This will date me, but when I moved to western Kansas 35 years ago, my experiences had been in very diverse schools. I was interested in bilingual education but the local principal said we would never have a need for such a program. Working as an administrator, there is a great diversity among our districts. Schools in our cooperative have anywhere from 58% minority enrollment to under 20%.
I grew up in eastern Kansas an hour outside of Wichita. While going to school never once did our school district have a student nor teacher that was anything but white. When I went off to college at WSU talk about culture shock! But still Eureka continued to be a school and town that was "normal" Than I moved to western Kansas and every where you look there is culture. Now days when I go back home the population has changed some and even though 75% of the school population is still white even that percentage is diverse in the sense of the poverty level has become a bigger factor in that group.
I grew up in Oklahoma City and have always been around many diverse people. So usually I saw no difference in others. When I was in the eighth grade a new 7-12 school was built near my home. It was mostly white at that time,but now the climate of the school was changed a lot.
Growing up in Boise City, Oklahoma and Ulysses, Kansas, there has always been diversity. In both towns, there was a mixture of Hispanic and white individuals. I thought I was pretty open in my thoughts about culture until I went to college! Suddenly there were several other races at school! It was a great learning experience! I still remember when a good friend of mine told me that he was "ashy"! Erwin as African American and when his skin was dry it looked "ashy"! You learn something new everyday!!
This will date me, but when I moved to western Kansas 35 years ago, my experiences had been in very diverse schools. I was interested in bilingual education but the local principal said we would never have a need for such a program. Working as an administrator, there is a great diversity among our districts. Schools in our cooperative have anywhere from 58% minority enrollment to under 20%.
ReplyDeleteI grew up in eastern Kansas an hour outside of Wichita. While going to school never once did our school district have a student nor teacher that was anything but white. When I went off to college at WSU talk about culture shock! But still Eureka continued to be a school and town that was "normal" Than I moved to western Kansas and every where you look there is culture. Now days when I go back home the population has changed some and even though 75% of the school population is still white even that percentage is diverse in the sense of the poverty level has become a bigger factor in that group.
ReplyDeleteI grew up in Oklahoma City and have always been around many diverse people. So usually I saw no difference in others. When I was in the eighth grade a new 7-12 school was built near my home. It was mostly white at that time,but now the climate of the school was changed a lot.
ReplyDeleteGrowing up in Boise City, Oklahoma and Ulysses, Kansas, there has always been diversity. In both towns, there was a mixture of Hispanic and white individuals. I thought I was pretty open in my thoughts about culture until I went to college! Suddenly there were several other races at school! It was a great learning experience! I still remember when a good friend of mine told me that he was "ashy"! Erwin as African American and when his skin was dry it looked "ashy"! You learn something new everyday!!
ReplyDelete