tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post7935710021563133715..comments2024-03-29T04:06:37.402-07:00Comments on Had Enough Therapy?: Diversity in New York's Private SchoolsStuart Schneidermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12784043736879991769noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-43898682189090090672012-10-22T19:55:24.401-07:002012-10-22T19:55:24.401-07:00I think it should always start at home. It is time...I think it should always start at home. It is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is beauty and there is strength.Anti Money Launderinghttp://aml-assassin.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-22929404156074296382012-10-22T15:10:08.833-07:002012-10-22T15:10:08.833-07:00"Why did no one understand this before? Are t..."Why did no one understand this before? Are the school administrators so oblivious to human reality that they did not understand that children from grossly disparate backgrounds, having nothing in common, were not going to become best friends? Worse yet, they were not even going to get along."<br /><br />ERROR! ERROR! UNAUTHORIZED THOUGHT! UNAUTHORIZED THOUGHT!<br />SECURITY FORCES RESPOND! SECURITY FORCES RESPOND!<br /><br />This is re-education camp time.Sam L.https://www.blogger.com/profile/00996809377798862214noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-38822500971197209722012-10-22T13:40:03.648-07:002012-10-22T13:40:03.648-07:00I thank you for continuing the discussion, address...I thank you for continuing the discussion, addressing points that I overlooked in my first post.<br /><br />Clearly, a central issue is the fact, as you note, that NY is increasingly divided between the hyperrich and the poor. Everyone else has moved to the suburbs, where schools are better than NY public schools and where most of the children are on the same level.<br /><br />Unfortunately, with a few exceptions NY does not have very much offer between top-notch private schools and abysmally bad public schools.<br /><br />I assume that children who are not hyperrich can fit in fairly well with the hyperrich, who, as you say, have their own problems. <br /><br />I was really trying to emphasize the importance of socializing, of feeling like a part of the group. I suspect that upper middle class children who are not fabulously wealthy feel like they belong to their schools in ways that the poor children do not.<br /><br />As for academic achievement, the gap between the SAT scores of Asian children and minority children is cavernous; similarly, between white children and minority children.<br /><br />Putting minority children in mismatched universities where they cannot hope to keep does not do them a service. Ultimately, it prevents them from achieving because they are simply too far behind.<br /><br />How this translates into socialization in these universities... I am not very familiar with the data, but I suspect that the students self-segregate in roughly the same way they do in the private schools.<br /><br />Stuart Schneidermanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12784043736879991769noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-65019879757103004692012-10-22T11:39:10.506-07:002012-10-22T11:39:10.506-07:00I've read the recent studies about college, an...I've read the recent studies about college, and I understand and agree that the "mismatch" quotient is debilitating over the long term. But that is because not being able to do the work is a real and serious reason to feel out of place, and unworthy. (Although it did not seem to affect Potus or Flotus in their academic careers.) The stakes in college are just so much higher, when it comes to your ability to master material, and how that will push you from a 'harder' to a softer field. <br />High school is a different matter altogether. This education is foundation for those later choices. It includes exposure to things that mediocre at best public schools (and the far worse ones that actual NYC poor minority kids will attend) do not offer, from languages and advanced science, to a disciplined approach to the arts, to emphasis on analytic reading and, most important of all -- analytic writing -- which presupposes rigorous thinking and close reading. A minority child who has those skills has tools that make a a significant difference in college and beyond. <br />Furthermore, the black and hispanic students coming through Prep for Prep, tend to be genuinely intelligent. They are not necessarily "mismatched." I don't know for sure, but I would guess that, (with exceptions) their IQs are at the mean for the school. Not, to be sure, at the high end. But ... these days that position is reserved mostly for Asian males. (Who, amusingly enough, count in the diversity statistics -- or you can't get to 30%.)<br />The real issue, which this article cannot address, is that NYC is now a city divided between what it calls the hyperrich, and the poor. Those of us who are truly middle class (on incomes that are Upper Middle Class, which the current Administration thinks of as "millionaires,),are a dying minority. Housing costs alone, ensure that. The failure of the public schools -- and the fact that places like Stuyvesant and Bronx Science are so much more competitive than they used to be, ensure that as well. So it is true that many of my childrens' friends have multiple homes, drivers, cooks, endlessly fabulous vacations, and no conflict about paying for school and/or $10,000/summer camps and programs. Mostly, though their friends have two hardworking, professional parents, who do really well, but do not have endless money. <br />My smart, white kids are among those who do not have all that. Sometimes they understand that they are getting a great education at a school they love. As they get older they also understand that everyone has problems. Even the children of very nice billionaires. Yes, this sometimes makes them unhappy. But it also forces them to think about they kinds of lives they want to lead, and what they regard as truly important. On a good day, I think it allows the values I have tried to inculcate to manifest. Anyway, better for them to know that life is not fair, and they will have to work harder than some people. I believe that is a useful lesson also, for talented minority kids who are, in fact, being given the tools to succeed if they are so inclined. Surely it's a better lesson than pretending that everyone is the same, and leveling all fields. <br /><br />Some other day we can discuss the pernicious influence of all that money on life in NY in general. Or, all the ways these school are crazily conflicted about how to merge excellence and diversity. <br /><br />Thanks for your always interesting blog. Dragon Ladynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-62622635608236023042012-10-22T10:59:04.314-07:002012-10-22T10:59:04.314-07:00Thank you for your comment... I very much like you...Thank you for your comment... I very much like your moniker.<br /><br />If it were merely a question of social discomfort I would lean toward your position. As I understand the stories told in the Times, we are well beyond discomfort: we are talking about children who are systematically shunned in school and who no longer feel that they are part of their home communities.<br /><br />I believe that we are at the level of serious psychological damage.<br /><br />The second point is: in all likelihood they are getting a better education than they would in local NYT schools... because so many of them are appallingly bad... but when you examine the reports about affirmative action in colleges and universities, reported in the Sander and Taylor article, it seems that students who are mismatched receive an education that is inferior to the one they would receive if they found a school that was better suited to their aptitude and achievement.<br /><br />These studies can establish a principle, but I suspect that, given the alternatives in NY, the situation is not as cut and dried.Stuart Schneidermanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12784043736879991769noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8078379512095504946.post-955101085513195872012-10-22T10:39:34.491-07:002012-10-22T10:39:34.491-07:00I have three kids at one of those schools. The fir...I have three kids at one of those schools. The first thing I learned was that black children from wealthy homes -- of which there are a significant handful -- run the fastest from poor black kids who come out of the "prep for prep" programs. <br />Nevertheless, and despite my dislike for affirmative action in general, I agree with the admissions officer at my kids's school, who told me about the painful conversations she has with poor parents of bright black and hispanic kids, who are admitted and given full financial aid, and who often come out of special preparatory programs that leave them well prepared for math, Latin, etc. The mothers sit in her office and say, "How can I send my kid here? He will be so out of place." Her response is, "How can you deny him this amazing education? He will learn to get over his social discomfort. And he will have an amazing leg up in life." Surely social discomfort isn't too big a price for a superior education. Dragon Ladynoreply@blogger.com