Welcome to Session 2 of our Free & Online Book Club! 

 Three Sessions:  4/22 8amPDT, 4/23 6pmPDT,  and 4/25th 9amPDT

HOW IT WORKS: 

• Sign up, Select a meeting time.
• Get the book.
• Read the book.
• At your chosen time, log in through your computer or phone (it’s easy and free), and join the conversation with parents from across the country!
• (And of course, help us spread the word to your friends, on social media, etc.)

REGISTER HERE

THIS SESSION’S READING:

Erikson, Ansley (2016) Making the Unequal Metropolis: School Desegregation and Its Limits 

In a radically unequal United States, schools are often key sites in which injustice grows. Ansley T. Erickson’s Making the Unequal Metropolis presents a broad, detailed, and damning argument about the inextricable interrelatedness of school policies and the persistence of metropolitan-scale inequality. While many accounts of education in urban and metropolitan contexts describe schools as the victims of forces beyond their control, Erickson shows the many ways that schools have been intertwined with these forces and have in fact—via land-use decisions, curricula, and other tools—helped sustain inequality.

Taking Nashville as her focus, Erickson uncovers the hidden policy choices that have until now been missing from popular and legal narratives of inequality. In her account, inequality emerges not only from individual racism and white communities’ resistance to desegregation, but as the result of long-standing linkages between schooling, property markets, labor markets, and the pursuit of economic growth. By making visible the full scope of the forces invested in and reinforcing inequality, Erickson reveals the complex history of, and broad culpability for, ongoing struggles in our schools.

See also:

• Youtube Video of Dr. Erickson presenting her book, 56min (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fzllsKgcfQ)
• Book TV Video  (https://www.c-span.org/video/?416750-4/andrew-maraniss-ansley-erickson-discuss-strong-inside-making-unequal-metropolis)
• Flatbush and Main Podcast (http://www.brooklynhistory.org/blog/2016/09/29/flatbush-main-episode-06-school-segregation-in-brooklyn/)
• Chalkbeat Article (http://www.chalkbeat.org/posts/tn/2016/08/02/race-and-education-in-nashville-author-ansley-erickson-on-the-hidden-policy-choices-that-sustain-inequality/#.V6DpyyMrKL9)
• Prospect Article (http://prospect.org/article/learning-history-prospects-school-desegregation)

At our first session, parents were hungry for a rich and deep history and interrogation of segregation and we think Erikson’s book will provide a nuanced look at how policies emerged, were linked to other policies, and reverberated through communities.  Participation in Session 1 is not a prerequisite – everyone is welcome!

Upcoming sessions will be more topic-focused including: Gentrification, Integration Best Practices, Race in Schools, “Meritocracy” and the Achievement Culture, Citizenship and Parenting, etc… and more!

To see what we discussed for Session One, click HERE

If you’re interested in starting an Integrated Schools Book Club in your community, email us and we can help (reading selections, facilitation questions, etc)

As always, please email with any questions or comments – we’d love to hear from you!

integratingschools@gmail.com