"This American Life", Hebert, and Brown vs. Board of Education

After listening, reading, reviewing these three pieces I've come to realize they all have the same argument that they are trying to get across. They argue that even though we are considered an integrated country, we clearly aren't completely one. While listening to "This American Life" and hearing about how the parents were talking about the student who were coming from Normandy at the town meeting in Missouri I would have never thought that the things that were being said would have been from when I was alive. Then to even hear one of the parents say that it wasn't a race issue. Of course it's a race issue when 1,000 students from a lower class school are now coming to a school that is 85% white. The Normandy schools were still open, but the students who were looking to get an education from an accredited school could go to a different school, so obviously the children who are looking to better their education are going to travel the 30 miles to the "white" school. I couldn't believe the father who talked about making it even harder for the students to get to the school by having school start earlier. I could understand being afraid of guns, drugs, and violence, but these are just children who were looking to better their future. The issue for me was when it was mentioned that the white families would move away if the integration happened. This helps cause the segregation to lower class schools which then makes the schools primarily Black and Hispanic students who aren't getting the education they deserve. While looking for a picture to put in this blog i found these two little elementary kids. They were ironically linked to an article about "This American Life" and how these children may not be shot and killed like Michael Brown was, they are suffering from segregated, failing schools who aren't going to give them the proper education they need to succeed in this world.

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These are children from the Normandy School District a year after Michael Brown was killed

While reading "Separate and Unequal" I had the same thoughts as when I was listening to "This American Life". Bob Hebert argues that the only way to help children who are in a school who's levels of accreditation are low, is to combine children from higher testing school and children from lower testing schools. By having these children come together in the same school this increases everything that the lowers students never had. They get better teachers, better school supplies, a better environment to work in, and over all a better education to set them up for a better future. Students aren't getting the education they deserve because their schools are letting them down by not having what they need to succeed. So combing the lower accredited schools and the higher ones will help raise the standards of children in lower income societies.

While reading and listening to these articles this week it made me think about the possible reasons why the elementary schools in Newport RI came together to make one big school named Claiborne Pell Elementary. Did these schools come together because test scores were low? were the buildings old and not properly set up to educate these children? was it considered integration moving all of these students into one school?

Comments

  1. The comment made by the parent that this wasn’t a race issue really stuck out to me too, because it is very appetent that it is. Great job!

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  2. Love the picture you added because I can connect it to one of the Ted talks I had watched regarding raising a black child in 2016

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  3. I agree with you on finding it unbelievable the parents who wanted to move away or change the start time of school. It's sad we live in a country with this prejudice and disconnect. You did a great job on your blog, I enjoyed reading it.

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