By TIM KILLEEN
When I was beginning law school, a group project was assigned during orientation which asked us to read some articles about girls-only and boys-only public schools, their seemingly helpful aspects and compare them to the decision in Brown v. Board of Education. A good number of my classmates said that they thought the schools were a good idea because it took major distractions away and allowed kids to focus on school. While I found that to be a helpful outcome, I said that such schools didn't seem to comport with the decision in Brown. I haven't changed my mind.
Yesterday, Megan McArdle highlighted an idea taken up by a growing number of education advocates: all-black schools. In Acting White: The Ironic Legacy of Desegregation, Stuart Buck claims that young black students feel a stigma about trying hard in school- one which labels them as trying to act "white." I don't doubt this to be the case. In fact, from numerous teachers I know in predominantly black schools, I know this to be the case. However, I just can't agree that taking all the black students out of a school and cloistering them together is the right way to go.
First, as Justice Warren noted in Brown, "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal." In the past, black students were separated from their white counterparts because of a racial animus. Today, writers like Buck would like to separate black students (and, others would like to separate female students) in an attempt to boost their scores. Whatever the motivation, however, separate is not equal and stands in direct contravention to the Brown decision.
I went to high school in a very diverse climate (though it was an all-boys private school) where black, white, Asian and Hispanic students all maintained friendships and worked hard for their grades, whatever their race. The diversity of that experience helped me, not only academically, but also in a myriad of other social circumstances and allowed me to learn a lot more about the world outside my limited experience. I also have female friends who worked hard to become very bright without feeling like learning science was "masculine." That's certainly not to say that the issues discussed by Buck and others don't exist, but simply that they can be overcome by changing the atmosphere in different ways than segregating populations.
Finally, I'm not sure I understand the example of all-black schools as a model of black achievement. As noted above, I know a good number of teachers who teach in all-black (or predominantly black) schools now. Even without white students nearby, the "acting white" stigma is still applied to hard working students. Additionally, these teachers talk constantly about their frustration in being in such low-performing settings and what a victory it is for a student just to score a 19 on the ACT. If we use these schools as examples, there is no indication that all-black schools are any better for their students than incredibly diverse schools. One would think, rather, that it's the environment fostered within the school that matters. It may be difficult for teachers and administrators to break the stigma that hard-working black students are "acting white," but I've never known a teacher to say their job is easy anyway.
When I was beginning law school, a group project was assigned during orientation which asked us to read some articles about girls-only and boys-only public schools, their seemingly helpful aspects and compare them to the decision in Brown v. Board of Education. A good number of my classmates said that they thought the schools were a good idea because it took major distractions away and allowed kids to focus on school. While I found that to be a helpful outcome, I said that such schools didn't seem to comport with the decision in Brown. I haven't changed my mind.
Yesterday, Megan McArdle highlighted an idea taken up by a growing number of education advocates: all-black schools. In Acting White: The Ironic Legacy of Desegregation, Stuart Buck claims that young black students feel a stigma about trying hard in school- one which labels them as trying to act "white." I don't doubt this to be the case. In fact, from numerous teachers I know in predominantly black schools, I know this to be the case. However, I just can't agree that taking all the black students out of a school and cloistering them together is the right way to go.
First, as Justice Warren noted in Brown, "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal." In the past, black students were separated from their white counterparts because of a racial animus. Today, writers like Buck would like to separate black students (and, others would like to separate female students) in an attempt to boost their scores. Whatever the motivation, however, separate is not equal and stands in direct contravention to the Brown decision.
I went to high school in a very diverse climate (though it was an all-boys private school) where black, white, Asian and Hispanic students all maintained friendships and worked hard for their grades, whatever their race. The diversity of that experience helped me, not only academically, but also in a myriad of other social circumstances and allowed me to learn a lot more about the world outside my limited experience. I also have female friends who worked hard to become very bright without feeling like learning science was "masculine." That's certainly not to say that the issues discussed by Buck and others don't exist, but simply that they can be overcome by changing the atmosphere in different ways than segregating populations.
Finally, I'm not sure I understand the example of all-black schools as a model of black achievement. As noted above, I know a good number of teachers who teach in all-black (or predominantly black) schools now. Even without white students nearby, the "acting white" stigma is still applied to hard working students. Additionally, these teachers talk constantly about their frustration in being in such low-performing settings and what a victory it is for a student just to score a 19 on the ACT. If we use these schools as examples, there is no indication that all-black schools are any better for their students than incredibly diverse schools. One would think, rather, that it's the environment fostered within the school that matters. It may be difficult for teachers and administrators to break the stigma that hard-working black students are "acting white," but I've never known a teacher to say their job is easy anyway.
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