That he or she is? The recent news stories like this one: http://www.cnn.com/2004/EDUCATION/05/01/brown.segregation.ap/index.html on segregation and diversity have made me start to think about this issue again. Would you be okay with your child being the only person of his race in his classroom, or would you try to find some way to get him placed into a class that had another student with a similar ethnic background?
Has anyone actually dealt with this situation before? I am not a parent but I would think it was for the best if all children had at leasat one more student of their race in their classroom if possible, although diversity is very important.
Speaking as a student, I wouldn’t care if I was the only white person in a class full of other races (in fact, I would be happy as a clam if I was the only white guy in a class full of cute aisian girls ).
The high school I went to was 71% Hispanic, 15% Black, 11% Other (includes Asian, Native American, etc), and 3% Caucasion. Being the only Caucasion in most of my classes (save Debate and Drama) was a very difficult thing. While I was pretty much a loner anyway, it would have been nice to have a bit in common with others in my class.
I quit high school due to the severe gang problems in my school after the administration wouldn’t move me to another school.
I was in the racial minority back in my Upward Bound days and I learned a LOT from it. Were my kid in the same situation at school, I expect she’d learn a thing or two as well
Being in the minority of Outward Bound is probably way different than being the only white third-grader in his class in inner-city Flint, which my brother has experienced. Which would probably be alot dissimiliar to being the only black 9th grader at Eaton Hall.
Hmmm… I guess it depends upon the circumstances, heh?
I’m not sure how much race has to do with it. The school district I went to was mostly white with several Asian students. The town was sort of half-way between suburb and small town, and liked to think of itself as a small town. I was 2 1/2 when we moved there from England, and I’m the oldest. As a result, neither I nor my parents knew how many differences I’d run into in school or how difficult it’d be. I was the same race as most (over 70%?) of my schoolmates, but not the same ethnicity, and it got me into trouble. Of course, there were certain exacerbating factors – in 1st grade, I honestly didn’t know that potato chips weren’t called “crisps” on this side of the Atlantic, and my favorite food was and still is toad-in-the-hole. That’s not a good thing to admit when you’re a kid! :eek:
I don’t plan on having kids, so perhaps I shouldn’t be in this discussion. On the other hand, I hate to say this, but I don’t think I would want my kid to be a different race from everyone else in the classroom. I know firsthand what kids do to kids who are different, and any child I produce would have a hard enough time being conventional without that. It’s foolish; I know full well no race or ethnicity has a monopoly on being jerks. On the other hand, perhaps it’s not so foolish to wish that a child not be so obviously different. Isn’t it better not to go into a situation with one strike against you before you say a word? I’d have no problem with my kid being a minority in a classroom; chances are the kid will be an odd duck anyway. There is, though, a difference between being in the minority and being the only one. I’ll also say this business of not wanting to be the only one in the classroom applies only to elementary school and possibly juniour high school. I figure, without evidence I admit, that by the time kids gets to be teenagers, they have a better sense of who they are and what matters, not to mention, there are far more ways to not conform! :rolleyes:
I would say yes, but only because we’re talking about kids here. Anytime you get singled out in front of a group of children; it pretty much make you a target to get picked on.
BOTOH, If you were to take me (a white adult male) and put me in a place where I had to work or go to college with people of ethnic races; I could care less.
In multiracial adoption circles its considered important to try and expose your kids to others their race - in all forms. But a diverse school is definately one of the ways. Adult adoptees who were the only Asians in their schools often tell of feeling very other (which I think is a normal thing for teens, but its somehow different when you are the only Asian, Black, Hispanic, White in your class). This is less of an issue now than it was when the first Korean adoptees were being raised in the 1960s and our neighborhoods were much less diverse.
All people are, of course, individuals, however. So some kids would do just fine being the only one of their race in a classroom. And its a little dependant on age - young kids don’t really notice race the way we do.
One of the most enlighting experiences I ever had was a class I took in college where I was the only white person. But I was 20 years old and it was for three months. That’s a little different than being thirteen.
The child came home with his regular school newsletter today. It included this snippet.
“Did you know?..
we have over 20 ethnic groups represented in our school. Our school is made up of 52% Pakeha (New Zealand European), 19% Asian, 11% Maori, 7% Pacific Islander, 3% Indian and 8% ‘other’”.
I am more then pleased my son goes to a school that represents the diversity of my country. I want him to know that we live in a very multi cultural city. I want him to see that people from any culture are classmates and will grow up to be neighbours and workmates.
Personally I think would be good for a kid to be in a mixed enviroment school. As some would say… “Variety is the spice of life”. The schools I went to as a child were all-black (and all in the inner city ). They were all urban Zoo’s too :dubious:
Diversity is one thing, being the only kid of one race/nationality amongst others is another. My son was the only white kid in his GRADE among inner city African Americans. It was sheer hell, and not only because he was white, but there was a different mindset, a different social system and ethic background in which he didn’t fit. I hesitate to say it was because the students were AA, or that they were inner city, or that most of them were of single parent families, or that most were lower socio economic status. (Heck, we’re inner city–but recently moved from the suburbs–and single parented–always have been single parented–and lower socio economic status–thanks to my economically worthless degree, but son didn’t have the same mentality which I saw as being very common.) Maybe it was all the above, maybe some of the above. Things went from bad to worse in a very short period of time, and even though I kept in direct communication with his teacher(s) (who told me on more than one occasion, “You need to get your son out of this school district.”), and our steps of resolution went all the way to the School superintendent, we never saw any resolutions.
My son is now in a different school (a private school, outside of the public school district) where the diversity is more balanced, and not one sided. He is doing great and learning what diversity is (a balance and blending of another, not a domination).
To be the only kid who is ethincally different is not a good thing. To be one who is part of a whole is better.
My second high school was perhaps 50% Latino, 20% black, 20% Asian, and 10% anything else, including white. (Very rough estimate based on 10-year-old memories.) The culture shock after my first virtually lily-white school was…interesting.
People got along fine, though there weren’t a lot of cross-racial serious friendships. But I was at least friendly with people of various hues and on the whole I liked it there.
Once I was one of two white girls in a Mexican-American lit class. I felt more than a bit out of place, but aside from one rather ugly day I never felt actively unwelcome. (A class discussion got WAY out of hand, but there were apologies later. Just because I was white didn’t mean I was racist…and if I were, what would I have been DOING in that class anyway? It was an elective!)
Nothing much to add (was also a minority in my schools/state and it was very difficult but I think it made me a much better adult and cured any incipient racism I might have inherited-- receiving it from the other end is very enlightening. . . it was nice to have SOME other white kids around, though, but the diversity was priceless) but I just wanted to point out that OUTWARD Bound (rich kids on foresty holiday? Something with rappelling and bonding excercises, in any case) and UPWARD Bound (government educational program to help poor kids get to college) are very different things.
As you were.
My neice was the only white kid in her daycare (all others were black). However, when I was in high school, we had a couple Hispanics, a couple Asians, and one white guy in FOUR years. These days, the town I grew up in is very mixed (but the town I live in is predominantly white).
I think it’s much more important to teach diversity and acceptance. To actually live in a mixed environment is nice, but not always achieveable. The point is, your children should know that other cultures exist and know what your expectations are regarding acceptance.
I don’t think it would be as important if they were the only X child in pre-school or kindergarden, little kids not really being into race as a concept for determining who you sit next to.
I think the problem is more likely to arise if they come from an environment where they’re not the only X in the class, to one where they are, at a period when other kids have already formed friendships, and anything that sets you apart will be a problem.
So, I wouldn’t mind sending my X child to a Y school from day one, if I knew all his Y friends would follow him up through his classes, until he graduated at 18.
I’d be more wary of putting my X child in a Y class if he came from an X school, or if he was likely to have to fit in with a different bunch of Y kids every few years.
Our potential children will be bi-racial (Indian and white European mutt) so it will be important to us to have the jeevtots in a school that has at least a small Asian population or, preferably, some biracial kids. Although there are no young 'uns on the immediate horizon, we’ve already started mentally taking notes of the various public schools in Chicago and what the racial composition is. As it happens, many of the best magnet schools have a decent Asian population so I think we’ll be ok. But yes, it is important to us that they look like at least one other kid in their school. We want them to feel a part of both identities.
I was generally the only black kid in the class most years and for most classes (I was the only black girl in my grade in HS). And, yes, there were some things about that that were not good. I think one thing that kept it from being hell is that I somehow didn’t know how strange that was. (My mother was generally the only black kid in class when she was growing up, my dad had also been one of two or so, the few other black families we knew were in different schools where they were the only black kids in their classes…)
Luckily, I don’t yet have children, so I haven’t had to decide - but while I’d like my kid to go to a diverse, multi-cultural, multi-racial school, I think I’d be willing to sacrifice that if there’s a school with an amazing academic program even though they’d be the only African American. But that could change, and is more likely to change if I were talking about my daughter rather than my son. My sister (we’ve discussed this before) absolutely would not stick her potential kids in a non-multicultural environment, because she absolutely wouldn’t make them go through what we went through. (She hated it more than I did, it seems).
For a few grades in elementary school, I was the only black kid in the class. It sucked. I was the butt of many jokes, some racist, some not. I was often made to be the representative of my race. If anyone had a question about black people, they asked me, as if we share some sort of hive mentality. That can be attributed to kids being kids, though. The teachers, however, had no excuse.
My nickname was Whoopi. The only thing Ms. Goldberg and I have in common is we’re both black and we’re both women. It didn’t matter, though, it’s what the asshats in my class called me. I hated elementary school. It sucked ass.
High school wasn’t much different with regards to the racial makeup of my classes. I was in honors classes and there were just two of us in our classes. I decided to be a snobby bitch, though, so I wasn’t the butt of jokes anymore.
Much to my mother’s disappointment, I attended an historically black university, Howard. She went to Cornell and expected me to, also. It was my experiences there that taught me people have more in common with their socio-economic peers than with their racial peers.
My sons’ classes are more racially diverse than mine were. I wouldn’t want to put him through what I went through.
I have a nephew who is in his first year (kindergarten) at a newly founded charter school. He is one of only two caucasian children in his class. This causes me come worry. So far, he seems well adjusted and enjoys school. I hope with all of my heart that this will continue and remain a positive experience.
I believe the particular school makes a big difference as well. His school is very progressive and all of the students wear uniforms, so it may create a different social environment than a typical public school.
Being in the minority of Outward Bound is probably way different than being the only white third-grader in his class in inner-city Flint, which my brother has experienced.
I wouldn’t know, considering I was in Upward Bound and not Outward Bound.
Upward Bound is a TRIO program. Po’ kids are picked 'round their freshman year of high school to be in it; it helps if your parents never went to college. (And you’ve got to have the brains to get into college yourself.) The idea is to drill it into their little heads that they’ve gotta go to college and expose them to culture in the meantime.
The one I was part of had us live on a college campus for 6 weeks every summer and take classes to prepare us for the next school year. At the time I was in, the vast majority of the kids in the program I was part of were black, maybe 10% of us were white.
I don’t recall being the only white kid in my classes but I was one of only a handful. And I got to experience some of the discrimination that black people go through today, which was an eye opener. My point is being the only white face in a crowd can be a positive learning experience.
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