Note from a college junior

I received a note from a local college junior today. Her writing is bad enough for me to assume that she must be a product of public school. Anyway, she is doing a project for her "Diversity" (ugh) course, which seeks to answer whether home schooled kids have opportunities for interacting with kids from other cultures blah blah blah:

...This semester my Diversity course involves my peers and I to create a Diversity Project in which we attack an issue of social justice that is present today.... I was wondering if there was anyone that I could interview on their opinion about home schooling and whether or not home schooling allows children to still gain experience in interacting with other children of different cultures.

Among other things, I wrote the following to her:

...I must register a small objection, though, to the way you phrased your question...

It sounds as though you're claiming that sending kids to their neighborhood school or a private school DOES allow children good exposure to kids of other cultures. I don't think it does. I think that in general going to school restricts kids from the proper exposure to kids from other backgrounds. Even in cases where there seems to be a diversity of cultural background in the school, kids often see other kids voluntary segregating themselves on the basis of background -- which gives kids totally the WRONG message about the way the world should be. Home schooled kids tend to interact with others on a more one-to-one basis, driving home Dr. King's message about interaction being about the content of one's character, not about the melanin percentage in one's skin or who one's ancestors were.