>I'm writing to edequity after a long absence because I unsubscribed when
>going on vacation and forgot to resubscribe. With regard to Nina Schichor's
>question,
>
>
>
>> "Does racial and ethnic islation in public schools
>>really adversely affect the quality of middle or high school education?"
>
>
>I may be just repeating what other people said, since I've come in on the
>middle of the thread, but it is clear to me, from listening to lots of
>educators from different backgrounds talk about their school experiences,
>that the answer is yes, if you consider education as anything broader than
>good test scores.
>
>We live in a world with many different people with different cultures, skin
>colors, religions, languages. Yet we are one species much more alike,
>biologically at least, than we are different. Being in schools with only
>people who look like you or think like you is great hindrance to your
>understanding the world. You can make up for this, somewhat, by watching
>movies or reading books, but there really is no substitute to hearing the
>personal stories and viewpoints of people with different life experiences.
>How unfortunate that this is not particularly valued by the United States
>education system.
>
>
>Julian Weissglass
>Director, Equity in Mathematics Education Leadership Institute
>CECIMS/MATH
>University of California, Santa Barbara, Ca 93106
>
>Phone: 805-893-7046
>Fax: 805-893-2190
>email: weissgla@math.ucsb.edu