Every year I go through the same ordeal with the Henrico County School System. My kids come home from the first day of school with tons of paperwork to fill. Some of the forms require you to fill in your child's race. I would have no problem filling these forms out if I could fill them out correctly. However some of these forms do not have a mult-race box. How am I suppose to fill out the race portion of the form correctly when there is not an option for biracial children?
Each year when I am forced to mark my children as either white or black I chose a different box every year! I do so because I know my children's school record has to be changed. This causes someone to have to manually change my children's record, causing them more work! I'm hoping that someone will realize that not everyone is just from one race. A multi-race box would resolve everything!
I also have a problem marking my child down as a "other". Doesn't that sound like they are an alien? My children are human beings, not an "other". Maybe I am being a little offensive but I truely believe making labeling a child as an "other" could cause low self-esteem. If the school system really wants to keep track of what race is the school system then maybe they need to include all the races! A multi-racial box would be the answer! I read an article stating on recommendations to educators on biracial children. The article I read also stated that educators should assume that a interracial child only has the identity of one parent.
Jennifer Beale
Indentity Problems in Biracial Youth. (n.d.) Fall 2004. Retrieved September 20, 2009 from http://www.cehd.umn.edu/
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