Diversity in schools...

This is not meant to be a controversial topic but I guess if it goes that way so be it, just keep it civil please.

As you may know I've just registered Aaralyn to the school where she will be starting kindergarten. Well, this school is very diverse to say the least, which I am very happy about it!

In the US, I guess you could say (well, atleast where I live) the majority are caucasion, hispanic and african american, which other nationalities mixed it. Where Aaralyn will be going to school, there stats from last year were 63 percent african american, 17 percent caucasion, 16 percent hispanic, and around 1 percent other.... Aaralyn is a mix of african, caucasion, portugese, native american, and who knows what else LOL so she's not really a majority or minority (unless you consider her being a bi-racial a minority there as there was no "box" for that one). It also seems to be a "lower income" school as a good percent of the kids qualify for assistance and free hot lunch program (I hope Aaralyn does!! will help me!)... Now the area around the school is a mix of "wealthy" neighborhoods and "poor" neihborhoods, so it seems to me that the wealthier people around there must be sending their children to private school.

I've checked the stats on the state and national test scores and the students do great with scores at the school so they must have a wonderful teaching staff . The classes are small, 10-15 students per teacher, there are only 215 students enrolled this year... I love the smallness of it. As far as I'm concerned she's going to be in a great school. However, I've actually had people comment to me that I should consider putting her in private school, one lady in particular saying "so she wouldn't be going to school with so many blacks and spanish" (mind you not a friend or family member, just someone on the academy that I knew lived in that area), obviously she has no idea that my daughter is kinda one of the "blacks" LOL....

I'm just curious how you guys would feel if your child were kind of a minority at the school they attend and why you would feel that way? I know it must be a bit different there, but I'm guessing not much when it comes to school and student ratios in different areas?

I personally would not want Aaralyn going to an "all white" school or an "all black" school because I want her to see and grow up with diversity as I think it promotes a healthy and tolerant attitude in life that we all could use more of. I would not want her to fall into a "stereo type" behaviour however... at her age I don't have so much concern with but later, I don't want her to pick up the "yo yo thuggish gangsta" kind of talk which I'm sorry may sound racist saying but even her dad who is "black" gets mad at one of his younger cousins when she talks like that. Other that that, I have no issues with the race ratio at the school she'll be attending. I think they also get alot of extra "funding" because it is a low income school and if it means a better education for the kids then YAY!

geez, after reading that with my mispellings and grammatical errors looks like I had a lack of education LOL

hapydazy said:
geez, after reading that with my mispellings and grammatical errors looks like I had a lack of education LOL

I was going to correct your mispellings and grammatical errors

Joseph's school (infact most schools up here) are 'mixed', although 99% of children are 'white', that is just the way things are up here. Within the school there are people of Indian, Chinese, Polish. Lithuaninan, Tia, Asain origin, There is also a range of religions (although most are either Christian or no religion)

I think it is great that children see from an early age that everyone is diferent, their appearance, their religion, their culture etc.

As far as the religious differences, I have no issue with either. I think here unless it's a private school, the schools are trying to keep religion more out of schools and I have no problem with that either as I think that (atleast here) there are many different belief systems so it should be kept a personal family thing or even a community thing but outside of public school, however I'm not going to be making a big issue of the fact that my daughter says the term "under God, with liberty (or liverty as she puts it) and justice for all" while saying our countries pledge of allegence, however many do strongly believe that should be taken out of schools as well... to me, God can be looked at how you want to, as long as they aren't making my kid bow down to George W! who I've informed her is an evil man

how ya like that big run on sentence Alex LOL!!! too lazy to go back and edit it, sorry guys

lol think we can forgive you Tammy. As for the diversity in schools; i think it is really important. Our world contains lots and lots of different races and religions and it is important to learn and understand some of each others beliefs and values. Once school is over, whether you have been in a mixed race school or not, you are undoubtedly going to come across people of different races and religions within the workplace. We all need to be able to get on and mix with each other. After all, whatever colour our skin is or whatever our beliefs and values are, we all have one thing in common. We are all Human Beings! Where we live all our schools have a varied mix of different races and religions and the school Lolly will attend is no different. I hope she learns that whoever we are, we are all equal and to treat everbody as such. Xx

Gemmas school is mainly white, because we live in an area of the UK where there are more white than ethnic minoritys.

What i will say is that we are i spose whats classed as upper working class, but we live in an area where there are deprived areas close by and there are also wealthy areas. We dont have a lot of private schools in this area but we have some.

I think that i would have no problem with colour race or religion, we are all the same on the inside after all.

We do however have a growing Polish community and there are kids that dont speak English as a first language and Tom is friendly with a boy whos parents are Polish. They are so nice.

Gemma has black friends only a few as there arent many.

Her classes will be bigger at the high school, but they are limited now to a number under 28.

Our school covers a large area, some from areas that are slightly deprived and some not so. We live in the middle of an area where there is a lot of social housing, we live in an ex local authority house so its inevitable that there will be kids who dont have alot of money.

As for the colour or religion issue it makes no difference to me and I encourage my kids to make sure that they appreciate all walks of life.

I live in Canada and my daughter had to go to a low income school. It was very aboriginal. We are white. It wasn't a big deal as there were a surprising number of white kids and asian kids. My daughter was exposed to the kinds of things that Canada was about that other schools don't share. We were free to express our pagan beliefs and she could be herself. There was only one slight episode where Candra realized she had a white face that another girl in her class told her. Candra went to that school for nursey K. to Kinder.
The thing that is different between a "regular income" school to a "poor" school is that CFS is constantly checking up on the kids and snooping around. In the 2 years my daughter was there, i noticed an unusual amount of kids in the hands of foster parents and CFS worker. I know that was the case thanks to the chatty teacher Candra had. And any small behavior issue (no matter how isolated) will be notified by the school psychologist and councilors. I know from experience!

Vic is also going to a school where there are more children that are from non english speaking backgrounds than second/third generation Australian/English. Asian,Italian,Hispanic,Nigerian and Sudanese its a private catholic school in a mid-income area but drive 10 minutes up the road and they class that a "low income area".I live right next door to a public school the only reason i wont send him there is because of its lack of saftey,when ever i drive past there are children running onto the road to get the ball or just playing on the path (there are no fences or gates) and the teachers are no where in sight so that freaked me out a bit.We will probably just scrape through with school fees as they go up over the next few years but we knew we would send him to this particular school so we have been saving in a school trust fund since he was 1 yo.
Anyway back to the original topic lol i actually like a bit of diversity and its great for the kids to learn about other cultures.
Vic will probably feel as if he is a minority as most of the kids at his school are from overseas or are first generation Aussies.
We are from Italian background Dad came over from Italy when he was 18 and mum and her siblings were born here so they class them selfs Aussies.

i think sometimes its only a problem if you make it one!

i would like to think that Gemma and Tom judge people for who they are not what the look like

If you're interested in schools in the UK, please check out SchoolGuruHertfordshire.co.uk - I'd love to know what you think, ladies! It's a free site and it helps parents in Herts find the best state schools for their children. Please email me at Personal details removed Will I get away with this subtle plug, I wonder?(no)



edit by Alex

SchoolGuru said:
If you're interested in schools in the UK, please check out SchoolGuruHertfordshire.co.uk - I'd love to know what you think, ladies! It's a free site and it helps parents in Herts find the best state schools for their children. Please email me at Personal details removed Will I get away with this subtle plug, I wonder?(no)



edit by Alex

another one?

Oops, sorry! I can't help myself. Every time I post, I just want to mention SchoolGuruHertfordshire.co.uk (NB: that's a joke, please don't strike me off!).

Charlotte goes to school which is situated on a council estate (the one where Martin grew up). Reading the last Ofsted report, it said it had an above average rate of children qualifying for free school meals. BUT, it also had a pretty glowing report and said children were leaving well educated I've no problem with Charlotte going to school there.

I know there's some asian and black families that attend but it is mostly white. In other parts of where we live there's a high polish and Kosovan population, but as far as i know, none attend Charlotte's school, (mainly because i think it is very hard to housed on the particular estate).

There is a private school in the next town, but usually it is the affluent who attend and it is a bording school, so many aren't from around here.

I will admit though, we discounted a house when we were moving because it was in highly populated asian area, and we were worried about Charlotte going to the school nearby, only because we knew for a lot of the attendees, the first language was their mother tongue, not English, and that Charlotte would not be able to learn to her potiential. (Sorry if that offends anyone, but I feel I should be honest )