A school with only ethnic miority children would the education level be like?

[alfy]

A school full of only ethnic minority children would the education level be low and would these kids be able to mix with white children when older?

I think it's a relevant question and I think the op has every right to ask it without being ridiculed or treated as a racist!

I taught in a secondary school like this and it was very very tough. I, and many of the staff felt we would never consider sending our own child to that school.

A huge problem was it was badly managed, to be fair. But we were in an area where most of the local schools were selective (this was a few years ago, don't know if things have changed in this regard). So our school was the dumping ground for all the "undesirables" that no one else wanted, either because of poor behaviour or poor achievement, so we had a huge proportion of very difficult and challenging pupils.

Having so many kids with english as a second language was an enormous challenge. Many of the kids weren't wonderfully bilingual with all the plusses that brings. They had their first language and simply struggled enormously with English. This did have an impact on the lessons. A huge one.

I also think it's ridiculously naIve to say "kids are colour blind tbh,"

Many of the kids I taught were not. They were utterly vile to each other. (paler skinned) black kids took the piss massively out of darker skinned black kids. The poor kids from somalia were on the receiving end of most racist comments. West Indians hated Africans, African hated Indians. God it was truly frightening and depressing. I had never encountered racisism before (or since) anything like what I experienced in this school. Actually, only very rarely were white kids involved. (I guess being in the minority they would have been stupid to say anything, but only rarely did they receive any comments. Most of the white kids, I guess to fit in, adopted the same accent/style of talking as their black friends)

There was probably one class per year of the "hard working immigrant who saw education as a valuable means to achieve success stereotype". But unfortunately most of the other kids were from homes which didn't place any value on educational achievement, so no value in it, had few ambitions, and in fact held the teachers, especially female ones, in complete derision and contempt.

I would not rule out all schools with a high number of children from ethnic minorities, but I would be cautious, and think it's perfectly reasonable and sensible. I think issues like the level of English language ability and integration are ones that need careful consideration.

Do you mean ethnic minorities who cannot speak English?

MrsDeVere, I am very sorry my post offended you. I don't live in UK so have some experience of being traeted badly as I'm a foreigner and my kids/ we are 'immigrants', and have had some upsetting experiences, but without the added stigma of dark skin colour and the accompanying prejudice. So I really empathise with having the battle that you do face i did not mean to offend.

Unfortunately, it was a fact that in that school, these things did happen on a daily basis. I found it genuinely sad and upsetting. I only mentioned it because someone had said kids are colour blind and to kids skin colour wasn't an issue, but in my experience, the opposite was true.

But to the OP who is thinking about this, the main issue from her POV is not the colour of the skin, or the fact many kids are from 'ethnic minorities' but the number of kids who have English as a 2nd language, the general level of ability in English and how well the school is managed.

"But your post is offensive in that it contains so many stereotypes and subjective judgements. You are blaming the black children for the poor behaviour of their white peers.

The whole accent thing too...street slang is not accepted in many of the mixed and black families I know. You 'leave it at the door'

The fact the white boys aspire to speak and act like gangstas is surely more the fault of our cleb obsessed media...why lay yet another sin at the feet of west Indian boys?"

Maybe if you re read my post you'll see i never said any of those things, and have certainly never thought it. I think the OP and possibly your past experiences have made you very defensive, and probably rightly so, but give me some credit.

I never commented on the behaviour or suggested black boys made white boys behave worse. I purely commented on the white boys talking like their black friemds. I didn't even lay 'blame' for that at the feet of the black boys. It was purely a statement of fact! They did and probably still do talk like that. And you're right, the whole 'gangsta' and sleb culture is probably as much to do with it, as well as possibly just wanting to sound like their mates. I never said it wasn't! I merely said they talked like them.

I can assure you that there is no "street talk" in my house.

But threads like this make me realise that for as much as we live in a supposed multi cultural city, my boys are still looked at in that way.

They still get looked at like "gangstas" people still assume they are troubled, poor, unable to achieve.

reddwarf I suppose it depends on ages of kids, at infant school age I would say they are colour blind, they are also unaware of other differences, such as visible SEN and disabilities to some extent, they are very accepting ime.

It's not just the boys who get stigmatised.

It's common for my black DW to get patted down when we fly anywhere. Never happens to me (white).
DD (12) often gets followed by security guards in shops. I don't see it happening to white girls of her age.

MrsDV, i agree with you there, and like i said, I am sure for you it is worse,because you have the obvious colour problem to boot, so even witout talking they stand out, but I am aware my 3 boys get judged more harshly and for example are tolerated less by certain teachers because they are foreign. Or critisised for not speaking the local language. (we do, but never together) Having 2 boys with Adhd, sitting quietly and behaving well is not their forté. ...

Having worked in an all boys school, and having 3 sons myelf i do have a strong empathy for the problems boys face in our society and how hard it can be to fit in but also not blindly follow.

For girls it's tough too of course, but in very different ways. I think i worry more for my boys than for my dd, but then she's younger and still under a lot of protection as it were.

nailak, i agree with you re the age thing, though kids of all ages can be surprisingly mean and horrible :(

I guess i didn't read the op properly. I immediately thought of the langauge implications of having so many different ethnic groups, not the coldour.

Ok I'm going to breathe before posting.

I'm hoping that you just worded your OP incredibly badly. But tbh I just cannot work out what you might actually mean. Are you from an ethnic minority and are worried about others preconceptions?

Because gosh you come across really really badly.

A school full of only ethnic minority children would the education level be low and would these kids be able to mix with white children when older?

Of course not because everyone knows blacks/asians are pretty unsocialised uncivilised heathens who need the calming influence of good ol' white people to teach them proper manners and education. Just a single white child is enough to raise the IQ of a black child, doncha know