Reply to Diversity of schools - can this work both ways? Am I being unreasonable?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]What would you know?  Are you Asian? Are you fluent in an Asian language?

PP pointed out that Asians in DC public middle and high schools are mostly forced to study Spanish, Latin or beginning Chinese (even if they're fluent). That doesn't exactly sound like rolling out the welcome mat to me. Iffy STEM and unserious music instruction can't help either.

In the burbs, students who can test out of languages generally don't have to study them in schools at all. DC wouldn't dream of giving bilingual/biliterate families that kind of recognition or flexibility.  Not equitable.[/quote]

You are talking about two different things as though they are the same thing.

The first is whether Asian families like the academics at DC public schools enough. The answer is often no, but that's also true for many families of all races. Lots of white, black, Hispanic families move to the suburbs or pay for private due to dissatisfaction with DC public schools. Agree with the PP who noted that perhaps fewer Asian families start out in DC so there might not be an exodus at school age like there are for other families. Maybe that's because there are larger Asian communities in the suburbs and people gravitate towards being closer to family when they have kids, I don't know? But this is not an issue unique to Asian families -- all DC families have to decide for themselves if the school district meets their needs. Lots of families of all races decide it doesn't, not just Asian families.

But the second thing you are talking about is feeling welcomed in the community. I personally think this issue of what languages are taught is a bit of a red herring here. The points other posters have made about how DCPS totally ignores Asians when talking about inclusivity and diversity is a much bigger deal. But the reason DCPS doesn't offer Chinese or other Asian languages at a younger age or at a higher level is that demand is not high enough, pure and simple. You can't offer classes if not enough kids will take them. Spanish is the most commonly-offered language in DCPS and that's as it should be, it's the most spoken language in the US after English and is also widely spoken by many people in the DMV. Mandarin is not spoken that widely here. Yes, many immigrants speak it but many also don't! I have many many 2nd gen friends from China and Taiwan and none of them speak it. Their parents do but are often not invested in their grandkids speaking it. We do have some friends at Yu Ying but even they acknowledge that they don't mind that much that the immersion aspects of YY aren't that good.

Meanwhile, my friends from Spanish backgrounds all speak it to some degree and very much want their kids to speak it. It's a much bigger thing for them. There is huge demand for Spanish immersion in DC, as evidenced by the long waitlists at many of the immersion schools for PK and K.

I don't think the fact that DCPS doesn't offer many Asian languages from a young age is indicative of much. There just isn't the demand. There is more demand in the suburbs where Asian communities make up a huge percentage of school populations, of course there is more demand and it makes sense they'd offer more of those languages. But I mean most DC high schools don't offer AP calculus. I think that's a much bigger issue than the fact that you can't take an advanced Chinese course in 8th grade, and most of my friends from Chinese/Taiwanese backgrounds would agree.[/quote]

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