Segregated Classrooms...Good? Really?

     So, the other day I'm having my two English muffins and my 2% milk, because you can never be too healthy, right?! Wait, what? Healthy? Why don't you tell your 3 readers what you slathered on your healthy English muffins, Boss! Huh? Oh, just a little butter, and a little grape jelly. What's the big deal, Sancho? A little? Kind of like the La Brea Tar Pits have a little tar. Go kill something, will you?

    Anyway, as I'm reading the paper with my 2% MILK, I notice a headline that reads, "School District Offers Classes Separated by Race." Really? As I hurriedly gulped down my milk (2%, if I forgot to mention it) and started in on my hot chocolate and a healthy banana (You are such an idiot), I slowly and studiously made my way through this, what seemed to me, shocking piece. 

    It seems that a school district in Evanston, Illinois was, like many school districts around the nation, battling a sizable academic achievement gap between Black, Latino, and White students. This, mind you, has been going on for decades. To combat this, school districts nationwide have attempted many things over the years, from trying to get parents more involved in the children's homework, to offering more tutoring, to rigging the grading curves on exams (I know...shocking), to screaming "racism" at the top of their collective lungs (I know...not so shocking). These attempts have, to varying degrees, failed again and again. So Evanston Township High School, a sleepy college town just north of Chicago, went all retro on us: they decided to offer, on a voluntary basis, limited classes separated by, wait for it...RACE! I know! I couldn't believe it either!

    Now, I'm gonna pause here and tell you that I stopped reading right then and there and went to the gym. I had all this sugar to burn off from the 2% milk and the banana, and I knew if I read the whole piece right then and there I'd be a little crazy the rest of the day and never get the workout in. Well, that hardly panned out, because the whole time at the gym all of these questions are flying through my head like, "Isn't this illegal?" "Did we repeal Brown v. Board of Education and somehow I missed it?" "Haven't young black kids and their parents (and many white kids and their parents) busted their collective asses to ensure desegregation in schools so that everyone gets the equal opportunity they so richly deserve?" I tell you it ruined my whole workout. I almost dropped the 500 lbs. I was bench-pressing right on my neck! Pretty good, huh? But I digress... Such a moron!

    Anyway, the first thing I did when I got back home was a Google search under the phrase "segregated classrooms," just to make sure I was still remembering how everyone hates that phrase. I was right. You know what comes up when you type in that phrase? Just under 3 million hits! And while I didn't read ALL of them, the first few pages were what I expected. "...reflects the nation's continuing legacy of racism and systemic racial inequality," etc., etc. So I figured, "segregated classrooms...still BAD! Whew!" 

    I then got to the rest of the article. There were a number of things that you probably already knew: Black and Latino kids enroll in fewer advanced placement classes than Whites and Asians; Black/Latino students hand in homework at a much lower rate than White/Asian kids; Black/Latino students are less likely to have been read to as children than White/Asian kids, etc., etc., etc. We've been down these roads before and nothing seems to have changed. Which brings us to voluntary classroom segregation. And not to put too fine a point on it; voluntary classroom segregation SUPPORTED by the minority parents, and by an educational system that is frighteningly monolithic in rejecting out-of-hand ANYTHING that might have the slightest odor, real or imagined, of "old-school" racism (no pun intended). What the hell is going on?

    Well, what seems to be going on is that the educational establishment is reading. Go figure! There are studies out there that show slightly improved educational outcomes, like graduation rates for Black and Latino students being taught by teachers of the same race. And there are other school districts in Seattle, San Francisco and Oakland that have offered these types of voluntary, race-specific courses. To my amazement, these things are legal...as long as they are voluntary. Fair enough. I was heartened to see that Brown v Board of Education had not been somehow eviscerated! But I can't help thinking that this could...maybe... might...lead to a slippery slope that I am sure NOBODY wants to go down again. But let's leave that thought for another day.

    "A lot of times within our education system, Black students are expected to conform to a White standard," said Dena Luna, who leads Black student-achievement initiatives in the Minneapolis Public Schools. This quote baffled me. I mean, I understand that I'm easily baffled but this was strange. I had to ask myself, "To what "White standard" is this woman referring to?" Isn't the "standard" to get the best grade possible; to do the work to the best of ones ability so as to move on to the next level? Is the standard of higher achievement only inherently a White thing? I think not. Now I know many of you out there just laughed as you condescend to my naive nature. Trust me, I'm a lot of  things...but naive is not one of them. Well, most of the time. But not this time. 

    This particular district in Minneapolis offers middle- and high-school students electives focused on African-American history and "social-emotional support" taught by teachers of color. Really? "Social-emotional support"? I hope they are also being taught the same things they were being taught before it was decided that the only thing holding them back was the tragedy of being in a room with White kids. What this seems to tell me is that we're insulting young black kids with "the soft bigotry of low expectations." The idea that you can't compete in the world BECAUSE you're black.  I'm gonna rant here for a second, so bear with me, and feel free to hate, because nobody wants to hear this. Why is it that the only time we saddle young black kids with these low expectations is when it comes to something intellectual? We don't do it in sports, do we? Anybody ever tell Michael Jordan, LeBron James, or Jerry Rice (that one's for you older readers) that they could only blossom surrounded by other black athletes and/or coaches? Of course not! They succeeded because they used whatever natural ability they had and compounded that many times over with hours and hours and hours of hard work, studying their craft, and then more hard work. Maybe, just maybe, if we held these young men and women to even a little higher standard (if you're so worried or inclined), they just may surprise those you who think they aren't good enough to make it without a crutch. Sorry about that...it's just so damn annoying. 

    But here's the question that I think is very fair: Is integration no longer a positive social good? Do we want students to be colorblind and to treat each other only on the basis of who they are as human beings? Does this undermine the goals of the Civil Rights Act? I know, that's 3 questions...whatever. But I think they are important questions. 

    There are some very early statistics that have been brought up by supporters who hope to expand these programs nationwide. In Minneapolis an internal study showed increased attendance among young Black men in the program, and GPAs of 2.27 for Black males in the program as opposed to GPAs of 2.14 for Black males district wide. Are these increases, however small, worth it? Could be. Only time will tell. Look, I'm for anything that works...within reason. And this program, while going against the tide of decades of mainstream racial thought, is at the very least, provocative. 

    Also, and in conclusion, sort of...the other question or critique is, "Where are the parents in all this?" It was stated in the article by a school administrator that everyone, especially the parents, has to be "all in" for something like this to work. Having said that, I called a dear friend (who I won't name because who really wants to be associated with my ranting, right?) who is much more knowledgeable than I am about the goings on in our high schools and colleges today. After much discussion about everything above, we realized we began and ended with the parents. You simply cannot succeed as a student or, to be perfectly frank about it, a good citizen in a civil society without parents who love, care, and are involved; or "ALL IN" as it were. Parents need to read to their kids; they need to make sure they do the homework (and help if they can); and to just be there...when they can...teaching them the things that only parents can. Maybe, just maybe, if that were to happen more often, we wouldn't need Mr. Peabody's and Sherman's "Wayback Machine" and segregate our classrooms. 

    I recently typed in this very space that I felt like I was back in 1938 because of all the shit that was going on in the world. Well, with the return of segregated classrooms, I'm getting that 1950s feeling all over again.

write to Peter: magtour@icloud.com