Diversity enriches Goshen High School curriculum, students, staff say

By Chandler Ingle, Published: 5/28/16

Minority majority school system.
That is the phrase recently coined by Goshen Community Schools to describe the district.
Latinos make up 51.5 percent of the districts student body and 47.6 percent of Goshen High
School students. Goshen Community Schools now has the seventh-largest number of Latino students
in the state of Indiana, at 3,419, and the highest percentage of Latino students of any Indiana district.
In effect, said Principal Barry Younghans, the district enjoys a naturally enriched curriculum because of its
diversity.
Goshen High School is a perfect representation of the city of Goshen, he said. With the school being so
diverse, it teaches our students how to interact with all races and cultures when they meet the real world.
Whites make up about 42 percent of the student population in the district, while 3 percent are multiracial,
2 percent are black and 1 percent are Asian.
With the steady rise of Latinos in the city and school system, many Latino students have grown in Goshen
schools and are fitting right in.
With each passing generation becoming more Americanized, many of our students dont even recognize
the racial differences, Younghans said. Talk to me 20 years ago, and we may be having a
different conversation, but as of now, these kids have grown up together and know no different.
However, Goshen High School senior Jose Chiquito said many challenges remain, including that many
dont speak directly about diversity and ethnicity.
There are always problems when a very different population suddenly appears in a matter of a few
years, Chiquito said. The institutions, our schools and their staff are not prepared for the socioeconomic
and cultural implications a sudden wave of students from different countries have.
The tension is there. We dont think much about it, he added. Really, the diversity we seem to boast
about is not even discussed at school. We dont have conversations about what culture is or about how
there may be racial/social tension.
To help transition Spanish-speaking students to the English language and American culture, the district
enrolls students in a program called English as a New Language, or ENL, until they are deemed ready to
enroll in a standard classroom setting.
An important part of the ENL program is helping students adjust to a new life in the United States while
still honoring their unique cultures and backgrounds through acculturation, said Jen Eberly, an ENL
teacher at Goshen High School. It is a difficult task since learning a language can take five to seven
years, but our students are hungry for the language and know that building their language skills is the key
to their future success in the U.S.
The question then arises: How do non-Spanish-speaking teachers handle a class full of Spanish-speaking
students?
I cant assume my students know who even Abraham Lincoln is, said Rebecca VanElk, who teaches
English at Goshen High School. This is a kindergarten standard in Indiana, but students that are new to
the area have no idea. In a pretest over a book on slavery, only two of my students were able to identify
who Abraham Lincoln was. These students are not dumb. They just needed help from me to understand
the background of the novel.
Because of the amount of diversity of within the school, Goshen students are learning lessons about life
that cant be found in textbooks.
I feel that non-Latino students in our school have an incredible opportunity to learn about other cultures,
said Sophia Charlebois-Vergara, a junior at Goshen High School. Its a privilege to grow up in such a
diverse community, and it is my hope that all students, Anglo or Latino, take advantage of this
opportunity.