Integration: How do we achieve this?

Integration is beneficial for all young learners because it will help to eliminate biases that are formed during development due to ignorance. If you are not exposed to people whom are different than you, it is likely that you will accept your reality as the norm. Growing up without the realization that many people's life experiences are much different than yours causes a lot of close-minded thoughts and ethnocentric behaviors. Integration is really the only way to minimize the biases we pass on to our future generations.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,984468,00.html

This is the actual Jack White article that the controversial quote discussed in class came from. It is from 1996, but it still applies today. How do we actually desegregate when the white population won't stay still long enough to be integrated into? De Facto segregation will continue until the differences between upper and lower class are somehow minimized. Perhaps the differences were never meant to be minimized. How do we change this then?

I found this incredibly interesting news clip at NPR about this exact topic. If you have a few minutes, you should really listen to it. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5169990 It talks about de facto segregation and white flight. It also discusses how our government and the established class system have contributed to the further segregation of our schools.

In spite of the fact that it is in the best interest of our nation to integrate, our elected officials continue to turn a blind eye to this delicate matter. What can we do to change this problem? I believe it was Hillary Clinton who said that it takes a village to raise a child. Perhaps we need to approach those members of our larger village who are in a position to fund the schools that need the most help.

An idea born during a side conversation in class included calling ABC to ask if Extreme Makeover would like to consider a School Addition. Another idea is to go to local businesses and ask for donations to cover the cost of new text books. Each major corporation has a lot of money it allots each year to donate to worthy causes. Let us find these corporations and help them see the schools that need the most help as the worthy causes they should confer their funds upon.