Thomas Tam: I just want to join our chairperson Professor Saran and our chairperson of the Institute and Professor Sung to welcome all of you here. Today is a difficult day. And it is really the first time the Institute has put together a conference within CUNY that is specifically trying to address the South Asian community. I think that by your showing up here, by your effort to make presentations, we are making sure that this emerging community, which is really very significant within New York City. I think that the latest census indicated that, within New York City, almost a quarter of the population are from South Asia, with South Asian heritage. So it is really time for us to begin our attention at the needs of this community. This is our first effort. We will continue to do these sort of conferences. And we invite your participation. And for today for our first session, I would like to first introduce Dr.   Sambhavi Lakshminarayanan, who is a Professor of Business and Management at Medgar Evers College. She is going to be talking to us about creating a case for your child and family in the school community. Because in New York City there is such diversity, and therefore a lot of needs, and how do we satisfy those needs especially for our children. And so Professor Lakshminarayanan will talk to us about that. Please welcome Professor Lakshminarayanan.

Sambhavi Lakshminarayanan: Hello everybody. I’m very happy to be here, participating in this conference. I joined Medgar Evers [last year]. One of my colleagues let me know about AAARI and I have tried to participate in as many of the events as I could. Particularly I should tell you, or people from India of Indian origins, about Dr. Tam [inaudible] which is [inaudible] If you haven’t seen it yet, I highly recommend it. I was very happy to see that this conference was organized, and I was one of the first people to send in my dissertation abstract a while back but it got lost somewhere, and when I saw the program [two days back] I was surprised to see to see that I wasn’t listed, so I constantly called Dr. Tam’s office and I asked him, so they lifted me also. And I think it is their revenge to list me as the first speaker.

In any case, I will try to be brief. My area has been in business, and until now all my research was in area of business management, particularly office management, so this is quite a different thing for me to talk about. The background is that for the last few years, I was very active in my children’s elementary school. I became very involved in the functioning of the school, particularly in the diversity initiative and the diversity effort. This is an independent school so they’re very committed to having a diversity of admissions. And then of course I started trying to apply all my background from my management training and background in business and I wrote three papers on the topic.

Today I’m going to talk about one of them, and this paper really has to do with just the basic situation of culture and family and so on. This is the revision I sent to a journal called Young Children. And this is what I’d like to talk to you about. These are my own observations about what happens in schools. I think the entire area of education is too big for me to address, so I’m going to look at the particular aspects which one finds at independent schools. And what we can do there, but I’m sure that [inaudible].

Before I start I should just mention that in the program I am listed as a Professor. Though I am happy for the promotion, but I am still Assistant Professor at the College. So this is just for your information.

So this is the title “Creating a place for your child and family in the school community – a guide for minority parents.” I did put in family because I do think it’s very important for us to look at the entire school experience as affecting not only the child but also the family.

•      Public Schools

•      Independent Schools

–   Increasing diversity of different kind

–   “Model minority”

•      Challenges!

–   “Exotic” factor: do cows walk on the streets?

–   Assuming leadership

 

This is the background, and this I’m sure is something that I’m sure you’re all aware of, is that diversity is increasing within the education system. And there could be different kinds of diversity, in particular what we looked at was the schools. It is not only racial and ethnic diversity, but other kinds of diversity, like learning issues, and so on. But for this talk I looked at ethnic diversity. At independent schools too there is increasing diversity. Some studies show that in fact independent schools have more diversity than, specific independent schools have more diversity than even some public schools. And also there are familiar with some modern minorities, attitudes that some schools have toward South Asian students. So some of the challenges that we face, or our children face is the exotic factor which Dr. Saran mentioned there was an article in Newsweek. Some of the earlier media coverage might have had to do with elephants on the street, how people worship cows and this is what many of the families and children associate India with. So basically how do we overcome some of the preconceptions that people have. And really my goal is how do we develop ourselves as leaders within the school community.

Importance of Parental Involvement

•      Better academic performance

•      Better personal development

–   Identity formation

•   Factors influencing

•   Process

–   Social factors

•   “Community” – which one?

•   Friends & family

 

And, again, basic ideas of parental involvement; it is well known that parent involvement leads to better academic performance, but also for personal development of children, there has been lots of attention on identity formation, and I guess that some studies look at particularly African Americans and identity formation in that context, but we can also look at cultural factors and how do our children form their identities, trying to put together their culture they are familiar with, what are the factors influencing and what is the process. And also I would like to look at the social factors . Our children want to belong to a community. Which community do they have a sense of belonging to? And what do their friends and family say?

General Challenges for Parents

•      Cultural barriers

•      Language Issues

•      Unfamiliarity with School system

•      “How much to assimilate” – value transmission to children

–   Clash in values

–   Socialization/ behavior patterns

 

Some of the general challenges parents face, and that I face as a parent, are basically cultural barriers, in some cases language issues, but culture was more important for me.

Many times unfamiliarity with how the system works for people like me who grew up in another country, we really don’t know how the system works here. And trying to transfer our experience in another context doesn’t help our children too much. And the other aspect which is mostly social and cultural is “how much to assimilate?” What values do we give our children? Many times there is a clash in values. Even with what the education system has and what we might have. For example, one time I heard my son talking in what I thought was not a very good way to his teacher, and challenging what she had said. So immediately I corrected him and I said that you should show respect to your teachers. And the teacher said that in fact we encourage them to speak up for themselves. So I felt that this was a clash in values because at home we always emphasized that you should respect your teachers, don’t question if the teacher said something, accept it and [inaudible] with it . Whereas at school he was getting the opposite message, which was to speak up when you have something to say, and defend your position. The socialization and behavioral patterns of the two are different, so the children are faced with different cultures at home and a different culture at school, so it is difficult for them to know which way to go.

 

Strategy

•      Building social connections

•      Relationship with teachers & administration

•      Build a presence

•      Key:

–   Take advantage of all opportunities

–   Use institutional support and structures

–   Be creative

 

So some of the strategies that I felt parents can use to help their children adjust to the school system and really to get the most advantage of what the school has to offer, because it might be that parents, we don’t know, are unfamiliar with what the school has to offer and also they might be hesitant to take advantage of it. One important factor is that we must build social connections within the school community. And parents, especially parents from another culture, we need to build relationships with both the teachers and the administration. We need to build a presence within the school community so that we are not perceived as being exotic or different. One essential key was to take advantage of all opportunities that are available there, to use institutional support—whatever programs the school has to support parents—and to be creative.

Building Social Connections

•      In school

–    Playground time

–    Library time

–    After school programs & classes

–    Team Activities

•      Out of school

–    Play dates

–    Socializing with other parents (use volunteering!)

•      Retain strong network of “others” (not school connections)

 

In regard to building social connections within the schools, there are many ways to do it. For example, many of these I focus as “out of school,” that way as parents we have a chance to do something is to have children play on the playground with other children, o spend time at the library, if possible, in after school programs whatever the school has to offer, and have children take classes with other children at the school in after school programs, to participate in team activities if there is a basketball team or volleyball team or any other team.

And “out of school” with other families to really make an effort to socialize with them, to arrange play dates, which may be something that we are not familiar with growing up in other countries. You might say, when I was a child I just played with the neighbor. But that might not be for out children. And it might be necessary to take a step and really make an effort to arrange social time. Socializing with other parents when possible, after dropping off children, if you do drop off children at the school, just to give a few minutes to other parents so that we build a social connection.

But it is also it is very important to retain a social network outside of school for the children’s mental health, I would say.

 

Relationship with Teachers & Administrators

•      Communicate frequently at times other than PT meetings

•      Make aware of child’s needs

•      Familiarize them about (cultural) differences

•    Behavior interpretation by teachers

•    Use classroom opportunities example celebrate festivals

•    Respect and present your information in the context of the school culture

•    Be aware of curriculum and share educational material that is (culturally) relevant – books

How to build relationships with teachers and administrators? Schools usually organize parent-teacher meetings, and they are very important for parents to attend in order to get to know how the children are progressing or to know what the teacher’s perceive as the children’s progress. But also it is important to communicate frequently with teachers at times other than these scheduled meeting times, talk to the school and if teachers are willing to do so. And one thing is even to compliment teachers on small things and to let them know what your child likes about the school, and not just to use meeting times as opportunities to complain about some wrong that has been done. And other things when parents talk with teachers and administrators is to make them aware of the child’s need, and to familiarize them about cultural differences because they may not know what the different cultural needs are, or where the children are coming from, in terms of their behavior. So maybe not a heavy-duty one-time session, but to slowly tell them, it might be particular behaviors, which might be confusing the teacher, but to let them know this is why the child behaves in a particular way.

So to help the teachers interpret the behavior of your children. For example, many Indian children might be very quiet in fact. And the teachers might think they are being very well behaved and understanding everything that’s going on because they might not act out. But that doesn’t mean that the child is entirely comfortable. There could be many things going on under the radar. So to let teachers know that when maybe a child is acting very quiet, showing such behavior, how to interpret that behavior.

To use classroom opportunities to really familiarize the other children with Indian culture. In some classes, the teachers might be open to celebrating certain festivals, talking about certain occasions, and willing to take advantage of all these opportunities. At the same time to respect and present our culture in the context of the greater school culture. Sometimes it might be that parents just become aware of certain negative aspects of the child’s experience and they want to challenge the school’s culture. And then it just becomes a shouting match, a he-said she-said kind of thing. But you should be aware of what the school’s culture is and try to work within that context.

Other opportunities are that parents can be aware of the curriculum. If the curriculum includes for example, looking at world religion, we can bring in a period from our own culture and share it with the classroom. Therefore we can be participants in the curriculum too.

 

Build A Presence

•      Participate in school planned activities

–    Curriculum & developmental meetings

–    Parent- Teacher meetings

–    Games, school plays, dance performances

–    School trips

•      Select Volunteer Activities

–    PA or other organizations

–    Events : Get togethers, Christmas parties

–    FUNDRAISING!!

 

The other aspect is, how do we build a presence for ourselves at the school community? One way is participate in school planned activities, for example, to attend curriculum and developmental meetings, because not only does it increase the parent’s awareness of what the school is about but also makes people known in the school community, and again this challenges this notion of the exotic and silent. To attend parent-teacher meetings, to attend all games that might be there, school plays, and to volunteer to be chaperones in school trips.

The other area of opportunity is volunteer activities that are available at almost all schools. Schools might have bake sales, might have other fundraising opportunities. There is almost always a PA at the school. So to become active participants in the event to volunteer to do things there. And I would say in particular that it is important to get involved in fundraising because that really gets us to know what the school is about and also makes us an important part of the school community.

Conclusions

•      Invest in building close relationships with teachers and administration

•      Be educated and aware about the school

•      Take advantage of opportunities and support structures: especially those provided by the school

•      Don’t be SHY! Or NOSTALGIC!

 

So in conclusion, I would say that we should as parents invest in building close relationships with teachers and administrators. We should know what the school is about. We should take advantage of all the opportunities and the school structure. We shouldn’t be shy and nostalgic and say that “This is how it was when I was a child. And that’s how it’s going to be.” But we should try to do things in a different context.

 

It Can be Done – a Personal Narrative

•      School characteristics

–   Location, Size, Religious affiliation

•      Preliminary experiences

 

Lastly, I’d just like to share my own personal experience and my children’s experience at the school. I have two children who are both in elementary school at this point and they go to a small independent school which is located in the West Village, and also it is an Episcopal school so we were very different in all senses of the word at the school, we were one of the most diverse families. The school almost, has a majority of Caucasian children and also it is Episcopal and we are the only Hindu family there.

Our initial experiences, and my children’s experiences, and the reasons for which I got into this whole area of work was, of course, the many negative experiences that they had. For example, other children saying they wouldn’t play with them because they had brown skin. So I felt it was very important for me to change those ideas in a positive way. So I tried every opportunity to go into the classroom and talk to the children. When my son had an incident with another child, I spoke with the other child, I called them, the parents and I said “This is what your son said, and what can we do about it?” And like any other parent, she said she couldn’t believe her son had said this. But what she also said is that I don’t think our son saw us both socializing as families, so that was what we needed to do. I thought that was such a positive and creative way to look at it, and we did do that to such an extent that my son and this child became best friends over the course of a few years.

So that was an eye-opening experience for me. It taught me that we don’t need to accept things or believe that they should be so, but also that we don’t need to be aggressively challenging them, but we can and we should show our children how to work creatively around these situations.

And the children always experience strangeness, for example when we were talking about Native Americans and native born American Indians I know that so that you are Indian, and what tribe, and those kind of comments so that [inaudible]. I did go into the classroom almost every year, [inaudible] which I presented as our own kind of South Asian Thanksgiving and shared with them the foods that we make.

I also volunteered to be the PTA class participator and got to know all the parents and all the families within the class. Then the school started a diversity organization for which I volunteered. And I was surprised that nobody wanted to be the chair of that organization so I volunteered to be the chair, and I did this in this context and slowly we became a very important part of the school community, to the extent that right now I’m vice chair of the school board. So I believe this was a very enriching experience for me to have invested my time in building connections within the school.

So this is part of the research I’m doing in this area, this paper that I mentioned before. Two other papers I have written, one is a collaboration with the head of the school on the strategic way that schools can deal with the diversity organizations—the school’s point of view and the parent’s point of view. Because I feel that there is a trend for parents to be involved in the middle of the education system. So that is something I see as important.

And the third paper is from a purely management perspective. But it goes to the diversity organizations and the strategies that diversity organizations can do based on ideas of management.

The other area that I wanted to present was a survey, but that is not ready yet is that I would like to survey parents of Indian origin and [South Asian origin] on the level of involvement they have in the schools and the leadership roles they can take in their school communities. What more parents can do. This paper, of course [inaudible].

Thank you very much.

 

Q&A

 

Thomas Tam: Would you entertain some questions, maybe?

 

Sambhavi Lakshminarayanan: Oh certainly.

 

Thomas Tam: I, actually have one question. I think it was really very exciting in terms of, say, what is going on in your effort. Now it seems that most of your effort is focused on the parent’s perspective. You want to talk a little bit, say, about the responsibility of, say, the school administration in terms of, say, setting up the school diversity program, and perhaps in what ways can the AAARI can also help, perhaps in training of teachers, maybe?. Would you like to talk about that a little bit?

 

Sambhavi Lakshminarayanan: Sure. My experience was that in the schools, when they look at diversity, one part is recruiting of students and teacher, so to some extent the numbers game—they want to have, what is it, 10% of diversity. But the other part is really how you deal with diversity after you get students who are diverse or teachers who are diverse. How do you get them to be contributing members of the community? That is where I felt the school board was looking for answers. And it’s not just children’s school. I am also co-chair of the Association of Inter-School Diversity Network which looks at diversity organizations at many different of schools, uptown and downtown, and all of these schools are struggling with this aspect, which is how do we kind of blend in, understand what’s in the school community. There is no easy answer as you would know. [inaudible] And I feel strongly that it is the parents not responsibility but there is so much opportunity for parents to contribute to this, to build a community here. And at this particular school where my children are, the head was very open to listening to suggestions. Most of what we did, there are two things that we did. We didn’t want to deal with curriculum directly, because we felt that was not appropriate. So we gave suggestions to teachers. Sometimes we made them aware of what they were looking at in terms of education. So primarily we were looking at education goals of teachers and parents. We didn’t want to deal directly with children because that is something we wouldn’t be comfortable with. I wouldn’t like for someone to come in and tell my child things which I’m not aware of.

So those were the things that we did. So primarily our effort was education, I should say three things that you looked at: one was education; the other, support for parents who need it (because many of the parents might be hesitant or they don’t have the confidence to go up and ask the teacher what’s going on, they might just be shy or not have the time, and so generally to provide support); and the third is kind of celebration, how do we all have fun together and get to know a little bit more about each other. So that is really where we looked at.

Apart from that, in terms of the policies, I really felt that [inaudible] administrators are professionals and they should do their job. So in terms of what associations and organizations like AAARI can do, is certainly to provide materials. For example the Hole in the Wall, which I have watched and felt strongly that that was an incredible film for the school community to see because it will challenge many of the conceptions that people have, and that film showed how children in India who had, what we might think of as not very good educations could essentially learn to use a computer like anybody else. So that was a little frightening because it challenged many things. But at the same time it says don’t think other people are better or that other people can’t learn some things. So, material like that I see as very good and helpful.

 

Parmatma Saran: I was very interested when you gave the example of your own son who you thought was being more aggressive or perhaps even rude when he was talking to his teacher, of course the teacher clarified by saying that the child was interested to do it that way. I remember back in 1967 when I came as a grad student, I was keeping quiet while others were talking, and one of my professors talked to me and said I should open up. It was a cultural barrier on my part because I was not used to talking in front of my professors. Hopefully I have overcome that.

Now in my classes every now and then I see at the end of the semester when I’m grading that somebody is getting a 98 or 97. And I don’t know who that person is, and they are usually Indian American. They are not in any of the culture of the class, I don’t know personally who they are, but they are very good in terms of assignments and schoolwork and all that.

My question is as an educationist, someone who is involved in the practical aspects, what are the ways and means and strategies that we can give them to incorporate these things? You know, I think one thing is to educate parents that their children, they’re going to live somewhat in a different world and therefore will adapt to that situation rather than to their own values.

 

Sambhavi Lakshminarayanan: I found that in the schools, for minority parents, which, you might say, [inaudible] to look at, specifically they showed in the minorities, there is a kind of shyness and a tendency to kind of be in the background, an attitude of “we don’t want to rock the boat”, so long as the children are [inaudible], we don’t want to do anything. I found this even in volunteer activities when I was the co-chair of the diversity committee, I would constantly go out and ask people to volunteer for these things. And one thing that I told them is not to volunteer for activities which are in the back office, like doing the cleaning up or whatever and nobody knows you are doing it. Don’t do these things. You should volunteer where you are in the thick of it, you have to be with people. We have that kind of reputation, maybe it is cultural, maybe it’s unfamiliarity. Whatever it is, but we do not go out there and risk people maybe not understanding what we say, and maybe that you’re talking or thinking [inaudible] We do not want to face those things. So I try to force people that sit there, maybe sit at the entrance and do the tickets, or do something else, which you may not be comfortable with.

At my children’s school they have fundraising, and fundraising I see is particularly important, because it forces you to go out and you really have to talk to people and get them to give you their money. The ultimate acceptance is when people agree to that! The other thing is at my children’s school they have a fundraising event that is a fair. At they fair they had a booth for fortune-telling, and the person organizing the event came and said “Why don’t you do the fortune-telling.” And I thought this was the scariest thing for me, because I had to deal with these children; what if I tell them something and they run to their parents and say “Oh, she told me this” and you know it is going to blow up. So I said “I really don’t want to do this.” But at the same time I did not want it to be boring, otherwise the children wouldn’t come. So I had to make things kind of interesting, and I had to tell them [inaudible] so I did do that it, and I sweated the whole time, but I thought that I did it without any damage.

So I think that, it is a challenge for parents to be risking their own, and also we have to step out of our comfort zone, and the same for students, that we have to step out of what is comfortable, and that is the only way to get to leadership positions. The positions are there. It is only for you to go and take charge of them, or take advantage of the opportunities. I think that really I do feel strongly that it is the parents’ responsibility not only to know what your children are doing in the classroom—to see whether they are doing their homework or not—but because our children spend a majority of their time within the school, so school plays such an important role in their development that if we don’t know what are the influences then we are really lost. And then we are doing a real disservice to our children.

 

Dawn An: [inaudible] I think when our Chinese parents [inaudible] react it is passively. At the same time they go through the language barriers you discussed. I think this is part of the main reason why parents are not participating more. How can you overcome social barriers when you can’t talk to respective teachers? There can be confusing subjects, so it is very hard for parents to participate. In their own country they may have different roles. Even when they do participate they participate more in the academic, not the social and team activities that you talk about. How would you reconcile these differences?

 

Sambhavi Lakshminarayanan: I can only say from my personal experience that a parent in my children’s school who was Japanese and she also was not –people didn’t understand when she talked very much—but she did other things. For example, at one of the school events she volunteered to organize games which had never been done before. And that was very popular for kids, because otherwise kids would be running around hassling their parents, so when the kids were playing games. So she became instantly accepted as a person who could do things. And then I invited her to speak about her own experiences growing up at a couple of our meetings and that made even moreso for her acceptance. After that, I think the language barrier again is a perception that people have, of whether they will understand you or not. The more you feel they don’t understand you the less likely you are to speak and it just gets perpetuated more. I would say that why I attend meetings, why I feel curriculum meetings are so important. Because you can put up your hand, and sometimes you feel shy to ask questions, you might feel it’s not an intelligent question, or you feel they might not understand—and I always encourage my students, and I do it myself, to ask “dumb” questions—what do you lose? But what it gains you as a parent is that people know you are there and that you are not afraid to speak. And in New York City is full of people who speak with different accents and people do make an effort to understand. This is what I tell my children too, because sometimes they don’t understand what my parents speak and they try to correct them, and I say that it’s just a communication it’s not a right or wrong way. So I do feel it is a very important lesson that not only my children but other children and other parents learn too, which is not to think and not to have value judgments on people based on the way they speak. My children tell me I have an accent and I talk to strangers and they say are you from South India because you have a South Indian accent? But I don’t think I speak with an accent. So I think that once we get past our own values, we get more accepted.

 

Minhaj Qidwai: Your presentation was very nice as far as the education of the role of parents’ involvement with the children’s situation at school also. The biggest problem that I feel or hear is [inaudible] that the people, especially the females, the very low self-esteem of the females. And that produces the custom and language barrier not only in the school but at home, too. They are very shy to communicate with the children in the native language. My question is, how do we make the parents—especially the females—involved in the PTAs that we have? Because I believe involvement in PTAs, as far as our parents are concerned, is very very low on the [inaudible]. That is a place where the females can play a very active role in the bringing up of the children.

 

Sambhavi Lakshminarayanan: Absolutely. And I found that in the schools that it is almost 95% would be mothers in the groups and PTAs. If there is a male there, it is very rare. And that becomes a position of power and also that you get known in the community. I would say for people to start out small. There are many events at the school where you don’t even need to speak. All you have to do, for example, there might be bake sales. All you have to do is bake some cupcakes. I am certainly the world’s worst baker, but then I said I will do it.

You know, you try it and you just let people know you’re there and then you kind build up your presence. It’s not going to happen, you can’t go and challenge and say [inaudible]. I did run for the school board one year and I lost. But I said that that is something I needed to do. But you can start out small. And for women, sometimes it’s nice to get in a group and to do these things, too. There are a lot of low-risk activities where you don’t have to be directly involved, or where you’re not going to make too much impact, and to use those as stepping stones to slowly build up confidence for yourself and become more active participants within the PA.

Because, and this is the other thing which [inaudible], even the PA leadership, you will see, has got very few women of color. At my children’s school, I am the very first member of the board who is not Caucasian. But you know, that shouldn’t stop us, because we have to try. So I would wish for these, maybe now you bring me an idea: maybe we should have an on-line support to get women to get out there and become small-time participants and then slowly build up.

 

Minhaj Qidwai: And help them come out of their shell.

 

Sambhavi Lakshminarayanan: Right. And language, I see, barriers can really be overcome, because if you have some even minimal way of communicating in English, a lot of these barriers can fall by the wayside.

 

Vinit Parmar: What kind of outreach can be instituted that would bring these parents out? Again, the kinds of stigma that in the past –how shy can they be—the parents also have and they’ve already been brought up. Essentially I think, perhaps on part institution, if the administration understands this and the teachers are sensitized to it, then of course it can create a better nexus between the families and the administration.

 

Sambhavi Lakshminarayanan: I think the schools and the teachers are extremely busy with even implementing the curriculum, so they rarely have time to think about what they can do for our parents. And many times, unfortunately, I see minority parents go up against the school systems in terms of complaints, when some incidents happen or they feel their children are not performing well, and they go up and say this is not going right. So in terms of the [inaudible] ,are you asking what the schools can do?

 

Vinit Parmar: Yes.

 

Sambhavi Lakshminarayanan: I really cannot speak to that because I don’t know enough about the school systems. I know about independent schools, and what they try in terms of these diversity committees. The other thing which I felt strongly would be very effective was to have mentor parents in the school community, was to have mentor parents because there might be parents of children in older grades who have already gone through the experience and it’s very helpful for them to know what to do. There is one parent in my children’s school who is the only other Hindu family. She called me and said, “Oh, my son is feeling very uncomfortable because these children are in an Episcopal school, they have to go to chapel.” And she said “My son says why should I be in chapel? I want to think about [Rama], you know, why should I think about this?” So she said, “What should I do, because it is part of the curriculum that they have go to chapel.” So if you stay in the school you go with it or you leave the school. That’s how it is. So then I told her some of the things that she could do. But I feel that it’s very effective and my children’s school does in fact have some kind of a mentoring program that they call parent-buddy. And that is something that schools can do.

The other thing that schools do try to do is to include, as part of the curriculum, some of these things, the cultural factors. So in some schools they might have the celebration of festivals, they might have, I think they trade whatever is your heritage, that’s what they do.

But that doesn’t address the central problem of why certain families or certain parents feel hesitant to be fully involved in the school system. And that, I feel is we can do as a community and reach out to parents, and maybe that is something we should look at, and I can look at by to step out of my own school in a larger context.

 

Thomas Tam: Maybe we can take one last question.

 

Donald Jenner: You seem to have developed an interesting dilemma, two horns. One, the problem of assimilation to school’s culture with the part of the child on one hand and the parent on the other. At the same time you talked early on about the need to maintain cultural values and to maintain that transition. This seems to be a difficult dilemma to resolve. I’m wondering if there might also a third horn, unique perhaps to this kind of situation. New York is kind of an unusual city moreso in that it is more cosmopolitan than others. Is part of the resolution then looking at the question of assimilation not to another tribal culture, if you wish—call it white, Anglo-Saxon Protestant, whatever it is—but rather assimilation to a high culture which is cosmopolitan and which assumes this. And if that is true, and you are nodding your head so I gather you see that point, how does the school play into this, or how does canon play into this. Is it too dedicated to a pluralistic model? Which sort of runs against that idea of assimilation to a higher culture. Look at the high culture model.

 

Sambhavi Lakshminarayanan: I think that is why many schools go away from multiculturalism because that seems to presume there are too many cultures and not one central culture as you would like to see, or I would like to see, and which I think that we can even call it a [inaudible] culture. Because even if you go to many cosmopolitan cities you might find pretty much the similar cultures there. I really don’t answer to that because it is really a very complex question. At this point, what I really looked at was only that how best can we guide our children to be part of this culture while not giving up quite everything from their own culture. So what is the best that they can take from both cultures. And hopefully the next generation will have this type of uni-culture. Which I see, and I am very thrilled to see, in art for example, that people in one culture really see for another. Sometimes you cannot make out what culture they are from. I just read something, I have read some books that I could have sworn was written by a person of Indian origin, but it was not. So that is my dream that finally we will all be global citizens and not even look at countries as [inaudible]

Thank you very much.

 

[applause]

.

Thomas Tam: I don’t think that Mr. [inaudible] is here, is he? Professor Sunita Peacock will make her presentation later on in session four because it is more similar with some of the presentations over there. So we are going to go directly now to the next session. May I ask Professor Betty Sung to be the presider?