Timeliness
An ongoing series of the New York Times on immigrants and their impact on institutions in the United States brings home how timely my project is. There’s so much to figure out about how social integration works, and the role of schools, and relations between different groups. Interesting how so much is happening in the suburbs now, rather than the cities. I wonder what this means for the social institutions like schools that serve immigrants and their children. And what about debates about language? What do all of these questions look like in Spain? What would a similar series of investigative reporting uncover?
Another article in the same series has a quote about teachers: ” Teachers set the tone. In their classrooms, some tiptoed around the immigration debate or avoided it altogether. Advisers to student groups created to examine pressing issues — including the school newspaper, the Model United Nations and the World of Difference Club — similarly ignored the matter. And the teachers for those learning English made little effort to organize activities that would bring them and mainstream students together.”
High school is especially difficult because it’s the gateway into college and the labor market, into being on one’s own. I’m reminded of the time I spent working with a newcomer program while I was at Stanford. The local high school was unprepared for so many newcomers, and created separate classes for them, as well as structures to support them in mainstream classes. Tension with native-born Mexican students was often high, as were relations with Black students. Many of the students were undocumented.
How can policy support these teachers, these students, these schools?