Should kids be encouraged to mix and mingle or stay within the same race group?

W

Wuchun

New member
I visited my 2nd grader's school recently and noticed that he was seated with 4 boys who all look Asian to some extent. These are the only 4 boys who look Asian in the whole class which has about 20 to 25 students.

So my kid is born and raised in the U.S. and speaks English fluently and understands a little Chinese. There is one kid who literally just arrived in the U.S. and speaks very little English. And there is another one arrived two months ago who obviously has better reading and speaking capability in English and also speaks fluent Chinese. So he is the only bilingual in the group. The 4th boy is a bi-racial kid who speaks fluent English and very little Chinese.

So the only 4 "Asian-looking" boys in the class are seated sharing the same table. While it is good to have other boys whom one can relate to and associate with racially, is this a good idea to form groups based on race? I always thought the better approach is to mix and mingle. But I admit this may be the grown-up approach. At the same time, I am wondering if kids are taught in such a way that they are only comfortable befriending and dealing with kids of their own race, then after they grow up they would probably stick to the same habit.

Am I overly concerned here or should I speak to the teacher about it?
Can any Child education expert comment on this please?

Thanks in advance!
 
Ok, so then after all that so called positive school project in which the Chinese boy would mingle with a Caucasian girl in a dancing class, they come home and lets say 90% of people they see around their parents are of same race. Their parents are of the same race to begin with.

I can't help noticing that in facebook, the percentage of black friends of black people is very high. The white friends of these are the Eminen type.

You can't really change that, and what would be the point of forcing? A society can not be changed with social engineering, just like you can't teach mature people to use recycling facilities or not drive on petroleum. Changes require being deep and slow, with historical implications and social child diseases. Brazil is Brazil.

To the bottom line, the real battle to create a better society is working with children. Think globally, act locally ;)
 
Ok, so then after all that so called positive school project in which the Chinese boy would mingle with a Caucasian girl in a dancing class, they come home and lets say 90% of people they see around their parents are of same race. Their parents are of the same race to begin with.

I can't help noticing that in facebook, the percentage of black friends of black people is very high. The white friends of these are the Eminen type.

You can't really change that, and what would be the point of forcing? A society can not be changed with social engineering, just like you can't teach mature people to use recycling facilities or not drive on petroleum. Changes require being deep and slow, with historical implications and social child diseases. Brazil is Brazil.

To the bottom line, the real battle to create a better society is working with children. Think globally, act locally ;)
 
They should be adviced to mix and mingle..its not good to tell a child to only have friends within their race only, because then you are bring them up to be racist..whether you want to believe it or not.
 
Talk to the teacher about how she encourages group work and mixes up groups. Obviously these boys can help each other out with daily work but I can see how they could become an island of their own culture if not encouraged to mingle and allow other students inside their friends network.
 
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