, including some Ontario educators and DEI trainers, get stuck in.

Bear with me and I’ll explain through a developmental psychological lens.

As humans, we all grow up through different developmental stages called structures of consciousness no matter our race, culture, creed, gender, gender identity, gender expression or religion. Different developmental psychologists have different names for the structures of consciousness we all grow up through.

Robert Kegan, an American psychologist from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, has an excellent model, but it’s hard to understand. I like his colleague, Ken Wilber’s model the best, because it’s the easiest to understand. Ken Wilber is an American philosopher and writer who is credited with creating Integral Theory.

On page 242 of their book An Everyone Culture: Becoming a Deliberately Developmental Organization, Robert Kegan and his writing partner Lisa Laskow Lahey, also from Harvard University, write, “Our colleague Ken Wilber has created a four-box model, which has been a valuable heuristic for a more comprehensive view of any complicated psychosocial phenomenon.”

The situation in the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) is definitely a complicated psychosocial phenomenon so Wilber’s model is extremely helpful in trying to determine a way forward. It (Wilber’s model) reminds us that people have a tendency to look at psychosocial phenomenon through too few lenses. That’s exactly what many people who are weighing in on Richard Bilkszto’s death are currently doing.

Kegan and Laskow Lahey write, “We have seen many efforts, such as those to reform the U.S. public education system, flounder on change designs that reflect a sophisticated understanding of the dynamics of organizational change and resistance to change, but a naive understanding of those same dynamics in the individual psychologies of administrators and teachers who must change the ways they think and act, and vice versa.”

Wilber’s four-box model reminds us that there are four perspectives to consider: the exterior of the organization, the interior of the organization, the exterior of the individual, and the interior of the individual.

The organization, in this case, is the TDSB and the Kojo Institute, and unless we look at Richard Bilkszto’s death through all four of these lenses, we’ll never be able to figure out how to make sure a tragedy like this never happens again.

We need to start with Wilber’s structures of consciousness before we can learn to apply his four-box model. This will help everyone reading this better understand their own level of psychological development. (Self-assessment is surprisingly accurate.)

At the first developmental level, survival is our basic priority. Wilber calls this the Infrared or Crimson level. At this level, we can’t easily distinguish where our body starts and our bed stops, for example. We believe that our self is one with the environment. We cannot distinguish our emotions from the emotions of the people around us, particularly our mother. (Emotional distinction happens around 16 months of age. This is when an infant develops a sense of itself as a separate self, and it’s called the psychological birth of the infant.)

Some adults remain at this Infrared level throughout their entire lives. It’s generally because there is some sort of developmental disability, brain damage or difficulty that keeps them at this lower level of development. The elderly who are senile revert to this developmental level as do late-stage Alzheimer’s patients. People who are mentally ill and living on the street sometimes revert to this developmental level, too.

The next level of development is Magenta. This stage begins around the age of two, and this is when we begin to have emotional-feeling capacity. We become in touch with our feelings, but we also become impulsive. A healthy sex drive begins here (yes it’s true) as well as a healthy fantasy life. Instinctual emotions also develop here like anger, lust, and jealousy. If there is a psychological trauma at this stage, it can result in very serious narcissistic and borderline personality disorders because the self’s boundary is so fragile at this stage. Some people remain at this developmental level throughout their entire life.     

The next developmental level is Red and it begins around the age of four. At this level we have an emerging attitude or belief that says, “I am distinct from you.” The self at this stage is dominant, impulsive, and egotistical. We enjoy ourselves to the fullest without showing any regret or remorse (think aging rock star) and we learn to be conceptual thinkers at this stage. (This is the ability to understand a situation or a problem by identifying patterns or connections.) But mostly we are overly concerned with ourselves, with power, and with our own safety. Our prisons today are full of individuals who are at this egocentric self-protective stage. Gang members are typically at this level as well. They see the world as a very dangerous place full of powerful people, and they want to be powerful, too.

The Amber developmental level is next. It typically begins between the ages of seven and twelve. At this level we can take the role of other (a second-person perspective). We can understand and follow rules. We fit into a group and feel a sense of belonging. We follow a code of conduct based on unwavering absolutes of right and wrong. We believe what our religion tells us absolutely and fundamentally (if we are religious).

People at this level believe the Bible, the Quran, or the Talmud literally, not metaphorically. They believe Moses really did part the Red Sea, Elijah really did go to heaven in a chariot, Christ really was born of a biological virgin, and there is no questioning these things.

Overall, this is the level of traditional family values and conformist, conventional ethics. This stage is extremely common in adults today. About forty percent of the population of the U.S. and Canada is at this developmental level, and about fifty to sixty percent of the world’s population. Rural communities are often at this level, too.  The agrarian Midwest in the U.S. and Canada’s rural communities have a very high percentage of fundamentalist believers.

The Orange developmental level is next. It begins in adolescence (if we keep growing up) and now we have the capacity for introspection, self-expression, and self-discovery. We have the ability to step back and view ourselves, and the world objectively. We escape from “herd mentality” in our thinking, and we seek truth and meaning in individualistic terms. We begin to identify with the human race as a whole. We become highly achievement oriented, and we begin to see the world as a rational and well-oiled machine with natural laws that can be learned, mastered, and even manipulated. At this level, we can take a third-person perspective and be objective in our thinking.

The Green level of development is next. It begins in adulthood (for those who develop this far) and it brings a great sensitivity to marginalized humans with it. Individuals at this level see every situation has multiple perspectives, and inclusivity becomes important. People become ecologically considerate, more communitarian, and they nurture human bonding.

At this stage, people have the capacity to rise above third person perspectives, reflect on them, review them, and criticize them. They believe the human spirit must be freed from greed, dogma and divisiveness. They believe feeling is more important than being rational, they cherish the earth, and all life on it, and they emphasize dialogue and relationships.

But here’s the thing - the American psychologist Abraham Maslow called this level of development the beginning of self-actualization. (Note the word “beginning,” my italics.) About thirty percent of the adult population in Western cultures has reached this developmental level. The industrial northeast of the U.S. has a high percentage of people at this level. That’s why a majority of the colleges and university like MIT and Harvard are in the northeast. Silicon Valley in California is at this level, too. So are most Ontario educators.

This is also where “wokeism” resides, and it’s an unhealthy aspect of this developmental level.

Many adults today are stuck at the Green level of psychological development, they can’t move forward, and we can’t move forward as a society as a result. Those at the Green level of development are completely unaware of the interior stages of human development (which is why I’m explaining these to you), they cannot grasp the big picture (although they think they can), and they aren’t very inclusive (although they think they are). Individuals at this level have not figured out that in order for each of us to be healthy, all of society needs to be healthy. They haven’t figure out that you don’t discriminate in order to eliminate discrimination.

As a result, our culture (and our entire education system) is completely confused - and here’s what everyone working in the system needs to understand:

Fully “awake” or enlightened is actually “post-woke.”

If we are truly “awake,” not “woke,” we are pluralistic in our attitudes, empathetic, and tolerant. We understand that we have to confront discrimination, fight systems that don’t work, and go against our sense of who we’re most comfortable being within structures that perpetuate inequality – but we also understand that we do this by being tolerant of conflicting perspectives, not by yelling and screaming at each other, not trying to bang people over the head with our giant hammers if they disagree with us, and not trying to cancel white men, call them “resistors” or “white supremacists” if they question something we said, and above all, we don’t cancel free speech.

People who are awake let people question things because that’s how people learn - and they stand up for their colleagues who question things just as you would stand up for racialized individuals or members of the LGBTQ2+ community when they are being bullied, discriminated against or being oppressed.

The developmental levels from Infrared/Crimson to Green are considered first tier levels, and 95% of the world’s population is in this first tier. Most people are at the Amber level of development (traditional, religious), the Orange level of development (modern, rational, scientific) or the Green level of development (postmodern, pluralistic, multicultural). Only 5% of the world’s population are self-actualized, “fully” grown, or “awake,” which is “post-woke.” When we get to 10% of the population, the world will change rapidly in ways currently beyond our imagination. But we need to teach more people about these developmental levels in order to help us all get there.

Every level of development carries its own sets of values and its own way of seeing the world so Amber, Orange, Green (the most common levels) are at the core of the “culture wars” we are currently seeing now within the education system.

All politicians are at different levels of psychological development, too, and some are a lot lower than others. The Republican far right in the U.S. and the Conservative far right in Canada are Amber in their development. Trump, when he denigrates other cultures and women is actually operating from the Red level of development. 

Our education systems are stuck at the Amber level of development, too. Those at the top expect total conformity from everyone beneath them. They expect people to follow codes of conduct based on unwavering absolutes of right and wrong, and people must do exactly what they are told with no wavering from the rules whatsoever - even when the rules don’t make sense.

We are seeing this happen a lot now with school board trustees constantly filing codes of conduct complaints against each other and constantly trying to cancel each other out - at a huge expense to taxpayers who have to foot the bill for all these complaints.

We are also seeing this a lot now with the numbers of principals and vice-principals who are under “investigation.” School boards are paying huge amounts of money to have people investigated for the smallest of complaints…and some of these people are innocent.

Are some of these complaints valid? Yes, of course, but not all of the complaints are valid.

Developmental psychology explains why parents (often Amber or Orange) clash so strongly with their teen-aged children (often Red) and why hippies during the 60s and 70s (Red) clashed with the authorities trying to send them off to the Vietnam War (Amber). 

This also explains why there is so much conflict and strife in the world today. 

Ninety-five percent of the world's population is at the first tier level of development. And as long as we have 95% of the world’s population at this first tier level, all we’re ever going to get is disharmony and war - as well as chaos and confusion in our education system. We need leaders at the top and DEI trainers who are “awake,” psychologically “aware” or at high developmental levels, and not “woke.”

Starting about 30 or 40 years ago, developmental psychologists started spotting the emergence of a new level of development that Wilber calls Turquoise. People at this level make a very big leap in the way they live their lives. They suddenly want to live a life of wholeness, meaning, purpose, and value. They undergo a revolutionary shift in the way they see the world. They no longer operate from the first tier, which is a partial, fragmented, broken, and torn way of seeing the world. They begin to operate from a unified, integrated, and whole perspective, which developmental psychologists call the second tier.   

At the second tier, people realize that each of the developmental levels is a necessary ingredient of all subsequent levels (if they know about developmental levels) and they realize that when they transcend one level and move to the next, they transcend and include the old level. They realize there is partial truth at every level, and every level needs to be welcomed, valued, listened to, even celebrated because it’s an important step along the developmental continuum. (You can’t skip a developmental level like you can a grade at school. Everyone has to pass through all of these developmental levels. That’s why we need to celebrate every level.)

It helps if you realize that everybody is right. More specifically, everybody has some important pieces of truth, and all of these pieces need to be honoured, listened to, and included as much as possible.

Another way to think of this is that there is partial truth in everything.

So we need to listen to others. A lot. Nothing is 100% right or wrong. No one is 100% good or evil. All knowledge is a work in progress.

We cannot be too quick to tell someone they’re wrong or “racist” or a white supremacist or a “resistor” just because their perspective is different than ours. That’s “woke.”

We need to recognize that two people can both be right at the same time. That’s “awake” or “post woke.”

People at this level (the turquoise level or second tier) can turn each level or wave “on” as they need it. For example, in emergency situations, they can tap into their Red power drives. During chaotic times, they can activate Amber order. If they are interviewing for a job, they can connect with Orange achievement drives. When they connect with family and friends, they can draw on Green bonding urges.

That’s why I sometimes clarify that I’m neither far Left nor far Right, and that I’m actually on the political Left, but not far Left. I stand up for anyone who is being oppressed or bullied, no matter the colour of their skin, their religion, their gender identity, their gender expression, or their religion. This isn’t me “flip-flopping.” It’s me doing what everyone should be doing.

Second tier (turquoise) thinkers are fully aware of the interior stages of development, they are able to step back and grasp the bigger picture, and they are totally inclusive and integrated in their thinking.

Second tier thinkers also begin to “show up” in the world. This means they stand up for what they believe in and they work to enact change.

It is quite possible, folks, that this is the level Richard Bilkszto was at.

This means it is quite possible that Richard Bilkszto was more psychologically aware than the DEI trainers and his own superiors - and look how he was treated by those at a lower psychological level than him.

What’s the lesson here?

White men who question things are not all white supremacists or resistors.

And not all DEI trainers are at high levels of psychological development.

What do we do about this situation?

An investigation into what happened and options to reform professional training and strengthen accountability on school boards so something like this never happens again is an appropriate response.

And if discrimination has occurred, then judgments and behaviours must be addressed as soon as possible, by making all means of growth available to the DEI trainers and to the TDSB superiors who allowed this to happen as soon as possible. Legal penalties must be imposed so this doesn’t happen again.

Then, after the judgments and behaviours have been addressed, legal penalties paid, professional DEI training and accountability on school boards reformed, we all must follow up with a mighty dose of compassion.

Compassion is the only judgmental attitude we’re allowed to have for those who are living with such restricting worldviews – the only judgmental attitude.

Fully “awake” or enlightened is “post-woke,” folks.

We have to get past this unhealthy aspect of the Green level of psychological development.

This is the only way Ontario’s education system can move beyond this horrific tragedy.

Debbie L. Kasman

M. Ed, Policy Studies, OISE/University of Toronto

Education Re-imagined

Analyst & Researcher, Author & Speaker

Follow Debbie on Twitter: @debbiekasman and on Facebook: DebbieLKasman