Lesemann,
I agree with what alicias@scs.unr.edu had to say, and it can be supported by
both research and my personal experiences in dealing with lower-economic
communities. One thing that I would emphasize is that it is different to be a
person of color and poor than it is to be Euro-American and poor. Although
being poor is never the ideal situation regardless of ethnicity, ethnicity does
play a part. The circumstances are just so different for the two groups. I
would be happy to share examples and research to back this up. I know that
there is also research supporting the unimportance of ethnicity in such
circumstances, but if you look close, the samples are usually small for people
of color or are based on middle-class White populations...which makes for biased
outcomes. I have these references as well.
My background is in counseling and education and so I am finding it frustrating
that I am not understanding what you are saying. Could you help me understand?
This is what I have gathered. You have overcome diversity by learning a new
language and expect others to accomplish the same task. You do not believe that
economics are related to how a parent interacts with a child's education. You do
not believe that parents have to "live" at the school to show they care, rather,
that they do something at home with their children. Is this correct?
I would like to know about your ideas about what parents can do at home. Could
you provide me with five of your ideas? If you could, also include how these
tasks can be done and how they can fit with different socioeconomic patterns and
cultural groups (i.e., what about a single-parent mother, recent immigrant,
family from a rural reservation). I know this may seem like a lot, but this is
the type of work that needs to happen in order to get others involved. We
cannnot sit around and complain about it. If you have found "tricks" that work
in your house or with your children, share them so that we can all learn
something new.
Elaine JC DeBassige D'Amato
McREL HPC
Senior Associate
edebassi@mcrel.org
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