Minorities and Majorities

One article that interested me was Improving Education for Minorities by Shirley McBay. This article did make good points. She pin pointed the areas in which she felt that needed to be fixed in order the better the education of the minorities. She presents 9 principles that will led to more students in improving the education they received. She also does do a great job in pointing out the various studies and programs that have been done and have demonstrated change. I understand where she is coming from but at the same time , because of what I am studying, I feel the history behind the education system is missed.
One principle she does mention is in one study the Texas-based AVANCE demonstrated that the parents who participated in the program were “more likely to be involved with the child’s school and serve as a parent leader.” I also feel this is important and a huge step towards education. However, it is not explained why it that these parents were not going to meeting or more involved with the school and their child’s education She presented the solution to the problem but did not explain why there was a problem. And I feel that is important in changing the way parents feel. What was it about this program that urged parents to participate more? What did the program change for them in their lives?
Another interesting point made, or comment is , “ the school’s physical location allows students to work in , and feel connected to a middle class environment that provides ordinary but important role models for the,” Yes , students do need minorities, but to me was what struck me was, “ the schools physical location ” and “feel connected” To me it seemed that the differences between middle and low class needs to be better explained. Why would feeling like being a part of the middle class have an impact on a student? What are the thought concerning the middle class and why is it so important for the students to feel connected? I understand the context of the excerpt I used but, at the same, I feel the urge to connect it to the idea that a minority may feel connected but will not be a part of it. In other words, the idea of never being accepted into mainstream society and being on sidelines.
At the beginning of the article I felt a sort of disconnection because the word minority was used repeatedly. It seemed that it was a group of minorities and that to me was interesting because it was as if all the minorities were lumped together. I understand fort eh purpose of her paper and her study it may have been easier to lump them together, but at the same time that assumes all minorities are all the same and these 9 principles will change that. However, at the end of the article, I did notice that she used the term “our children” at the end unifying not just the minorities but also the “majorities”. Even the term “majorities” stuck out to me. Who are majorities? What she means by the usage “majorities” would be interesting and why she uses it would be interesting and important.