How Should Race
And Linguistic Heritage
Affect a Classroom?

Patrick Sutton

February 13, 2007

In the last few months we’ve seen a number of different racial and social topics that fall under the umbrella of pedagogy gain media attention. Most recently, the University of Wisconsin has decided to ignore a state ruling that bans the use of race as a criterion for admissions. The UW system has bypassed the state law in favor of the 2003 Supreme Court ruling (Grutter v. Bollinger)—which allows for race as a factor for consideration in admissions. The outcome of the Grutter v. Bollinger case leaned towards race as a legal factor in order to promote diversity.

Diversity v. Discrimination

In the landmark 1954 case, Oliver Brown sued the Topeka school district because his daughter had to attend a segregated school for blacks. In Brown v. Board of Education case the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Brown—“separate but equal” cannot provide education that is truly equal to blacks and whites—this obligated educators to allow any race into a classroom.

Fifty three years later, the tendency is to promote diversity in the classroom—and now the plaintiffs are whites that are being denied admission to the University of Michigan. The graph to the left represents the composition of the UW law school’s applicants, admittees, and enrollees in 1999, 2003, 2004, and 2005.

Although it may seem like a valid point that whites are being discriminated against in the admissions process, it is worth noting what the UW system Board of Regents has to say. The UW board maintains that, in admissions, it is important to first consider academics, and then other non-academic factors such as racial and economic status. In addition, the UW system has been struggling to raise the level of diversity for a long time.

Language and Education

In a separate, but related news item, New York City announced that it will its first school that will focus on teaching the Arabic language and culture. Khali Gibran—the school is named for a Lebanese poet—will open its doors in September of 2007 with the purpose of “…wholeheartedly looking to attract as many diverse students as possible, because we really want to give them the opportunity to expand their horizons and be global citizens,” according to Principal-to-be, Debbie Almontaser. The hope is that half of all classes will be taught in English, and half in Arabic.

In other countries, linguistic heritage is just as important as—if not more important than—race. For instance in the post-Franco Spain, Catalunya implemented a policy that makes it necessary for all compulsory education to be taught in Catalan, not Spanish. Immigrants that move to Catalunya in order to take advantage of the stronger economy, struggle to integrate with native speakers—and since many of the immigrants traditionally moved to Catalunya to seek opportunity, the Spanish language is seen by many as a marker of lower economic privilege.

How should language and race play a role in the classroom, and in admissions?

If the point of education is to provide the economy with able-minded and productive citizens, how can we decide who to educate how to educate them?

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Sources--

Gootman, Elissa, “A New School Plans to Teach Half of Classes Using Arabic, The New York Times, February 13, 2007

Nakai, Althea, “Racial and Ethnic Admission Preferences at the University of Michigan Law School, Center
for Equal Opportunity, 2006

Powers, Elia “Considering Race in Admissions” Inside Higher Ed, February 12, 2007