Do you support greater integration in your child's school and classroom?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I absolutely do. But . . . not enough to support busing. I don't think any child, regardless of race or socioeconomic class, is served by having to wake up earlier to take a longer bus ride to school or getting home later due to the bus ride. Kids already don't get enough sleep, and it's a real health issue. Tired kids don't learn as well. We should make every effort to send our kids to the closest schools possible.

Which is why you support the development of low-income housing in your community to promote increased diversity in neighborhoods and schools?! If so, kudos.

[Anonymous]

Yes. My kids were in international schools up till us moving back to the US four years ago. My older child has complained that her parochial school has no diversity and wants to move to public school and my younger child in public school is very comfortable with her Hispanic/Asian/South Asian/Black/Arab/White classmates.

[Anonymous]

My white kid goes to a school with only 11% other white kids (mostly black and Hispanic) and I wish my other middle class neighbors would send their kids there but they all seem to prefer the "unique pedagogy" or "tightknit community" of the less diverse schools across town.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes. My kids were in international schools up till us moving back to the US four years ago. My older child has complained that her parochial school has no diversity and wants to move to public school and my younger child in public school is very comfortable with her Hispanic/Asian/South Asian/Black/Arab/White classmates.

They might have racial diversity but probably not socioeconomic diversity. International school aren't cheap. I worked in some of them myself and while they love the whole "United Nations" look of the racial diversity, the school is full of kids whose parents can foot the bill.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here: I've observed that very few people on these threads are supportive when their school is being rezoned to include more diversity.
I live in an integrated neighborhood and send my kids to integrated schools (more than just a token or two). Even our close biracial friends, who come over once a week, are struggling with these issues as the kids get older and their daughter is exposed to aggression from some girls who consider her uppity because she has a white boyfriend. I'm reassessing what to do about high school, as are they.
I'd say my life is far more diverse already than those who are calling me a racist.

I’m supportive at the elementary level and we chose our school to be diverse. I like to think of my self as libreral and progressive, but I also struggle with how I feel about it for Jr High and HS. When my home almost got rezoned to a majority minority middle school, my neighbors fought it hard. I did nothing. I didn’t stand up for better integration and I feel guilty. I told myself it was ok because I didn’t support their efforts. Personally I didn’t want to switch schools because the less diverse school is logistically better for my family. I work from home and it is a few blocks away. My fears and hesitation have a lot more to do with class / wealth divide than race.

The things I struggle with and I want to deal with personally while my kids are still small is this -
1. I know research shows more diverse schools are better for everyone, but I don’t understand how when I hear about opportunity hoarding that my North Arlington neighbors engage in. I have heard such and such is a great school - but then I hear that special programs and activities are dominated by white kids in a school amthat is 70%+ minority. That seems wrong. How is that teaching my kids anything about diversity if their exposure to kids of other races is that “brown kids are poor” or “brown kids aren’t in my advanced classes so they must be less intelligent” or “brown kids get in trouble more”. I grew up in a college town so my school was racially diverse but more socioeconomically homogeneous.

2. To have diversity be valuable, my kids need to actually be friends with kids from different backgrounds. This is hard for me to accept because I don’t want my kids to think it’s an option not to go to a 4yr college. Again I grew up in a college town for a large state school so even the janitor’ kid got some tuition assistance. There were poor kids, but almost everyone planned to go to college and almost everyone had at least 1 parent with a college degree. I did ok picking a college that was well regarded in the region and finding a good career, but I think about the connections my husband had growing up in a town where most dads commute to Wall St. and the colleges he applied to and careers he contemplated. I want my kids exposed to successful, educated people so they have examples of what careers they might want and how to get there.

I have been wanting to talk about this for a while, but I haven’t because I don’t want to seem racist. But obviously I am and I have some hang ups I need to work through and get over for my kids’ sake.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Moved my white kid from a mostly white/asian school to a fully diverse school with a very happy heart.

About to move from Wootton to Clarksburg. My kid needs to be able to get along with and understand many different types of people.

[Anonymous]

I want to respond to a couple of things the pp said. 1) being friends with black and Hispanic kids doesn’t mean your child won’t want to go to college. Lots of them want to go to college. And children of educated and well-off families don’t decide to drop out because a girl in their math class did. 2) This one is counterintuitive but so true and literally came from the mouth of my middle schooler: if you want your student to behave well and study and be serious, put them in a school where there is a cohort of some kids who do this... and also a cohort of kids who don’t. They see why it’s a really bad idea to blow off school, dropnout, etc., and they develop an identity that they are the good students, the serious ones.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I want to respond to a couple of things the pp said. 1) being friends with black and Hispanic kids doesn’t mean your child won’t want to go to college. Lots of them want to go to college. And children of educated and well-off families don’t decide to drop out because a girl in their math class did. 2) This one is counterintuitive but so true and literally came from the mouth of my middle schooler: if you want your student to behave well and study and be serious, put them in a school where there is a cohort of some kids who do this... and also a cohort of kids who don’t. They see why it’s a really bad idea to blow off school, dropnout, etc., and they develop an identity that they are the good students, the serious ones.

Absolutely agree, and I think the pp fundamentally misunderstands the "choices" made by kids who don't go to college. I live a city where 85% of public school students are low income and 90% are kids of color. In 10th and 11th grade, 88% of kids say they plan to go to college, but only 45% actually enroll after high school. The problem isn't a lack of desire to go to college-it's a lack of basic information about completing the FAFSA, timelines for applications, understanding what schools will be affordable options, and the financial pressure, even with generous aid, of being an 18 year old in a family that makes $26,000 and needing help out/not ask for money for books or transportation or whatever.

In my city, white middle class kids make up about 20% of students at our very highly rated public exam school, and they go to college at the same rate as the local private school kids, and they go understanding that they are very lucky.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can't say I support further attempts at integration of my mostly white/asian school but I don't consider myself a racist. I'm struggling with my feelings on this issue and would like to hear from others.
Try to address this as if you own child's classroom were directly affected, with at least 13 to 14 percent minority enrollment, reflecting national proportions.

You may not consider yourself a racist, but that is a racist attitude for sure. You don't want students who are not white or Asian in your child's school. Why is that? Unpack your concerns and examine why you hold the beliefs that you do. Are you concerned that Latino kids aren't as smart as your kid? Are you concerned that Black kids are badly behaved? Those are stereotypes that are both harmful and untrue.

Most of the rich liberals in this area feel this way.

They surround themselves with people just like themselves, with little diversity of thought, politics, (lack of) religion, race and socioeconomic difference, and fight like dogs to prevent any rezoning that brings the undesirables into their neighborhood schools.

In my experience rich conservatives also feel this way.

The difference is that they aren't hypocrites about it. Conservatives outright state their thoughts up front.

Not sure that being openly racist is better than being quietly racist.

Oh I much prefer racists to be open. Wastes less of my time that way.

[Anonymous]

No, if it means changing the demographics of the kids who live local to the school. If the kids who live the locally zoned school aren't white and asian, by all means let them in. If you are talking about re-zoning, or busing kids in for purposes of equity, that will be a fight.

First, the supposed benefits are largely for those of under-served communities. I'm unsure what academic benefits it provides to asian and white kids, but it social science sounds like some sort of racist expectation that white and asian kids are going to uplift everyone else by osmosis.

Second, I paid a premium to live in a community that is known for better schools, and with people of the same economic class. I want the best education that I can afford for my kids as I expect all parents do. It hurts my investment, and I am concerned most for the outcome of my own children, not the community at large. It might not be fair, but its a dog eat dog world.

Third, time and time again, attempts to force integration leads again and again to white flight. East Asians, like myself, however don't seem to have this issue.

Fourth, it is not fair to kids to make them go to schools far away from where they live, get up early, and come home late. They miss out on childhood experiences.

Trying to guilt trip me to sacrifice my kids for someone else's is not going to work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can't say I support further attempts at integration of my mostly white/asian school but I don't consider myself a racist. I'm struggling with my feelings on this issue and would like to hear from others.
Try to address this as if you own child's classroom were directly affected, with at least 13 to 14 percent minority enrollment, reflecting national proportions.

The whole world except private schools operate on a neighborhood school system.
So the school makeup is similar as the neighborhood makeup. Massive, expansive bussing systems have been too costly and have been short lived.

If you personally don’t like your student body or demo of your neighborhood, move to a neighborhood that you do prefer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, I do. I think that kids benefit from learning in a diverse classroom--economically and racially. They learn to see people of other races as individuals, not stereotypes; they learn about other people's cultures and experiences; they learn to work with others of different backgrounds; they see that their culture is not the default. All of these things are enriching and valuable.

Now, the means by which integration is achieved might be a problem for me, but the fact of integration is not.

Or dispersing takes over and each group reinforces their stereotypes.

Have you seen a middle or high school lunchroom?

[Anonymous]

OP and others are actually being honest

No one of means wants their kids with "tough" kids in middle and high school

Drugs, crime, lower expectations, and yes in this area these kids are generally Hispanic and african american

Africans have a much higher work ethic. I would have no problem having my kid be around more Africans

If you tried to integrate North Arlington with South Arlington or Ward 3 DC with kids from across the river. There would be riots and this is from so called liberal progressives

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, I do. I think that kids benefit from learning in a diverse classroom--economically and racially. They learn to see people of other races as individuals, not stereotypes; they learn about other people's cultures and experiences; they learn to work with others of different backgrounds; they see that their culture is not the default. All of these things are enriching and valuable.

Now, the means by which integration is achieved might be a problem for me, but the fact of integration is not.

Or dispersing takes over and each group reinforces their stereotypes.

Have you seen a middle or high school lunchroom?

yup plus in diverse schools most of the higher classes are white/asian and most of the lower classes are hispanic/black

all that does is reinforce more sterotypes

Classic Example Wilson High School in DC

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can't say I support further attempts at integration of my mostly white/asian school but I don't consider myself a racist. I'm struggling with my feelings on this issue and would like to hear from others.
Try to address this as if you own child's classroom were directly affected, with at least 13 to 14 percent minority enrollment, reflecting national proportions.

You may not consider yourself a racist, but that is a racist attitude for sure. You don't want students who are not white or Asian in your child's school. Why is that? Unpack your concerns and examine why you hold the beliefs that you do. Are you concerned that Latino kids aren't as smart as your kid? Are you concerned that Black kids are badly behaved? Those are stereotypes that are both harmful and untrue.

Most of the rich liberals in this area feel this way.

They surround themselves with people just like themselves, with little diversity of thought, politics, (lack of) religion, race and socioeconomic difference, and fight like dogs to prevent any rezoning that brings the undesirables into their neighborhood schools.

So what’s the concern?
That Hispanic ESOL students keep testing below 40% proficiency?
That rowdy AA kids keep getting into fights, miss class, and don’t study hard?

That doesn’t affect a kid who studies hard, stays out of trouble, and wants to learn.

But teachers slowing down classes, curricula getting watered down, and distracting behavior during class time will.