American Life Episode 562, Hebert Separate and Unequal, Brown Vs. Board of Education.

Separate and Unequal
Quotes

After reading, and listening to the assignments this week, I'm still in shock at how things are in schools today. Maybe growing up in small town USA, and coming back here after so many years, never have truly been exposed to inner city schools, I've been somewhat sheltered.
Brown Vs. Board of Education was a landmark Supreme Court case laying the foundation for the civil rights movement stating that as long as schools are separate but equal, they are inherently
unequal. Including the 14th amendment and other cases such as Plessy, Brown affected more than just schools. All facilities were affected. "Schools are no longer legally segregated, but because of residential patterns, housing discrimination, economic disparities and long-held custom, they most emphatically are in reality. "

Listening to American Life Episode 562, it was sad and I could relate to it as a parent, student, and future teacher. Questions were asked from parents about metal detectors in the schools, if students should transfer in. The parent stated it was a question of safety, not race. As parents, we are always concerned about our children's safety.  As a student, I felt for the child who was being transferred back and forth. She had made friends, dealt with a huge change, but there was always uncertainty in her life. " If you really want to improve the education of poor children, you have to get them away from learning environments that are smothered by poverty."  As a future teacher, how do you deal with the disadvantages some children may have, the "White Privilege" that other students may have. How as teachers can we make the learning experience and environment more equal while they're with us? "But there is no getting away from the fact that if you try to bring about economic integration, you're also talking about racial and ethnic integration, and that provokes bitter resistance." 

Brown Vs. Board of Education was in 1954, it amazes me that we are still struggling with these same issues today. "This society should be far more integrated in almost every way than it is now."