Should society work toward creating schools that are racially integrated or work toward creating solid neighborhood schools? In other words, should we abandon the goals of Brown v. Board of Education (desegregation) and instead just make sure the schools children attend -- even if they are monoracial -- are of high quality? What do you think? Why or why not?
Although having racially integrated schools would be ideal for getting students to learn from others and learn from other cultures, I think it is still undeniably impossible at this time. As I was driving my friend, who was visiting from rural Nebraska, around Kansas City this week showing her where I work, she asked me why schools are so “white” or so “black”. She said the thing she loves about coming to Kansas City is how many different types of people there are. So she wanted to know why people do not embrace that. This led me to discussing what I learned from Tanner Colby in Some of My Best Friends are Black and how realtors, like JC Nichols, set up a segregated cities through the bylaws in their housing contracts. Leading to several cities being divided and causing segregated schools and neighborhoods. Since then, people have self-segregated for years. I think that all schools, no matter how racially integrated or monoracial they are, they need to be quality.
In Fire in the Ashes, Kozol says that we cannot hold children accountable for where they were born and raised or for the failings of their schools. (302). However, we can blame our education system for letting so many schools to be failing today. This continuum of failing schools and neighborhoods is only going to get worse if we don’t intervene now. In A Hope in the Unseen, Suskind describes Cedric’s life and part of that is uncovering how poor some of the neighborhoods are just blocks from our nation’s capital. It can go without saying, that neighborhoods and schools, all over this country, need help reviving its existence.
Although I think the intention of Brown v. Board of Education was good, I don’t think it is yet a realistic scenario. Consequently, the only solution is to make sure that we have high quality neighborhood schools. With that, schools should still focus on cultures and diversity, so that we can instill a respect amongst cultures within our schools and society.
I ponder the idea of quality education everywhere leading to people naturally desegregating over time, which then would lead to more diverse schools. I honestly do not know if this would happen because of how many years of turmoil we have put some neighborhoods through. But I do know, that no matter where people live, they deserve the best of the best education.
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