Dannyasher@aol.com
Tue, 12 Dec 2000 19:28:54 EST
Hi Kathleen,
Your posting made me sad and I will tell you why. I wasn't born in this
country, have an accent which immediately identifies me as a foreigner and
have a minority religion. I love my life in the US but often feel
"different" or misunderstood. Maybe because it was my choice to live here
and not in by birth country I don't blame others for my feeling of
"otherness." You seem to feel as a native American who lives in this white
society as misunderstood and unaccepted. I think that it is futile to try to
change other people's attitudes (because they being in the majority simply
won't listen to you) and instead I us my own energy to find places or ways to
be comfortable where I can. At a Sudbury type school, you or your child may
feel a bit lonely because of the differences of race, history or whatever,
but the common human element of respect, equality and freedom to be yourself
and do what you want to do with your time and life are the best you can do in
this society. If the loneliness is too overwhelming, why then minority folks
need to build communities in which the minority culture is more prevalent.
Start a school on the reservation and see if it works. Or maybe a school in
a very mixed area would be better, I don't know. But I do know that however
respectful and non discriminatory SVS is towards minorities, the kids do feel
lonely at times and it seems to me that they long for more kids who are like
them. If I was a person of color I think that I would choose to live in a
mixed area rather than in an all white or all minority area. I want to keep
my own culture and pass it on to my kids but I want them to be American as
well and not feel like strangers here. It is possible to do this if the kids
are immersed in both cultures and that can only happen in a community which
has plenty of people of both cultures.
So it made me sad to read your post because I felt that your expectations
from the majority are unrealistic and hence unfullfilable. Is it possible
for you to live in a place that both your and your husbands backgrounds are
both represented?
take care, Hanna from SVS
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.0b3 on Thu Mar 29 2001 - 11:12:50 EST