给BOE的一封信
徐菁-100786 01/11 58404.0/1
鉴于在申请过程中多次听到的这个说法：中国人自己也不请假过春节。估计BOE也听了不少，CAPA给BOE一个统一回答如下。我们还多次听中国家长反应有人这样对他们说，大家如再碰到类似问题，可以下面的说法为要领回答他们。对内反省的同时，对外不能示弱。比如你通过反省自己的缺点不断提高自己，这本是好事，可是你如果在工作面试的时候不断说自己的缺点，只会让人觉得你自己都没信心胜任这个工作。所以对内和对外是不能一样的。
是否能有人写个口语版的，要言简意赅，让中国家长在口头回答时比较容易掌握。
Dear BOE Members and Dr. Foose,
In the past a few years, we heard comments along the line: "If Asian parents think Lunar New Year is really important to them, they should have kept their kids at home. If they do not value their own holiday, why should we give them a day off".
Such an argument is not only deeply offensive, it is also logically flawed. The essence of this argument is that if a certain percentage of a disadvantaged group went along with some unequal treatment imposed on them in the past, then this group should forever be denied equal treatment.
As long as there is inequality in a society, there is certain social construct to pressure the minority group to acquiesce, to accept, to go along. As a result, in any disadvantaged group, some members indeed accept the unequal treatment quietly, against their heart and long-term interest. For example, how many women have accepted less pay than men in the past for the same job? Shall we question women follow the same logic: "If you truly value your work, you should not accept any job that pays less than its fair value. If you do not value your job as much as men do, why should organizations pay you the same?"
No matter what the stated reasons are (state mandated, operational reasons, etc.), it is an unequal treatment if holidays from some religious/racial/ethnic groups are granted school day off and some are not. Although HCPSS granted 3 floating days, the students still need to make up their classwork and homework for the classes they miss. This produces extra burden to the students and in effect creates an unequal education opportunity.
In addition, Asian American students have to pass a much higher academic bar than any other racial/ethnic groups in college admission. For example, as the Princeton sociologist Thomas J. Espenshade and his colleagues have demonstrated in his book No Longer Separate, Not Yet Equal, that among undergraduates at highly selective schools such as the Ivy League, white students have mean scores 310 points higher on the 1600 SAT scale than their black classmates, but Asian students average 140 points above whites. This puts tremendous pressure on Asian American students and their families to perform much better at school. As a result, Asian American parents are extremely reluctant to have their children miss school days. We value our heritage tremendously, but we also face a very harsh reality. The college admission bar is simply too high for us.
Also, HCPSS encourages high attendance. We, Asian parents, would like to support the school by setting high priority on education. The school system should not discourage us, nor effectively penalize us, by forcing our children to use a floating day to celebrate the most important holiday of our cultural root. This sends a contradictory message to the community.
Jean Xu
CAPA President
