Rod Dreher has a thought-provoking post on the importance of culture. An excerpt:
I would no more put my kids in a school full of rich white kids who carry with them a culture of hedonistic materilistic values than I would a school full of poor minority kids who carried with them the same culture. I would rather put my kid in a school full of Asian kids who carried in their heads a culture of hard work, self-discipline and diligent study than a nominally Christian school whose kids carried in their heads a culture of privilege and well-upholstered suburban decadence. Bottom line: when it comes to schooling for my kids, I don't care about the race, the family income or the professed faith of the student body. I am most interested in the quality of the culture that dominates the school and its students, because that is going to be the greatest determinant in the quality of life, and the content of the character, of my children. And money can't buy that.
Very interesting post.
ReplyDeleteI moved to NYC, Queens specifically, in 2000, from East Tennessee, where I had a predominantly suburban white existence.
At first I recoiled at the shock of not just Manhattan, but especially the outer boroughs which are much more ethnic- each 2-3 block area looks like the country from which its' residents emigrate. The outer boroughs are the real NYC.
Faced with a difficult decision of where to send my two school-aged children to school, I settled on a Catholic school in Elmhurst Queens, widely accepted as one of the most ethnically diverse zipcodes on Planet Earth. There are people from 112 different countries living there. I chose this school because I met and was friend with the Principal, Sister Kathleen.
What I learned was, for the most part, people are people. They just want to work, provide for their families, and raise decent, respectful children.
I am so in love with the school my kids attend, with kids from all over the world, because the ones who apply themselves get into the best high schools in NYC which are some of the best in the U.S.
There is zero political correctness within the walls of St. Adalbert. One receives the grade that is earned. These kids are living proof that it is what is inside a person that counts, as well as the influences in the home, not his or her ethnicity.
Christopher
Christopher,
ReplyDeleteI appreciate your observations. It is a wise person who disregards race and ethnicity and looks for character and competence. There are poor people with high standards and rich people with low standards.
Michael