I received this question via email. I hope the person who wrote it doesn’t mind that I am answering it on the blog, since I took out the identifying information.
Here goes:
We live near an area which has a Mandarin-English immersion program through the public school. I am thinking of moving to that district because of the program, but I am concerned because though it has an awesome Asian population, it has hardly any Latino or African American residents. Currently we live in a nearby town, which has a fairly good mix of ethnicities. So is it worth it to give that up in order to help my kids be bilingual (something that probably isn’t going to happen with a once-per-week class)?
The trick about this question is that you aren’t asking what *I* would do.
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What *I* would do and what I think other nameless, faceless people on the internet should do are not necessarily the same thing.
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If it were me, I would bend over backwards and strip at a truckstop if it meant my kids could go to a Chinese immersion program in the area where we live. Even if our kids didn’t have a connection to China/Taiwan, I would do everything in my power (within reason) to make sure they are given the opportunity to learn anther language while they are still young.
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The challenge about a Chinese immersion program is that you are most likely going to be putting your kids into an educational culture that is not your own. I was actually talking to a friend (who is married to a guy originially from Hong Kong) IRL a few weeks ago who looked into the same program mentioned in this email. She had talked to a number of Chinese parents who had pulled their kids from the program because they “moved out of China to get away from the Chinese educational system, so why would they subject their kids to it here?”
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I would think long and hard about whether I could handle years of dealing with authoritarian teachers and an educational philosophy that doesn’t seem to make sense from my American point of view. As someone who has to negotiate cultural barriers in my extended family from time to time, the thought of dealing with that every single day (with my child’s education on the line!)…well, it would give me pause.
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I think *I* could handle it because I think the language is so important. I think it would drive Mr. A batshit crazy. A lot crazier than coping with the the same bullshit at weekend Chinese school.
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Educational pedagogy aside and back to the issue of what kind of diversity is more important. (Note, this is my by the seat of my pants opinion. I haven’t researched this at all for this post.)
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If I had a white kid, I would probably go for the most diverse school possible.
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But as the parent of an Asian kid and a hapa kid? Sure, diversity is important, but I would go for the highest Asian population I could get. I am basing this on reading Why Are all the Black Kids Sitting Together In the Cafeteria and more recently the Queen Bees book. Also on the experiences Mr. A has shared with me about his own school life.
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My daughters are going to grow up as minorities (one more visible than the other, but still minorities). Especially here in the Midwest. I would want them to have as big a group of peers to relate to as possible.
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I realize the scale of diversity is likely different where you live than where we live, but if I had to prioritize, I would prioritize with more Asians. Even in a really diverse school, kids tend to separate themselves into racial groups by Jr. High. I was just watching an episode of HBOs Freshmen Year and a kid walked through the school grounds saying which ethnic group claims what part of the yard at a hugely diverse school in California.
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On the other hand, I don’t know if Chinese immersion school would necessarily be the best choice if you are looking for a place where your adopted Chinese kid will fit in, rather than looking to learn Chinese. In the Chinese immersion school, maybe the transracially adopted kids, or the kids who don’t speak Chinese at home, or the white kids might be the ones who are ostracized?
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**If it were me** I am pretty sure I would say fuck diversity and sent my kid to Chinese immersion school even if there wasn’t a single other Asian kid there. But that is because I think the language is so damned important, not because I don’t care about diversity. If I didn’t think I wanted to deal with the stress of immersion school, I would look for the school with as many Asian kids and a lot of other diversity as possible.
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This was probably not really helpful at all, but that is what I would be thinking about if I had to make this decision.
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As an aside, it is the “within reason” that gets me into trouble. We looked very briefly at the Spanish immersion program at the Bigger City public school before we bought a house in the suburbs. All it took to convince Mr. A that the immersion program was not “within reason” was seeing that 40% of the kids there failed the state standardized tests. We hired a Chinese tutor instead and moved to the school with the 97% pass rate. Mr. A claims that this choice is an appropriate way to honor his own Chinese cultural values.
I recently spent a year doing observational research in a Mandarin-English dual immersion school, and from what I could tell, the Chinese teachers, while mostly trained in Taiwan, were making a huge effort to adopt a more American style of teaching. Most of the parents were American-born, rather than first generation Chinese, and there were plenty of non-Chinese parents. The overall culture of the school was very American. So, I wouldn’t say it’s necessarily the case that all programs like this would involve a lot of cultural adaptation on your part.
I’m so glad you addressed this. I have been poking around the NYC public school system out of curiosity and there are some immersion schools. The school population at one that interested me is 97% Asian and, like the person in your e-mail, I started wondering if that was good or bad, but I haven’t drawn any conclusions yet. Which reminds me….I’m missing a book from Amazon. Hmmm. Anyway, your post gives me more to think about.
As a 2nd gen Asian American, I think going to a majority Asian school is a good thing.
Like AmFam mentioned, even in diverse and “integrated” schools, most kids will naturally segregate by race. Not because they always want to, but often because the cool, popular (white) kids won’t hang out with the minorities—and they also tend to make fun of us…
Also, Asian Americans are only 4% of the population, so rest assured that we’ll be interacting with many people of different races everyday of our lives.
It’s just that growing up, if you have a solid group of friends where you can just be yourself really helps promote a healthy self identity.
For example, most of the Asians that I know that grew up in rural American (i.e. they were the lone Asian) often go through a period of intense self-hatred and identity issues. Just a simple lack of role models, being made fun of, being ostracized, and having no strong support can mess you up.
Anyway, as much as race-relations are improving, the simple fact is that kids are mean… so if given the chance I’d rather be made of my actions rather than what I am.
This is an interesting topic. My Caucasian son just started at the Japanese immersion school this fall. I really don’t see much segregation there, but that could be because it has many biracial children (Japanese/Caucasian) as well as white kids. When my son went to the neighborhood school that was 50% Hispanic, it was mostly self-segregated.
Evan’s new school does have strict Japanese teachers, but that actually is a good thing for him. The kids split their day with the Japanese teacher and the English teacher, so really it’s the best of both worlds. They are have exceptional state test scores, so they are not missing anything in terms of mainstream education at all.
My Chinese-American daughter will most likely be going to the new Mandarin immersion school that’s supposed to open next year. I know that there will be lots of adopted Chinese children there (from speaking with other adoptive parents), but not likely many children from Chinese families since there isn’t really that much of a population here. If that school falls through, she’ll go to the Japanese school because of the Asian population.
To answer the email, I would definitely move to the district where the school is so that my daughter would be able to see/ interact with other children that look like her. To mean that is important.
Sorry, typo: to ME that is important.
could you explain this better?
“If I had a white kid, I would probably go for the most diverse school possible. ”
i’m not sure i understand it properly…you’d send a white kid somewhere s/he’d be the minority, but you’d send an asian kid where they are the majority?
[...] Two posts back, Emi asks: could you explain this better? [...]