Wednesday, September 01, 2004
"School Daze"
Well, Sierra is doing nicely with school...she is still perfect about getting up in the morning and doing her morning routine like clockwork...she is actually doing me a disservice, because if I ever have any more children I will be in for a rude awakening...what are the odds of having two perfect kids?
I was just reading the comments on my last entry about being wary of Arab boys and Filipino boys...sadly enough, the chances of her meeting either type (unless Omar and Rich personally transfer to her kindergarten) are slim to none. I believe she is the only person who can even use the Asian/Pacific Islander category of descent in kindergarten this year. As a matter of fact, she is just listed as "Asian" on the school record we received...they are probably so desperate to get their non-caucasian demographic up, they counted her as 100% filipino - or maybe their computer systems can't handle mixed ethnicities yet. I guess it must be a very challenging thing for people who have never left this town since birth. (Now I know, I could kind of fall into that category, but I did go to college and live in Arlington for several years, plus I wasn't born here, so I never grew up with any of the small-minded views that many the locals here share.) I believe last year, the Asian demographic was .15% of the entire school district for our county. I was only very slightly worried that someone might ask her "where she's from" or "what she is" - because Haywood and his siblings got those questions when they attended school in this area years and years ago. If someone asked her that, she would probably not even realize what they're talking about because she is so used to us having such a multicultural barrage of friends she'd be surprised to think it would even be an issue. Her innocent views on race are as follows:
"Some people are black, some people are Polish and some people are Filipino. Polish ones look like Mommy, Filipino ones are medium brown and black ones are a little darker than the Filipino ones." She totally cracked me up one day when she was describing someone (white) that she had met to me... "Well, Mommy, she's Polish, and...." I tried to explain that a white or caucasian person wasn't necessarily Polish, after all, I told her, "You are Polish, too!" I think she finally got it after a while, but it's definitely pretty confusing, especially since she hasn't taken any geography courses yet.
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Well, Sierra is doing nicely with school...she is still perfect about getting up in the morning and doing her morning routine like clockwork...she is actually doing me a disservice, because if I ever have any more children I will be in for a rude awakening...what are the odds of having two perfect kids?
I was just reading the comments on my last entry about being wary of Arab boys and Filipino boys...sadly enough, the chances of her meeting either type (unless Omar and Rich personally transfer to her kindergarten) are slim to none. I believe she is the only person who can even use the Asian/Pacific Islander category of descent in kindergarten this year. As a matter of fact, she is just listed as "Asian" on the school record we received...they are probably so desperate to get their non-caucasian demographic up, they counted her as 100% filipino - or maybe their computer systems can't handle mixed ethnicities yet. I guess it must be a very challenging thing for people who have never left this town since birth. (Now I know, I could kind of fall into that category, but I did go to college and live in Arlington for several years, plus I wasn't born here, so I never grew up with any of the small-minded views that many the locals here share.) I believe last year, the Asian demographic was .15% of the entire school district for our county. I was only very slightly worried that someone might ask her "where she's from" or "what she is" - because Haywood and his siblings got those questions when they attended school in this area years and years ago. If someone asked her that, she would probably not even realize what they're talking about because she is so used to us having such a multicultural barrage of friends she'd be surprised to think it would even be an issue. Her innocent views on race are as follows:
"Some people are black, some people are Polish and some people are Filipino. Polish ones look like Mommy, Filipino ones are medium brown and black ones are a little darker than the Filipino ones." She totally cracked me up one day when she was describing someone (white) that she had met to me... "Well, Mommy, she's Polish, and...." I tried to explain that a white or caucasian person wasn't necessarily Polish, after all, I told her, "You are Polish, too!" I think she finally got it after a while, but it's definitely pretty confusing, especially since she hasn't taken any geography courses yet.
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