African-American Parent Involvement Conference The Austin Independent School District
• Learn about how parent involvement
enhances student education
• Fun and informative
• Family-friendly event
• Lunch and breakfast served
• Free transportation
(contact your school’s PSS)
http://www.austinisd.org/sites/default/files/events/africanamericanconference.pdf
Here in Austin, TX the local school district Austin ISD is hosting a parental involvement conference. That in itself is a good thing, it is very important that parents be involved in their children’s education. That fosters better learning and understanding for children. It also teaches them that education is important because their parents take the time to get involved.
Yet the problem I have here is the focus on race. There are uninvolved parents of all colors and creeds. No single group has a monopoly on uninvolved parents. I see absolutely no reason what so ever to specify this conference is for African-Americans. To me that focus is negative for a couple reasons. First it is like saying that African-American parents are uninvolved with their children’s education while making no mention of other races or groups. That is unfair because there are uninvolved parents in all races. It supports a racial stereotype. Second by stating the conference is for African-Americans it excludes all other groups from the conference. Now I am sure they wouldn’t turn away Caucasian families that want to attend. But few Caucasian if any will see this and decide that they should go, especially if they are uninvolved parents. Instead if race was excluded from the conference it would be more inviting to all parents regardless of race so they might actually get more people at the conference and have a greater impact from it.
Race is not needed here and should have never been included.
PS Thanks Bill for bringing this to my attention.