Reply to The higher the demand, the lower the percent of economically disadvantaged students.

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Reply to "The higher the demand, the lower the percent of economically disadvantaged students."

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]We are solidly middle-class and comfortable and went to ivy leagues for higher education and our kids attend a charter school that is more than 50% low SES.  Our kids are thriving and are academically on par or above with kids of our friends - most of whom are solidly middle-class like us or very high SES.  Our friends "marvel" at how well are kids are doing and I give credit to the school all the time, plus the fact that we are very engaged parents.  Despite this, most of our circle would never consider sending their kids to our school.  They prefer to pay for private when they strike out at one of the schools that has a much higher percentage of high SES students and a higher percentage of white students.  There is honesty around this and it is known that our values do not align with theirs on this.  We are happy and interestingly, they are the ones who complain all the time and struggle to cope with learning and behavior issues at their schools. But[b] if you see black and brown and low income as "not good[/b]" then educational segregation will just continue and the charter school system is not immune.[/quote]

DD,3 hasn't started school yet, but she has befriended a few older (5-9yo) black and Latina kids in the neighborhood. By some tragic coincidence, all of the kids have had a tough life already: one's father and uncle were murdered, another's mom was in prison, the other kids were four siblings being raised by a single mother and grandma. Two of the sweetest girls we met yesterday said they moved around and lived with different people all the time. Then there's the family of 8 kids who have always lived at or close to poverty. These are the low income brown kids people avoid. Then I stop and think about each kid individually, how bright and sweet they are and it's so sad that the general advice is "keep your kid away from these troublemakers if you want him to do well in life."

Yesterday, about anything I said to the 7 year old who moves often and lives with different people, she took a minute to reason out loud, to make sure that she understood fully what we were talking about. She is a bright kid and definitely sees the world clearly. The young single mom of four was incredibly proud of her 9 year old daughter, that the girl is very kind and perseveres to do what she set her mind on. The 9 year old whose dad and uncle (gang related) were murdered was distrustful but clearly very thoughtful and bright. The girl from the poor family of 10 is a talented artist, winning competitions against kids several years older. I could go on about how wonderful each of the kids were, and how glad I am that they like and play with my daughter.

It's sad to think that:
1) that their situation is what it is 
2) that we are advised to avoid them because they will be a bad influence on DD
3) that people ignorantly stereotype these kids and then go out of their way to avoid them, instead of helping even just a little.

Considering that DCUM folks claim to be so smart, rich better than everyone else, I think your attitude to treat these kids like the plague is sick and shameful.[/quote]

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