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<p>I wouldn’t want to enroll my child at a school where they refuse to be guided by any research that takes into account the reality in other countries. So I didn’t. I homeschool, and I use the best materials from at least five different countries to guide my children’s education. Yes, I know about pedagogy and child development too, and take that into account in my classroom teaching, but most of all I look for methods with proven track records of success.</p>
<p>I’m seeing two separate issues here- diversity and poverty stricken/disadvantaged kids. </p>
<p>Diversity is great- meeting all sorts of people that don’t live in your hometown. It can mean people of different ethnic groups (eg whites, blacks, various Asians), religions (or none), socioeconomic status (eg rich/work study, blue collar/white collar), academic status (private, public, home schooled, IB, AP), geographic location (instate, OOS, coasts, midwest)… Part of getting a college education is expanding your horizons, diversity is part of this exposure. </p>
<p>We’re lucky in our town in that they try to meet the needs of various immigrants as well as both the gifted and other end of the special needs spectrum in the public schools. In fact, the GT coordinator is using some of the methods used in “special ed”, eg individually fitting curriculum to needs. More than pure academics learned in our public schools.</p>
<p>I’d say that I’ve definitely benefited from being in diverse environments (in the racial, ethnic, economic, gender, and other senses). If people wish, I can elaborate. But I’m not sure how some of those benefits could be measured by numbers (in some cases, possibly through social psych measures of stereotyping, but that wouldn’t cover all of it).</p>
<p>I’ve seen plenty of lazy and complacent people in my life, and no racial, ethnic, or socioeconomic group has a monopoly (or an exemption). The rich white kids at my first elementary school (and their parents) were far more complacent, as a group, than the poor black kids and their parents at my second.</p>
<p>Of COURSE there are lots of white people who blow opportunities…nobody is disputing that. But that is irrelevant, because nobody is creating vast programs (often at taxpayer expense) to give scholarships, give preferences in admission, hiring, contracts, etc., as well as having generations of educators laying guilt-trips on students based on the premise that WHITES are not given opportunities. But they ARE doing that for blacks and Hispanics, and the whole bleeding heart house of cards comes crashing down if anybody admits they ARE given plenty of opportunities, and that it’s not just racism that is causing their level of success to lag behind their level of opportunities. </p>
<p>About 99% of Europeans I’ve met are convinced blacks and Hispanics can’t get even close to a fair shake in the US. That’s why they think Obama being elected is a bigger deal than we do here. I know plenty of Europeans who were stunned when they came to the US and saw how much opportunity is given to minorities, and how much the education system caters to their perspective. One of my daughters came home from 3rd grade one day and asked, “Papa, did white people ever invent anything?”</p>
<p>That’s why they think Obama being elected is a bigger deal than we do here.</p>
<p>Have you seen the political cartoon of the 43 previous presidents then Obama?
It isn’t all about race- he was still elected in spite of his skin color not because of it- but it is a pretty BFD to me.</p>