Reply to What do UMC Black Families Want (and sometimes not get?) vs What White Families Want and Get?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]UMC Af-Am family here. One kid is slightly academically advanced, the other is average. We are NOT WOTP and do not want to be -to us, diversity means more than a few brown kids in the class or neighborhood.  That said, we absolutely get NO attention for either kid in the schools.  This is in STARK contrast to the similarly-situated white kids at the school - some of whom are given enrichment activities and others who are “average”who are given focus because they might be able to help with PARCC scores. Nobody in the schools sees our kids as anything since we are not low-income, there are no special needs and we are not white. I have been sick to my stomach for two years about this. What do we want? A good education for our kids and schools that are as committed to our type of family as any other type of family. And we do not think we should have to go WOTP for that.[/quote]

+1 At the coffee shop directly across the street from my in-bound ES we overheard two white teachers excitedly talking about getting four white students in the testing grades next year and that there was a white family touring fourth grade and how that was going to help the school's test scores and I thought it interesting that they automatically correlated white students, sight unseen and knowing nothing about their backgrounds with being good for the school and the school's test scores; if your perception of white students coming into the school is--YAY good test scores, what might your perception be of Black students coming in? Does it depend on what school they are coming from? What you perceive their likelihood to help your test scores to be? What would you base that on, the parent's income? Teachers would not have access to the student's prior test scores or academic achievement until the week before school starts so at this point it's just speculation. Anyway, at my school I too see this catering and clamoring for the attention and approval of the White families and giving them and their children a LOT of privileges that are just not offered to other families...it's no surprise that at schools like this the majority of the PTO/PTA tends to be White UMC parents with young children even though that population is the least represented in the school's larger population. [/quote]

This thread is about race but the issues are much more about class than race. It's just that in this city class is very closely correlated with race. Are the teachers excited to get white kids??  Or are they excited to get kids from higher income families who are much more likely to be on or above grade level? The reality is that the median income for white families in this city is over $150,000 while it's about $45,000 for blacks. Higher income = higher education = kids who come to school with more skills, less stress, and more outside experiences that contribute to their learning. All kids can be equally bright and talented when they are born, but they are not equally developed by the time they arrive at school or during their time in school. That's generally a function of parental wealth and opportunity. That's what the teachers are responding to -- it's not right. It's very wrong and racist but IMO the worst is not how UMC blacks are sometimes treated but how lower socio-economic class residents are treated.[/quote]

+1.

Incidentally, the fact that many wealthy, educated parents send their kids to private school doesn't help at all to change these dynamics.[/quote]

I can't really blame them. The stakes are high and the way [b]black children are treated by teachers[/b] is too often different and not positive.[/quote]

BS.

Teachers love those well-educated AA kids.

I respect the right of their parents to send them to private school, but let's be honest, the reason is to avoid the less-educated AA peers.
[/quote]

In our case, we are not "avoiding" but doing what's best for our kids. [b]When your kid is on grade level or above, they are an after thought. White, Black, Green Yellow, DCPS, Charter, etc.[/b] it doesn't matter. Both DCPS and Charters focus on the same cohort. DC has probably the most educated AA community in the country. But for some reason the idea that a "magnet" program will benefit everyone but AAs is deeply ingrained. The expectations are incredibly low and dated. [/quote]

Couldn't agree more.

[/quote]

This is so depressing. I even worry about this because my kid is old for her grade and so somewhat by default "advanced" and I don't think she gets enough attention. No idea what to do about it though. Charter.[/quote]

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