What School Segregation Looks Like
Like the author of this article, I am also the product of integrated schools. Unlike the author, I am white. It was such a valuable experience, both intellectually and spiritually, that I chose the same for my children. You know what my kid did the other day at school? Looked at all the places his immigrant classmates had previously lived on Google Earth. the boy was so excited about what he learned. XXX lived in a places with no CARS! Mom, they don't even have paved ROADS there! There were kids from six different countries in the class. Plus AA, white and probably more.
School is about learning to be smart. It should also be about learning to be compassionate and to get along with others. There is no real education without all three. I want my kids to have it all.
I guess the point I am making is that integration is not just good for the brown kids and poor kids. There are huge up sides for any parent who wants their child to be fully functional in a diverse and changing world as an adult. And it also facilitates compassion. Smart is not enough. I want my kids to be good, too.
"We can no longer pretend to give our children a world-class education in schools that don’t look like the world." - James Ford, 2014-2015 North Carolina Teacher of the Year
I AM THE PRODUCT of an integrated schooling experience in a school system that was otherwise highly segregated. This was not the result of masterful planning as much as good fortune, combined with some parental advocacy. I am a black man who grew up in a city that was recently ranked as the second-worst city in the country for African Americans. Rockford, Illinois, proved extremely hard for a child of color in the 1980s. It’s a mid-sized, industrial city in the heart of the Midwest. The river that runs through the middle of town doesn’t just separate east from west; it divides access to opportunity. Each side of town is characterized by specific demographics that follow a general pattern. The east side: largely white, middle and upper class, and prosperous. The west side: mostly black and Latino, working and lower class, and destitute. There are exceptions, but the rule is typically proven.
My older sister and I endured a twisted route to school. Located in an affluent corner of east Rockford was Brookview Elementary. It was academically superior to my neighborhood school. I, along with my sister and a handful of other black children from across the river, was bused there beginning in first grade. This was a halfhearted effort by the school district to comply with the 1954 desegregation order from the U.S. Supreme Court, albeit a purposefully minimalist approach. We woke up early in the morning so our parents could take us to a child care center on the east side. We’d then board a bus from there to school. Most of my neighborhood friends continued to attend racially homogeneous schools. My parents exploited a provision in the student assignment policy that allowed students to attend any school, so long as their addresses or day care providers were in proximity to the school.
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I stand as a personal testament: Although there is no cure-all for inequality, desegregation is a part of the solution. And study after study shows that the worst fears about negative effects on white and affluent students are overwhelmingly unfounded. These fears develop in the first place because we are segregated. When folks don’t live around different people, when they don’t go to school or have meaningful interactions with different groups, they will naturally slip into negative generalizations.
http://www.charlottemagazine.com/Charlotte-Magazine/January-2016/What-School-Segregation-Looks-Like/
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