How Indian American Kids Are Treated In Their School?

Hi,

what you will find is that as your kids turn around 4/5 and enter kindergarten they will assimilate into the culture they are born into - i.e American culture. They really have no choice because otherwise they may be bullied if they not one friend. Kids generally want to fit in with their peers. It does not mean they don’t have their Indian values. It depends on how traditional you are. With our kid - we are flexible and let him be who he wants. We make Indian food at home which he loves but at school he eats no differently to his friends. He doesn’t speak our language Gujarati but understands it. We are happy with our choice. You can teach them their culture through camps, religious celebrations etc

 

Where do you live in the US @Positivity02 ? You don't have to answer that here, but, if you are living in an area dominated by migrant population, specifically Indians, then this is not going to be an issue. Usually schools have choices for meals. I was sceptic about my kids too, so I did not send home lunch, instead I opted for vegetarian meals at schools, so that they are not tempted to try the meals from their classmates.
But one thing, the school they studied was dominated by Asian population, most of the teachers were Indian or Chinese, except for the school founder. Most of them were either native Americans, Indians or Chinese. Even the student ratio was skewed in favor of Asians. So, I can't comment about bully situation. I am guessing it should not be a problem, because more and more Americans are getting aware of Indian food and also vegetarianism. In that respect, US is much better than other countries. But bullying can be about a lot of other things, not just food.

We had planned to join our kids to a public school last year but we backed out after hearing the stories of bullying in those schools in addition to the fact that the place we live has a high cost of living and public schools don't have enough funds and staff to keep running. We heard that the teachers change frequently and also that we need to send them to special courses to make sure they were academically good. After thinking of the pros and cons, we decided against sending them to public school, although we may reconsider in the future, but at present, they are going to a private school and we are okay with the environment at the current school, we haven't heard of bullying so far.

 

first relax.

it depends a lot on where you live. Come to central Jersey. lol. School here is more Brown than other groups . Only teachers and few students were non asian.

honestly, it better to live in a diverse environment. Indian kids in middle bully there own friend more than non indian kids.

 

My kid goes to a white majority, public school. This is one of the best school district and have some Asian and other international population. Haven’t heard about any bullying here. Also, I have to stress that this school is in the area where the high end houses are. Most parents are highly educated and hold powerful positions in their career. my kid doesn’t like to take spicy Indian food to school. I do not push her. She speaks our mother tongue at home and English with all her friends. Tv shows are always exaggerated but there is some truth to it. Diverse or not, I believe kids need to learn to fend on their own. We can only shield them to some extent. We talk at home about her friends, activities, issues in school and keep a contact with teacher and principal. We do not volunteer often, but try to be at school for most events and meet other teachers and be familiar with them.