Anonymous wrote:

Is this the sort of value you're looking for in your quest for diversity? Or do you have some sort of bennetton fantasy of little brown and white children playing nicely together under a rainbow while their Asian teacher strums a guitar and sings kumbaya? What, really, do you think this diversity adds to this classroom and the educational experience? I'm genuinely curious, because I often hear this "diversity is important to me" by people who don't really know what it is they're saying or hoping to achieve.

Well, not hoping to hear an Asian teacher singing Kumbaya, but I appreciate my children being in a classroom and knowing that all children do not have the same background and opportunities they have. I like that my daughter's version of beauty is not limited to white and blond. I like that my 4th grade daughter, worried about one of her BFFs not being able to have Christmas presents, used some of her Christmas money to make sure the girl (and her sister) had something for Christmas. I like both of my kids recognizing the world is a big, complicated place and learning to navigate that.

Is this the sort of value you're looking for in your quest for diversity? Or do you have some sort of bennetton fantasy of little brown and white children playing nicely together under a rainbow while their Asian teacher strums a guitar and sings kumbaya? What, really, do you think this diversity adds to this classroom and the educational experience? I'm genuinely curious, because I often hear this "diversity is important to me" by people who don't really know what it is they're saying or hoping to achieve.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Ask yourself why that diversity is important to you and be sure you're not romanticizing something.
My dd attended MacArthur. In first grade, she ended up being seated next to a boy from the projects who proceeded to regale her in explicit detail how to smoke pot in a bowl and how to be arrested, since he had witnessed both activities on a regular basis. She came home one day and demonstrated how to be frisked. (My dd, who is calm and a good student, was frequently seated next to badly behaving children with the expectation that she would be a good influence. Instead, she ended up coming home frequently complaining of being distracted). We had other similar incidents along the way.

Is this the sort of value you're looking for in your quest for diversity? Or do you have some sort of bennetton fantasy of little brown and white children playing nicely together under a rainbow while their Asian teacher strums a guitar and sings kumbaya? What, really, do you think this diversity adds to this classroom and the educational experience? I'm genuinely curious, because I often hear this "diversity is important to me" by people who don't really know what it is they're saying or hoping to achieve.

I admit that I was a parent who romanticized the heck out of diversity and now after a couple of years later I realize what I really wanted was racial diversity but not socio-economic diversity. I would be happy to have my child in a class of kids with all races as long as those kids come from the same kind of upper middle class home.

My child is at George Mason and we had a similar experience with the classroom behaviors and her being seated right next to the most disruptive children in the hopes that it would make them behave better or follow her lead. It ended up distracting my child and she hated school.

We are moving onto private as I can't even imagine what middle school would be like.

Anonymous wrote:DD is now at Yale (chose it over Harvard and Princeton) and is getting great grades, thanks to a wonderful experience at TC. ACPS certainly didn't fail her. And she's not a recruited athlete, minority or legacy at Yale either, before any assumptions are made.

Anonymous wrote:Let me guess... You live in Old Town. There is quite a significant cultural difference between those families living in Old Town versus the rest of Alexandria, such as the West End, Del Ray, Rosemont, etc. It seems that those of us who don't live in Old Town are, for whatever reason, much more supportive of ACPS (in general, of course!).

Anonymous wrote:
Ask yourself why that diversity is important to you and be sure you're not romanticizing something.
My dd attended MacArthur. In first grade, she ended up being seated next to a boy from the projects who proceeded to regale her in explicit detail how to smoke pot in a bowl and how to be arrested, since he had witnessed both activities on a regular basis. She came home one day and demonstrated how to be frisked. (My dd, who is calm and a good student, was frequently seated next to badly behaving children with the expectation that she would be a good influence. Instead, she ended up coming home frequently complaining of being distracted). We had other similar incidents along the way.

Is this the sort of value you're looking for in your quest for diversity? Or do you have some sort of bennetton fantasy of little brown and white children playing nicely together under a rainbow while their Asian teacher strums a guitar and sings kumbaya? What, really, do you think this diversity adds to this classroom and the educational experience? I'm genuinely curious, because I often hear this "diversity is important to me" by people who don't really know what it is they're saying or hoping to achieve.