The Problem We All Live With Part I and II

After listening to this and looking over the transcripts I related to this work a lot. I grew up in a suburban area and my family moved to an area specifically for the school system that was located there. My school growing up was almost 100% white you could see all the kids with color during lunch because they all sat at the same table. After listening to this and reading the transcripts it helped me realize this is how we are segregating schools nowadays. At my service learning school it is the exact opposite of the school I grew up in. There is only one white student in both my classes and the majority of students are of color. for this blog post I chose to use quotations.

"One of the best districts in Missouri was just five miles away. It would have been very easy for Normandy students to get there. Why not send them there?"

"Well, if you don't want students to leave your district, one way to keep them is to make leaving inconvenient. Make them ride a long distance to school every day, though Normandy officials deny that's why they chose Francis Howell. Douglas Carr was a teacher in the Normandy district. He says when they first heard about the transfer option on the news, a lot of the Normandy teachers didn't expect many kids would take it."

I thought this was an important quote because when the Normandy school was shut down by law they had to give the students the choice to attend any school but they only had to provide the transportation to one school. And they chose the school that was further away. So by making it inconvenient for students to attend a better school less of the students would take that option which would continue to help keep schools segregated. 

"This is what I want. I want the same security that Normandy gets when they walk though their school doors. And I want it here. And I want that security before my children walk into Francis Howell, because I shopped for a school district. I deserve to not have to worry about my children getting stabbed, or taking a drug, or getting robbed because that's the issue. I don't care"

 

I wanted to Include this quote because it included how people shopped for school districts. This reminded me of the film we watched about the schools on Long Island and how they were separated by district. Wealthy people can afford to choose where they want to live and can decide where they want their kids go to school, however low income families can not easily do that and are stuck sending their schools to whatever district they are in. The woman in this quote is clearing saying that she choose where she live because of the school system there and she is judging the other students from Normandy saying they will endanger and cause problems with their school system. there is another person who says that people who were planning on moving to the district to where this integration was happening and are now planning on moving somewhere else. these quotes are prime examples that segregation is still a big issue in our society

"One teacher testified, "I think that children can overcome the stigma of poverty. I think children can overcome the stigma of their ethnicity. But what they cannot overcome is the stigma of separation. That is like a damned spot in their being, in their self-image. And that's what segregation does to children. They see themselves as apart and separate because of the language they speak, because of the color of their skin, the origin of their parents.""

 

I chose this last quote because it is a good example of how separate is not equal. Students and children can notice when they are not treated the same as others. and it affects how they see themselves and how they think others perceive them. when this happens in schools it can effect learning and a students motivation to learn.

 

I really enjoyed this work and was able to connect the district and the separation by district to my own educational experiences. At my high school there was a system where some kids from another district could come to our school. But it was not well known and many parents or students did not take advantage of it.