“When engineers want to build a bridge across a river, they don’t just show up at the site with measuring tape, determine the distance between the two shores and the depth of the water, and start building. They have to be intimately familiar with every aspect of the setting that could impact the bridge’s integrity and performance, such as the distance/depth between the riverbed and its bedrock; the current variations; wind conditions; temperature changes; erosion; flooding patterns; seismic activity in the area; and on and on. Once they have done their research, they are ready to design the bridge, make calculations, and draft and redraft. Only then are they are ready to go to the site and begin laying foundations for the building of the bridge. If we are serious about education for social justice, liberation, and equity, we cannot afford to be any less thorough.” (Doucet, 2011, p. 2729-2730)

In “(Re)Constructing Home and School”, Professor Doucet states that Haitian immigrant parents actively maintain a line between school and family to protect their home privacy, keep their cultural traditions, refuse some kind of Americanization, and to seek reciprocal partnership with school. She also concludes that immigrant parents’ central fear is “losing their children” to Americanization. I found that there were a lot of similarities between Chinese immigrants and Haitian immigrants regarding the bridging across families and schools.

In past 30 decades, two types of immigrants have flooded in the U.S. and formed major constitutes of Chinese immigrants population. One group was of intellectual elites, who sought political freedom after Tiananmen Protest in 1989, and another one primarily comprised undocumented immigrants from China’s Fujian province who have a tradition to pursue business opportunities all over the world to make a living; the latter mostly live in Chinatowns of almost all big cities in the U.S. Therefore, these two groups of people’s children are mostly 1.5 or second generation Americans.

Protect family privacy. Like in Haiti, most children in China grew up with frequent spanking. Both parents and kids don’t think spanking as a big deal unless it is violent and can really hurt the kids. But in the U.S., since spanking is forbidden by law, Chinese immigrant parents often complained that every time when they spanked their kids, they were afraid of being seen by others or even being reported to teachers or police officers by their own children. Another reason for Haitian parents to keep their home terrain is that they try to hide their unpleasing immigration and socioeconomic status. Although I do not have enough data to prove that Chinese immigrants have the same concerns as well, at least we can assume that they do worry about these issues because they, especially parents without paper, are under the same circumstances and going through the same difficulties as most Haitian parents.

Refuse Americanization in School. According to Professor Doucet, Haitian parents are traditionally stricter and have more control over their children than American parents; therefore, they fear that they will lose the authority over and respect from their kids if they receive too much American values and are used to the “loose” educational styles in schools. Slightly different from their Haitian counterparts, most Chinese immigrant parents view American education as an advanced one and came to the U.S. to pursue the better education for their next generation; however, at the same time they have deep fear of being lonely when they get old because, unlike Chinese elderlies who can enjoy close family relationships within three even four generations, most American seniors do not have the opportunity to live with their children and to participate in their family affairs. Another important thing is that even though most Chinese parents value American education in general, they still believe that kids learn too few at school. For example, American second graders just learn the same level of math with China’s kindergarteners.

Discouraged by limited English proficiency. I particularly would like to mention this issue because I am also one of the victims. My insufficient English speaking skills have largely discouraged me from actively participating in my son’s (a kindergartener in a NYC public school) school activities, including field trip chaperoning, baking, and volunteering in book fairs, etc. Fearing to chat with his teachers or other parents, I unconsciously avoid the chances to meet them in school or on the playground, even though from the bottom of my heart I long for being an enthusiastic and popular mom in his school. I believe that there are tens of thousands of immigrant parents who have the same concern with me.

Lacking frequent showing up at school, minority parents are always viewed as being passive about their children’s academic and social performance. However, as far as I know, most Chinese parents value education very much and have high expectations for their kids. Although they seldom participate school activities for various reasons, I believe that the more schools can consider parents’ concerns, like immigration and socioeconomic status, language proficiency, and cultural heritage, the better they can built the bridge between home and family, and the larger students can benefit from the connection between the two settings.

Reference

Doucet, F. (2011). (Re)constructing home and school: Immigrant parents, agency, and the (un)desirability of bridging multiple worlds. Teachers College Record, 113(12), 2705-2738.