No Sympathy Necessary!

This blog goes deeper into a topic that I had touched on in an earlier note but which I feel compelled to discuss further. Please excuse me for beating the proverbial horse!

One of the things that was most attractive to me as I was choosing which school to work at next was the cultural diversity at Winchendon.

I believe that it is time for boarding schools to come out of the 1960’s and truly embrace a culturally diverse student body and faculty. I can’t tell you the number of times people at different schools have boasted either in person or in their view book that they have a student population drawn from sixteen or twenty six or even thirty six countries but have then been just as quick to say “But don’t worry, we have a policy where our total international population won’t exceed 16 or 17%.” It strikes me as odd that highly educated minds haven’t figured out that a couple of token kids from a whole lot of different countries don’t really provide the other 83-84% of American kids with a truly culturally rich experience. A semi-annual slide show by the boy from Montenegro or the one student from Pakistan at a table with seven other kids from the states isn’t going to get any of these kids what they need.

I have been on this kick for a while , but I have reenergized on the topic recently as a number of school leaders have been somewhat surprised when I tell them that a majority of Winchendon’s students are from different countries and continents. I have been receiving a lot of “Oh, That’s a challenge” or “Aren’t you worried?”.

They are right on one count – it can be a challenge, but the most important things often are. It may be a bigger challenge for Americans more than most other cultures. In the early 20th century, this country was recognized to be a cultural melting pot, but since then we have become awfully homogenized. We are American and we like our ways.

But the world is not American. The world is approximately 60% Asian, with another ~15% (and growing) living in Africa. Fewer than 10% of the globe’s inhabitants are from North America. And we can’t forget that stretching across these regions are the approximately 20% of the population that worships one form of Islam or another and another ~15% who are Hindu. It is challenging. It is complex. It would be easier (but not as interesting) if we all believed the same things, had the same values and spoke the same language. But we don’t.

Our children, our students are going to need to be much better than our generation at working and assimilating with people of all backgrounds. They will inherit a world where physical boundaries will play a much smaller role and many will work within multi-national and multi-cultural entities. There ability to quickly assimilate with, to be able to understand and empathize with people from different backgrounds will have a terrific impact on their overall success.

And they will have this opportunity to develop these critical skills and habits at Winchendon perhaps more so than in most any other secondary school environment in this country. One model exception that is doing this very well is the United World College, and their students consistently go to the best colleges around the world. At Winchendon, our students are becoming better writers and thinkers, problem solvers and communicators, and they are also learning to live, work and collaborate with students from all over the world.

Making this work can be a bit challenging at times, but it is exactly what we should be doing for our students.