Thanks to everyone who came to our Book Club discussions with Dr. Noliwe Rooks yesterday and Sunday. The conversations were provocative and it was inspiring to connect with parents from Seattle to Philly, Houston to Madison. And a million thanks to Dr. Rooks who generously shared her time and insights (twice!), and asked some good, hard questions of us parents. (And thanks, Dr. Rooks, for the shout-out to Integrated Schools in your Washington Post interview!)
If you didn’t get a chance to join the discussion, we encourage you nevertheless to check out Cutting School — a fascinating and disturbing look at the business of (and, yes, money money lots of money in) segregation.
Our next Book Club chat will be announced soon…
ICYMI, Integrated Schools got a little love from CityLab yesterday.
Integration is a tricky issue, complicated and messy and difficult to easily address… but if you are motivated to add your voice to the growing group of us who *do* care (and help counteract some of the “good/bad” schools narratives that are flying about, share your thoughts in the comments section (also on twitter, FB CityLab, FB Integrated Schools). This movement depends on all of us.
We are grateful that this article has brought a wave of new parents and educators to our Integrated Schools table (welcome!) and we are looking forward to building a host of new community chapters in the near future! Drop us a line if you’re thinking about this for your own town.
(In addition to our Integrated Schools page, we have just opened a private group on FB (I know I know… FB…); nonetheless, feel free to join us there as well.)
Teen Vogue tackled our segregated lives and our diversity-loving words last week in this article by Lincoln Anthony Blades
In Don’t Claim you Stand with Immigrants If You Self-Segregate, Blades writes “When white Americans theoretically embrace immigration while simultaneously practicing self-segregation, they aren’t echoing the substantive beliefs of equality and diversity, they’re parroting the ideals of ‘separate but equal.'”
YES, that.
He goes on to write that “If you think living around people of color puts you at a higher safety risk, then you really aren’t much different than Trump. To embrace immigration is to drop prejudices, such as assuming that minorities bring crime. To not only embrace the positives of cultural exchange but to put yourself in proximity to people different than yourself. If white people continue to adopt a self-segregationist mentality and behavior, nonwhite immigrants will always be vulnerable and unprotected, and our diversity will be only ideologically aspirational instead of realistically practical.”
Erin Wasinger gives us a glimpse in her family’s struggle with choice and children and faith in this piece from Christianity Today.
In particular, this line jumped out: “If we’re investing our treasure—our kids—in a place we don’t live, Jesus predicts our hearts are likely to follow (Matt. 6:21).” Wasinger juxtaposes the idea of how our children’s lives tend to orient how, where, and about whom we care with “Augustine’s definition of sin: We’d curve ourselves around this narrative of our family, our kids, our choices.” Whether we come to this discussion through faith or social justice, these words deeply resonate.
And be on the lookout for a news recap from our partners at Desegregation Notebook! Peter digs in to Brandeis University’s Sillerman Center report (definitely worth reading!!!) Diverse, Equitable and Inclusive K-12 Schools: A New Call for Philanthropic Support and the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights’ Public Education Funding Inequity in an Era of Increasing Concentration of Poverty and Resegregation. But we’ll let Peter tell you more…
Thanks so much for hosting it! I was back at my desk, just listening, by the end. I’m sorry I couldn’t say anything!
I wanted to share one thing that my husband and I have found helpful in terms of encouraging other white and Asian (I’m white, husband is Asian) parents to send their kids to public school in Harlem. We acted, and still act, as an anchor. After we took the tour of the school when our kid was a baby, we told everyone (consistently! For years! Including at the playgroup my husband ran for over two years), that we plan to send our kids there. Lo and behold, about a quarter of playgroup, 1/3 of our daughter’s PK class, and over half the kids in our building are in universal PK at our school.
Now, we tell everyone (consistently! With confidence!) that we plan to stay through 8th grade. When people know that someone they trust will definitely be there, they are far more likely to get on/stay on the bandwagon. So that is something we all can do if we have made the decision to integrate our local public school, especially if we live in gentrifying neighborhoods.
Warm regards,
Carolyn
Sent from my iPhone