As a NYer with children in these NY private schools, I connected with the article. Not only are we a minority but we receive FA. Our school and their diversity group has done great things (and still are) to diversify our community so it can reflect the melting pot that NYC is. I don’t think these seminars, movie nights, etc are overhyped. Our school (and many others) are inclusive and not segregated. My local public schools are way more segregated. Our diversity group works very hard to fight for acceptance…for everyone. Our community is very diverse (race, socioeconomic, same sex families, one parent families, ect) and work very hard on everyone’s behalf to speak on the issues at hand. It may be 2015 but we are still having issues of racist views, dealing with prejudices against same sex families and these issues needs to be addressed. Our school simply does not have these movie nights or seminars, they work daily to reinforce, promote and educate on the issues of race, bullying, acceptance, empathy, sincerity, integrity and humanity. Our classrooms have daily community meetings and if a child wants to discuss something to do with race or acceptance, the school gives them that platform to do so. I believe wholeheartedly by knowing so many people in the schools that were mentioned in this article, that these schools also do much more than what was mentioned. I will also say that there are other NYC private schools that don’t but even these stuffy old school traditional schools are changing…just a little slower than the others.
I’ve been a part of the private school community since 2003 and I have seen a lot of change for the better and somethings haven’t changed. I’ve seen an increase in families of color, families on FA and also an increase in same sex families. Unfortunately what has stayed the same in my experiece is the assumption that I am the nanny. I cannot tell you how many times this has happened and it’s a yearly thing come September. To be honest, I do enjoy seeing them squirm when I inform them that I am the parent and not the nanny. One thing good that does come from this is that a discussion is started.
Would like to address what heartburner said about when was the last time a kid was depressed about not being white? Fortunately I know five kids who have had a hard time about this. They Are biracial children and had a very hard time not having the same hair as their friends or not having the same skin color. Two of these children were in my daughter’s class unfortunately their depression let into eating disorders.
I applaud what the schools are doing. These situations are very hard to deal with and will not be resolved overnight but you have to start somewhere. So many children have questions, questions that their parents may not want to answer or may not know how to answer. The fact that the schools give these children a chance to ask these questions and get them answered is a great thing.
7D is correct, The schools mentioned in the article are progressive schools (as is the school my kids attend).