I love to read your posts about OUSD. This one particularly captures my OUSD experiences. I'm also a White mom of White kids and my kids have been at majority Brown/Black schools, integrated schools and a White school within OUSD. I consider myself fortunate that no one has directly told me I'm "brave" so send my kids to minority White s…
I love to read your posts about OUSD. This one particularly captures my OUSD experiences. I'm also a White mom of White kids and my kids have been at majority Brown/Black schools, integrated schools and a White school within OUSD. I consider myself fortunate that no one has directly told me I'm "brave" so send my kids to minority White schools, but I do get looks that probably are meant to convey that. However, I feel like my kids are getting a great education in OUSD and consider that the open secret about Oakland public schools. And, I definitely think that Black and Brown students have a much more difficult time at White majority schools (systemic racism) than White kids have at schools that are Black and Brown majority. I have seen that first hand.
One thing that confounds me is that White and other wealthier Oakland families never appear to consider what they might miss if they didn't go to their local Oakland public school. Things like learning about perseverance, advocating for themselves in a world that won't care that they are smart, special kids when they get out in the larger world. Like Courtney says in today's post, learning to stick up for yourself and your needs and ideas in just part of the curriculum when you have a lot of Black and Brown kids and teachers. Teachers let the kids know that the world isn't going to always welcome them with open arms and give them everything they need. They will need to advocate for themselves and not give up.
OUSD schools are also set up around the concept of trauma and are prepared to accept and support the kinds of kids that come from both high resourced and lower resourced neighborhoods within Oakland. In my opinion this benefits everyone. It makes the communities more accepting of kids and everything they bring to the school, not less. Yes, it means that there are kids, like an Assistant Principal at Skyline said, that need food for their families and kids that need a schedule filled with only advanced courses. Of course, this stretches resources, but I feel that the benefits outweigh the downsides.
I love to read your posts about OUSD. This one particularly captures my OUSD experiences. I'm also a White mom of White kids and my kids have been at majority Brown/Black schools, integrated schools and a White school within OUSD. I consider myself fortunate that no one has directly told me I'm "brave" so send my kids to minority White schools, but I do get looks that probably are meant to convey that. However, I feel like my kids are getting a great education in OUSD and consider that the open secret about Oakland public schools. And, I definitely think that Black and Brown students have a much more difficult time at White majority schools (systemic racism) than White kids have at schools that are Black and Brown majority. I have seen that first hand.
One thing that confounds me is that White and other wealthier Oakland families never appear to consider what they might miss if they didn't go to their local Oakland public school. Things like learning about perseverance, advocating for themselves in a world that won't care that they are smart, special kids when they get out in the larger world. Like Courtney says in today's post, learning to stick up for yourself and your needs and ideas in just part of the curriculum when you have a lot of Black and Brown kids and teachers. Teachers let the kids know that the world isn't going to always welcome them with open arms and give them everything they need. They will need to advocate for themselves and not give up.
OUSD schools are also set up around the concept of trauma and are prepared to accept and support the kinds of kids that come from both high resourced and lower resourced neighborhoods within Oakland. In my opinion this benefits everyone. It makes the communities more accepting of kids and everything they bring to the school, not less. Yes, it means that there are kids, like an Assistant Principal at Skyline said, that need food for their families and kids that need a schedule filled with only advanced courses. Of course, this stretches resources, but I feel that the benefits outweigh the downsides.