Comments on: Stragglers http://american-family.org/2007/09/28/stragglers/ Wed, 08 Feb 2012 00:57:23 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Jim Rittenhouse http://american-family.org/2007/09/28/stragglers/comment-page-1/#comment-55658 Jim Rittenhouse Sat, 29 Sep 2007 18:55:28 +0000 http://american-family.org/2007/09/28/stragglers/#comment-55658 Colette, it seems as if in most places, the assumption is that 1) Everyone is either the majority race or some minority 2) If you have any of the latter DNA in you, you're a minority. 3) There's no such thing as biracial. Colette, it seems as if in most places, the assumption is that
1) Everyone is either the majority race or some minority
2) If you have any of the latter DNA in you, you’re a minority.
3) There’s no such thing as biracial.

]]> By: Jim Rittenhouse http://american-family.org/2007/09/28/stragglers/comment-page-1/#comment-55646 Jim Rittenhouse Sat, 29 Sep 2007 10:47:51 +0000 http://american-family.org/2007/09/28/stragglers/#comment-55646 As to explaining Chinese culture, good luck. Most people have only the most shadowy idea, some Charlie-Chanish thing, and go from there. With our Meredith (obviously East Asian) and us (obviously Northern European) the number of goofy comments were much larger when she was little. One time, we were in a local diner, and the waitress said something like 'your daughter, she's Chinese?' Yup. Then she looks at first my wife (Danish/Norwegian ancestry) and then me (mostly German ancestry with brown curly hair) and asked 'are YOU Chinese?' Geeze. As to explaining Chinese culture, good luck. Most people have only the most shadowy idea, some Charlie-Chanish thing, and go from there.

With our Meredith (obviously East Asian) and us (obviously Northern European) the number of goofy comments were much larger when she was little. One time, we were in a local diner, and the waitress said something like ‘your daughter, she’s Chinese?’ Yup. Then she looks at first my wife (Danish/Norwegian ancestry) and then me (mostly German ancestry with brown curly hair) and asked ‘are YOU Chinese?’

Geeze.

]]> By: Sarah http://american-family.org/2007/09/28/stragglers/comment-page-1/#comment-55636 Sarah Sat, 29 Sep 2007 05:12:45 +0000 http://american-family.org/2007/09/28/stragglers/#comment-55636 Your child's school will not backlash against this kind of complaint. They probably find it annoying too! Besides, I cannot imagine a school putting children in certain classes as a "punishment" for a PARENT. The only way race might come into play with class placement is that many schools try to balance the classes racially. This may sound strange, and I have heard a complaint about this from another blogger, but you really want to make sure that all the hispanic kids don't accidentally get put in one class, and the white kids in another. That actually happened last year at my school- I got all the Spanish speakers, which isn't supposed to happen! The government uses the races to determine how schools are educating "sub-groups" of students. This would include racial groups, as well as students who may have less access to support because of family education or income. We want to know if we need to do more for a certain group! If test scores show that American Indian students are failing, we want to find out what we might need to do to help them be successful. Our test scores are tracked by these subgroups, and if one of them is doing poorly we will be sanctioned. This doesn't give any answers, but maybe knowing more about how the information is used will help you make a decision. Your child’s school will not backlash against this kind of complaint. They probably find it annoying too! Besides, I cannot imagine a school putting children in certain classes as a “punishment” for a PARENT. The only way race might come into play with class placement is that many schools try to balance the classes racially. This may sound strange, and I have heard a complaint about this from another blogger, but you really want to make sure that all the hispanic kids don’t accidentally get put in one class, and the white kids in another. That actually happened last year at my school- I got all the Spanish speakers, which isn’t supposed to happen!

The government uses the races to determine how schools are educating “sub-groups” of students. This would include racial groups, as well as students who may have less access to support because of family education or income. We want to know if we need to do more for a certain group! If test scores show that American Indian students are failing, we want to find out what we might need to do to help them be successful. Our test scores are tracked by these subgroups, and if one of them is doing poorly we will be sanctioned.

This doesn’t give any answers, but maybe knowing more about how the information is used will help you make a decision.

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