The 'model minority' - week3

I found this week’s book to be very interesting and the author’s research to be overall more thorough and somewhat less subjective than “Children of Immigration.”  Not related to the research, but a statement I respect the author saying, can be found on page 23;  “Writing and research are always political acts, and this work is no exception.”  This is something I had trouble verbalizing last week, but it felt to me like the authors’ agenda last week was much more evident than in “Unraveling the ‘Model Minority’ Stereotype” which I felt was straightforward and honest.

“Please don’t ruin my stereotype.  It is such a nice one,”  (p.141) a teacher says to the author in a quote at the end of the book.  This book makes evident that for some it is not so nice.  Ming, (p.69-70) who struggled academically but would not seek help because of this contradiction to the stereotype of the model minority and the effect it would have on his family.  Similarly, there is Xuan Nguyen (p76) who says the following:  “I used to go into classes and if you don’t do that well in math or science, the teacher is like, “What are you? Some kind of mutant Asian? You don’t do well in math…”  You see, I’m not that good in math.  I also find that a lot of my friends become upset if they’re not good students…”  And yet, some Asian-identified groups embraced this stereotype because of the positive connotations attaching their race to good education and the American ideal.   How frustrating that the teachers agree with this stereotype and use it to justify racial equality in their school, and at the same time view the Gospel Choir as separatist, and eventually ban the group.

It appears that most groups identified in the book – most of the Asian groups, the African Americans, and the White - had racist views towards at least one other group.  With respect to the ‘model minority’ stereotype, groups which were more personally threatened, socially and economically, were the ones to behave negatively – or more racist - towards other groups, depending on how they would be affected by the other groups’ success/failure.

Briefly, regarding bilingual education:  In my opinion, the ideal is a two-way immersion program which benefits English learners and native learners to a new language in an academic and cultural setting. 

The obstacles our educational system face are many, not all of which are political.  There are logistical issues which schools need to face, and urban schools would feel the greatest impact but have the least resources and funds.  There is first the need to serve a possible multitude of languages from different ethnicities.  Then there is the fact that ELLs come at different levels and at different ages (from different countries), and at varying academic levels as well.  Some ELLs are also below grade level in their own native language.  Managing the resources, classrooms, personnel, etc. for all students would require more than I think many schools can realistically prepare for.  I do believe in a challenging, multicultural, academic education for all students, including ELLs, and want bilingual education to fit in there when possible, but in reality, I don’t know that every school can offer this, and do it well.  This will take a restructuring of the public school systems, and I don’t know who is going to undertake that.