Why is Diversity so Important?

Steven Chi

Section A02

Reading Reflection #3

In Response to “Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in California: How Higher Education Diversity Benefits Our Communities” by AAAJ et. al

My high school graduation

                In “Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in California” by the Asian Americans Advancing Justice (AAAJ) organization, the author claims that schools with diverse ethnic makeups “promote ‘cross-racial understanding” (4). I agree with this statement because I have experienced the exact opposite. The Californian high school that I recently graduated from had a considerably homogeneous student body: over four-fifths were Asian Americans were first- or second-generation children descending from Chinese, Taiwanese, Indian, and Cantonese immigrants. Many of these immigrants brought their cultural and traditional norms to California, one of which stresses that an education results in better-paying jobs. As a result, my high school has become one of the most brutal and cutthroat high schools in Northern California; today, students continue to compete amongst each another for high GPAs and SAT scores.

                True, competition can be beneficial because it forces students to work hard for the best education possible. The statistics agree: in fact, in 2013, my school achieved a 100% graduation rate. Despite this, the culture of my high school is completely unrepresentative of the real world. For example, when I first came to Davis, I realized that many of my classes’ exams and grades were based on a curved scale. Back in high school, curves were an anomaly and practically non-existent. Additionally, some people go to weekly frat parties here at Davis. People at my high school never had parties because they were too busy studying. In conclusion, I believe that diversity is important because it brings in new perspectives that I would otherwise not have noticed. In my high school example, having my high school’s lack of diversity may have led to high graduation rates but subsequently over-prepared me academically and underprepared me socially.

                Question: How would you diversify my high school? (Affirmative action is probably not an option because it would discriminate against my high school’s Asian population.)