NEW YORK—Psychologist Dr. Shamir Khan spent a large part of his life trying to understand how conflicting communities relate to one another. Originally from Guyana, Khan grew up in a Muslim-American community. He got a scholarship to study in Israel, lived in New York, then traveled to many conflict areas in the world—India, the Middle East, Central America, and Northern Ireland—to ponder the questions of otherness and empathy.
After returning to New York City he founded the NYC Private School Blog, an online community covering all aspects of private schools. In addition to his private clinic, he is an adjunct assistant professor of Psychology & Education in the Clinical Psychology Doctoral Program at Teachers College, Columbia University.
The Epoch Times: We usually hear about public school advocates, why do private school parents need support?
Shamir Khan: There was all of this stuff for pubic school, but there wasn’t much of this for private schools. There was nothing online. We cover over 800 schools across the five boroughs and we cover religious, independent, and private, and we go from pre-k to 12. That is a huge diversity of schools. One of the original reasons was to bring together communities that are really different. Part of the reason this was founded was because of that: how to get together communities that tend to segregate even within New York, how we help them to cross boundaries.
The second angle [that drove me to form the website] came from my role as a psychologist, from when I was researching what was happening in the area of assessment and testing [of children]. In New York there are now prep courses for I.Q. tests, because these test are used in admission for private schools. It was very disturbing. That is the other angle: beginning to understand why the competition is so great and the role psychologists were playing in it. Over time, the site developed to deliver some mental health and parenting advice.
Epoch Times: You visited places with racial tensions all over the world. Do you see similar things in NYC?
Khan: As diverse as New York is, there are certain communities which remain quite closed. Sometimes it is very difficult for communities to cross racial lines, religious lines, or ethnic lines, even though people pass each other on the streets. We are not having open conflict in the streets, but there are underlining issues regarding segregation that happen and people aren’t as open about it.
People pass each other and it is very cordial, but when it comes down to “Do you have acquaintances or friends from other communities?” it does not tend to happen that often. People tend to stick with those they know.
Epoch Times: Is the education system in the city going in the right direction?
Khan: I am not particularly a fan of the movement toward all the testing in the public side. I am certainly a fan of systems that have issues around accountability. We do not want to throw resources in and have no way of knowing what happens. But what happens is that people end up studying toward that, or teaching toward that. One of the reasons parents opt out of the public side and go private is that there is more freedom. My worry is that it will become further divided. If you can opt out, people who can—will just leave, and leave, and leave; and it will create unequal systems. It is trying to make sure it does not become this ghettoization of certain races and classes in one system and others in the other.
Epoch Times: Does your site prevent that? Don’t you encourage segregation by encouraging private schools?
Khan: We also cover a lot of issues regarding diversity. In addition, we cover the Catholic schools, in which a lot of the student are minority students. We are very conscience about that, and that is why we devote additional resources to making sure it is not thought of as, “oh, it is only for white students.” Whether we are achieving that? I don’t know.
After returning to New York City he founded the NYC Private School Blog, an online community covering all aspects of private schools. In addition to his private clinic, he is an adjunct assistant professor of Psychology & Education in the Clinical Psychology Doctoral Program at Teachers College, Columbia University.
The Epoch Times: We usually hear about public school advocates, why do private school parents need support?
Shamir Khan: There was all of this stuff for pubic school, but there wasn’t much of this for private schools. There was nothing online. We cover over 800 schools across the five boroughs and we cover religious, independent, and private, and we go from pre-k to 12. That is a huge diversity of schools. One of the original reasons was to bring together communities that are really different. Part of the reason this was founded was because of that: how to get together communities that tend to segregate even within New York, how we help them to cross boundaries.
The second angle [that drove me to form the website] came from my role as a psychologist, from when I was researching what was happening in the area of assessment and testing [of children]. In New York there are now prep courses for I.Q. tests, because these test are used in admission for private schools. It was very disturbing. That is the other angle: beginning to understand why the competition is so great and the role psychologists were playing in it. Over time, the site developed to deliver some mental health and parenting advice.
Epoch Times: You visited places with racial tensions all over the world. Do you see similar things in NYC?
Khan: As diverse as New York is, there are certain communities which remain quite closed. Sometimes it is very difficult for communities to cross racial lines, religious lines, or ethnic lines, even though people pass each other on the streets. We are not having open conflict in the streets, but there are underlining issues regarding segregation that happen and people aren’t as open about it.
People pass each other and it is very cordial, but when it comes down to “Do you have acquaintances or friends from other communities?” it does not tend to happen that often. People tend to stick with those they know.
Epoch Times: Is the education system in the city going in the right direction?
Khan: I am not particularly a fan of the movement toward all the testing in the public side. I am certainly a fan of systems that have issues around accountability. We do not want to throw resources in and have no way of knowing what happens. But what happens is that people end up studying toward that, or teaching toward that. One of the reasons parents opt out of the public side and go private is that there is more freedom. My worry is that it will become further divided. If you can opt out, people who can—will just leave, and leave, and leave; and it will create unequal systems. It is trying to make sure it does not become this ghettoization of certain races and classes in one system and others in the other.
Epoch Times: Does your site prevent that? Don’t you encourage segregation by encouraging private schools?
Khan: We also cover a lot of issues regarding diversity. In addition, we cover the Catholic schools, in which a lot of the student are minority students. We are very conscience about that, and that is why we devote additional resources to making sure it is not thought of as, “oh, it is only for white students.” Whether we are achieving that? I don’t know.
