There has been a recent case in Norway about Muslims getting permission to start private schools in Norway. It put the State on the spot, because they already allowed Christian private schools, and it would be inconsistent to allow one but not the other.

To me, the question isn’t that interesting. In principle, I like private schools. We’re not all equal with the same abilities, some people might be better off with a private education. Allow or not allow, be consistent is all I care.

I do care about what this will do with the integration for the students attending these schools, though.

I do believe second generation immigrants are at a certain disadvantage than natives (although it depends on how old they are when they come to a country). You can’t really get help from your parents (except maybe math), you don’t really have the cultural background to do certain assignments and get certain jokes. But it doesn’t help to lock yourself away either. If you can’t get the native culture at home, the school is actually the best place to get it. You read about it in history classes, in the literature classes. You become with Norwegians that will introduce you to the culture. And that’s how you get integrated. They make you feel like you belong.

But that won’t happen if your parents close you off to this source, and send you off to a private school where all you get is your parents’ culture. And that’s what’s going to happen here. You won’t be forced to speak and learn Norwegian. Everybody around you speak the same language as your parents. You won’t the culture by osmosis, you get it by reading books about it. Me reading about English culture doesn’t make me feel English. It becomes an academic exercise.

One of the excuses I’ve read is, it doesn’t matter if the kids attend the public school or these proposed private schools. The kids will pick up the language and culture at home, with their neighbours. Eh, excuse me? Don’t the kind of parents that would send their kids to these kind of private school usually live in areas dominated by their countrymen? Where would the kids meet Norwegians? They would go to their parents’ friends and family, speaking the native language, all their neighbours and friends will be from their parents’ country. They would probably be grocery shopping at ethnic stores. There just wouldn’t be a need to learn Norwegian in their off time.

I understand, from an intellectual level, why people want to cling onto the familiar, what they themselves grew up with. Especially if moving was something you were forced to do, and not something you chose. But your in a new country with a new culture. And if you want your kids to succeed, you have to let them learn the new language, you have to let them learn the culture. Otherwise, they will always feel like outsiders, like they won’t belong, and they will never be able to part of the larger society.