Anonymous wrote:My children are half white. For me, it's not about diversity but how serious the school population is about education and success. My ancestors were working class semi-literate European immigrants but from what I understand it was a privilege to be able to do your homework because chores and working for money came first. (And they behaved because the nuns would slap you with a ruler otherwise.) so really, it depends if most of the school- especially parents- are all on the same page. Years ago, peop?e did well with one room schoolhouse educations. It's the overall philosophy and attitude toward education.

Yup and poor blacks and poor whites could care less about education

poor hispanics are working too much to care

and poor Asians do care and low and behold look at what the most successful race is now

Too many people in the world to stress over what everyone thinks.

My children are half white. For me, it's not about diversity but how serious the school population is about education and success. My ancestors were working class semi-literate European immigrants but from what I understand it was a privilege to be able to do your homework because chores and working for money came first. (And they behaved because the nuns would slap you with a ruler otherwise.) so really, it depends if most of the school- especially parents- are all on the same page. Years ago, peop?e did well with one room schoolhouse educations. It's the overall philosophy and attitude toward education.

The OP presents a false choice. THE END.

Anonymous wrote:I'm a white upper middle class professional, and I was a FARMs kid with a sketchy home life. These comments about people not wanting their children to be around FARMs kids verifies everything I thought about some of the judgemental adults that I interacted with. You really don't know how your kids will turn out- or how the FARMs kids will. But, you can teach kindness and openness and that at least you'll have done the right thing.

Thanks for this. I'm another white upper middle class professional, and while I wasn't a FARMS kids, I grew up in an area where 80% or more of kids were receiving FARMS. It was also all white. I literally didn't lay eyes on a PoC until late grade school, and that was on a trip to the Big City.

I lean on the lessons I learned as a young person about compassion and gratitude all the time. They have influenced my life, my politics, and my spiritual beliefs. Not to mention my decision to live in a racially integrated neighborhood and use our local public school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ideally, everyone should attend their neighborhood school. Then we would get "natural" diversity. Except of course ghettos and mega rich districts. But it is life, you always have extremes. Ghettos are not cured by bussing in middle class kids. Rich neighborhood are not diversified by bussing in disadvantaged kids.
Of course, private schools will not cease to exist, unless there is immense political will (which there won't be).
So we will have what we have now. I sent my kid to the neighborhood school and it is working out fine. If I had the money, I would probably move or send him to private.

Residential segregation doesn't happen as a force of nature, like gravity. It's the result of policies made by people. Social engineering.

+100 To be even more specific, residential segregation is the result of specific government policies that created racially segregated towns and neighborhoods through red-lining, housing covenants, and disallowing Black Americans from participating in programs like the GI Bill and Medicaid in the early years.

Forget slavery and Jim Crow (actually, don't forget them) - look at generational wealth as pass down through home ownership. That's one of the biggest contributors to ongoing disparities in outcomes in the US.

I grew up in a diverse school and saw the benefits of it when I was a minority in my freshman dorm. It didn't phase me whereas I think it was unsettling at first to some of my classmates.

My kids are in a very similar school that I went to (we stayed in the same area), and we are pulling them out to go to private school. My youngest in particular just can't handle the behavioral issues and disruptions. He isn't learning because the teacher has to spend her time being a parent to these children who don't have adequate support.

If lower SES kids aren't taught proper behavior at home, what makes you think they can have self-control and act appropriately in a learning environment for hours of the day? The behavior I have witnessed first hand is appalling.

While I am glad these kids get bussed to my neighborhood school so that they aren't languishing in a "ghetto school", I am disappointed that my children aren't thriving in their neighborhood school because of the distractions. I don't have an answer for the larger problem, but my kids can't continue in this environment and learn anything.

Yes, you just need to read a book like "Prayer for the City" to understand how racial covenants, redlining, race restricted lending and block busting, not to mention urban renewal, created our ghettos by deliberately limiting the housing opportunities available to blacks.

Anyone with a decent reading and understanding of American history would know that.

Anonymous wrote:Ideally, everyone should attend their neighborhood school. Then we would get "natural" diversity. Except of course ghettos and mega rich districts. But it is life, you always have extremes. Ghettos are not cured by bussing in middle class kids. Rich neighborhood are not diversified by bussing in disadvantaged kids.
Of course, private schools will not cease to exist, unless there is immense political will (which there won't be).
So we will have what we have now. I sent my kid to the neighborhood school and it is working out fine. If I had the money, I would probably move or send him to private.

Residential segregation doesn't happen as a force of nature, like gravity. It's the result of policies made by people. Social engineering.

Ideally, everyone should attend their neighborhood school. Then we would get "natural" diversity. Except of course ghettos and mega rich districts. But it is life, you always have extremes. Ghettos are not cured by bussing in middle class kids. Rich neighborhood are not diversified by bussing in disadvantaged kids.
Of course, private schools will not cease to exist, unless there is immense political will (which there won't be).
So we will have what we have now. I sent my kid to the neighborhood school and it is working out fine. If I had the money, I would probably move or send him to private.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can't force diversity. In most schools you will see the kids self segregate themselves anyway-it's just what they do. It's human nature. It's not a bad or good thing IMO. It's not that they dislike or have any specific problem with a different group but it's just not who they spend their time with.

This happens at every single school. Of course their are exceptions but it is the norm.

And so, because kids tend to self-segregate, we should go ahead and have all-white and all-black schools because it doesn't matter anyway? People self-segregate in workplaces and neighborhoods too. Should we go ahead and just make them all black or all white?

You know that wasn't my point. My point is people make a conscious decision to choose one school over the other for the "diversity" when the majority of their kids friends end up being whatever the kid is anyway. Point is better to choose the best school based on performance. People act like choosing a diverse school will ensure their child come home with friends that look like the entire United Nations. Come on.

I could tell you about my kids' friends, but you wouldn't believe me anyway, so I won't bother.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can't force diversity. In most schools you will see the kids self segregate themselves anyway-it's just what they do. It's human nature. It's not a bad or good thing IMO. It's not that they dislike or have any specific problem with a different group but it's just not who they spend their time with.

This happens at every single school. Of course their are exceptions but it is the norm.

And so, because kids tend to self-segregate, we should go ahead and have all-white and all-black schools because it doesn't matter anyway? People self-segregate in workplaces and neighborhoods too. Should we go ahead and just make them all black or all white?

You know that wasn't my point. My point is people make a conscious decision to choose one school over the other for the "diversity" when the majority of their kids friends end up being whatever the kid is anyway. Point is better to choose the best school based on performance. People act like choosing a diverse school will ensure their child come home with friends that look like the entire United Nations. Come on.

Anonymous wrote:You can't force diversity. In most schools you will see the kids self segregate themselves anyway-it's just what they do. It's human nature. It's not a bad or good thing IMO. It's not that they dislike or have any specific problem with a different group but it's just not who they spend their time with.

This happens at every single school. Of course their are exceptions but it is the norm.

And so, because kids tend to self-segregate, we should go ahead and have all-white and all-black schools because it doesn't matter anyway? People self-segregate in workplaces and neighborhoods too. Should we go ahead and just make them all black or all white?

Anonymous wrote:I'm a white upper middle class professional, and I was a FARMs kid with a sketchy home life. These comments about people not wanting their children to be around FARMs kids verifies everything I thought about some of the judgemental adults that I interacted with. You really don't know how your kids will turn out- or how the FARMs kids will. But, you can teach kindness and openness and that at least you'll have done the right thing.

Outlier: ?out?l??r
noun
a person or thing differing from all other members of a particular group or set.

You can't force diversity. In most schools you will see the kids self segregate themselves anyway-it's just what they do. It's human nature. It's not a bad or good thing IMO. It's not that they dislike or have any specific problem with a different group but it's just not who they spend their time with.

This happens at every single school. Of course their are exceptions but it is the norm.