The great promise of the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education was that children would grow up in integrated schools. The latest issue of Teaching Tolerance magazine shows that's just not what has happened.Unmaking Brown
America's schools are more segregated now than they were in the late 1960s, and statistics show that the problem is getting worse. To reverse the trend, we need to radically rethink the meaning of "school choice."
The Only One
When you're the only person of color in your class, school can become a struggle between two worlds. Students in that situation are often expected to represent and explain their ethnic or racial group, and this can create a lot of stress.
Toward a More Civil Discourse
There is a pressing need to change the tenor of public debate from shouts and slurs to something more reasoned and effective. But it is difficult for teachers already burdened with standardized tests and administrative duties to find the time to craft lessons to teach civil discourse in their classrooms. To support teachers working to change the terms of our national debate, Teaching Tolerance offers a new curriculum entitled “Civil Discourse in the Classroom and Beyond.”
‘I Don’t Think I’m Biased’
Multicultural understanding and proficiency have never been more important to teachers than they are right now. Never before have we had so many young children entering schools populated by teachers who reflect neither their race, nor their language tradition, nor the communities from which they come. This growth in culturally diverse classrooms has unfortunately coincided with an “achievement gap” of historical proportions.
Get ideas for Mix it Up Lunch Day
The event is a simple call to action: take a new seat in the cafeteria. By making the move, students can cross the invisible lines of school division, meet new people and make new friends. Mix it Up at Lunch Day helps students become more comfortable interacting with different kinds of people.
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