On Saturday, the New York Times published an article entitled "Admitted, but Left Out," detailing a number of minority students and their difficult and failed searches to find social acceptance while attending affluent private schools in New York. However, Carol Sutton Lewis writes on her blog Ground Control Parenting that while this may be case for some, it isn't the same for all students.
Anyone unfamiliar with NYC private schools reading this NY Times piece is likely to make the same link as Ms. Banton, and likely to assume that every minority private school student feels similarly uncomfortable in these schools. While the students quoted in this piece are genuine in their descriptions of their discomfort, this article makes no effort to present any alternative viewpoints. In this exhaustive discussion of the minority student experience at elite private schools, the Times couldn't find one minority student who managed to feel comfortable among his or her white peers. Even the one recent alum quoted in this article who had fond memories of his private school experience felt "excluded by whites". No students were included who by virtue of their friendships and/or their common experiences with some of their white classmates felt as if they belonged in their schools. (Nor could they find any white students who felt similarly economically isolated from their wealthy classmates.) These minority students exist. Some of them are our children.
Read Carol Sutton Lewis' entire piece at Ground Control Parenting.
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