A Diverse School

Abstract

Diverse Schools are schools that have successfully tipped in. What it means to be diverse in strict demographic terms varies from school to school, and will be explored in more detail later in this chapter. For the purposes of this study, however, a school successfully reaches Stage 3 of integration and becomes a Diverse School once it retains its Early Majority gentry parents (GPs), and GPs start describing the school to one another as diverse. Since diversity is an important preference for most GPs, the term diverse within the GP network is an important signifier. In this one word, GPs know that their peer group approves of the school, and they can enroll their children in the diverse school with little worry. Even Late Majority GPs—the skeptics who will never try anything until the most respected members of their GP peer group have tried it first and given their stamp of approval—will enroll their children in a diverse school. The word signals both racial diversity—that is, a white child will not stand out—and socioeconomic diversity—that is, the school has a large enough middle-class presence that the school has a middle-class culture.