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My autistic stepson went to a school that was predominately black. Despite his handicap, he was seen as an easy target and was pushed around often, and a a group ganged up on him and beat him on the school bus for nothing. He doesn't interact socially and was minding his own business. He had to be pulled out of the school and go transported to a school with civilized students.
Sorry to hear that Lassielad. The way you wrote this makes it sound like you believe a predominately black school is uncivilized. I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you didn't mean this.
I spent 10 years in education and observed bullying by many students of many backgrounds. It's always awful, but never as simple as correlating to race. It's typically a result of insecurity and fear.
Desegregating schools would have a long-term beneficial impact on bullying. You should support it if you're anti-bullying.
As a kid that grew up here in the 80's, I can tell you that busing is not the solution. Dr. Peter Relic started that pipe dream back in the day, as a means to "even up" the school system for poor kids. I agree that everyone deserves a fair chance to better themselves, but there has to be a different solution other than busing. All busing did for me as a middle class white kid was make my commute go from 15 minutes to almost an hour going across town everyday.
Oh, also, imagine being a white kid in Jr. High that was more than 70% black? I certainly caught my share of being bullied and beaten, only positive I can think of is that it taught me to stand up for myself pretty quickly. I had other friends in different school systems at the time, they were not a product of busing. Because of this, I really do believe they received a higher level of education than I did. It's tough to focus on books when you are worried about getting your a** kicked everyday. Just my 02.
Almost the same thing happened to me. I started high school at the age of 12 and I got my lunch money stolen from me more than a few times. But I evolved into a "junior Norman Bates/ Hannibal Lector". One big black kid who punched me and took my lunch money, walked his sister home every day and I finally got to the point where being in the Chem Lab as a homeroom, I went back and boiled 400 ml of concentrated 37% sulfuric acid and chased him to the front of the high school and told him I'd get him or his little sister and that the welfare they lived on wouldn't pay for the plastic surgery to fix either one of them. Also threatened to drown said sister in the Passaic River. This guy was shot and killed at the age of 26 in the 70's. I must say I really enjoyed my "schadenfreude" over that one! BTW, I became a Chemistry major in college! The old Dupont slogan, "Better Living through Chemistry" became my motto!
Sorry to hear that Lassielad. The way you wrote this makes it sound like you believe a predominately black school is uncivilized. I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you didn't mean this.
I spent 10 years in education and observed bullying by many students of many backgrounds. It's always awful, but never as simple as correlating to race. It's typically a result of insecurity and fear.
Desegregating schools would have a long-term beneficial impact on bullying. You should support it if you're anti-bullying.
I taught 12 (Middle School) inner-city. It wasn't pretty. I constantly hear from black leadership and parents of black kids say that the ethnic kids need teachers and classrooms specifically of their own their ethnicity. I support that 100 percent. I welcome anyone in a classroom if they want to learn. That applies to everyone. In my school, there were constant disruptions and those that wanted to learn didn't get the six hours of instruction they deserved as a result. I understand that kids can't sit in a classroom all day and not get antsy and sometimes be a pain, but when students call teachers "MSers" and other horrible names, it is clear that our education system is in peril. Additionally, the double standard doesn't help. Blacks get by with murder (it just what they are used to is the excuse) whereas whites are expected to act at a higher level of behavior. I like kids and students of all colors and races, but only good ones.
Almost the same thing happened to me. I started high school at the age of 12 and I got my lunch money stolen from me more than a few times. But I evolved into a "junior Norman Bates/ Hannibal Lector". One big black kid who punched me and took my lunch money, walked his sister home every day and I finally got to the point where being in the Chem Lab as a homeroom, I went back and boiled 400 ml of concentrated 37% sulfuric acid and chased him to the front of the high school and told him I'd get him or his little sister and that the welfare they lived on wouldn't pay for the plastic surgery to fix either one of them. Also threatened to drown said sister in the Passaic River. This guy was shot and killed at the age of 26 in the 70's. I must say I really enjoyed my "schadenfreude" over that one! BTW, I became a Chemistry major in college! The old Dupont slogan, "Better Living through Chemistry" became my motto!
Glad to hear it turned out well. It is called Karma.
Very true! Everybody talks about "food deserts" in many cities and rural areas, but "intellectual deserts" exists in too many homes. If your children don't see you engrossed in reading a book, it's a lot less likely they'll ever be doing the same. Well-educated parents produce well-educated children!
I am white and old. All of my black friends are black and old.
To a person, without exception, they believe that black children, schooled in poor run down schools, prior to the 1970s learned more and better than they have since. They chalk this up to really good black teachers whose only, or whose few options, for upward mobility was by becoming a teacher. Parents who wanted their kids to have a better life than they had experienced, and finally, tremendous pride in their academic achievements.
Maybe these guys are lying to me. But I don't think so.
Do not mis-understand, my friends are not saying everything was great, but they feel strongly about what they took away from their very segregated education.
Edit: Before some yahoo reads this and thinks I am suggesting that segregation is better, let me correct that immediately. My point is that given proper surrounding influences children can and will learn. This applies equally to people of all color!
Today's schools are too big. Get the graduating class sizes down to around 150 so that students feel like they know each other by name, and it's not an alienating place where you can be unobserved and get into trouble when the staff isn't around.
That means more schools with a smaller footprint - maybe not every school needs large athletic fields. More focus on education than sports is better anyway.
I think the super-sized schools are a development of desegregation. Attempting to merge neighborhoods from all around, and it has had side effects on how students behave and how they view their school - it's a big institution to defend themselves in.
I read an article in the Charlotte Observer stating that a study was made and 'too many black students are being suspended or expelled as compared to white students'.
These are important discussions that need to be had, but one of my pet peeves is journalists making everything about white vs. black, as if there are no other ethnic groups in this country -- whether the subject is education, unemployment, net worth, arrests, whatever. I think it would be more helpful if they would recognize that we have a very diverse population with many ethnicities. If comparisons must be made, let's also (at least) include Latinos and Asians -- groups with large populations in the U.S. If these other groups are also struggling (or not struggling) in a particular area, such as education, knowing that helps to better inform where the problem (or conversely, the solution) might lie. I saw a study awhile back that found Asians had the highest net worth of any group. I see something like that and the question that comes to my mind is: What is it that they are doing right? And what can we learn from that?
^^^ Asians are not always viewed as hard-studying over-achievers. I remember in Fresno hearing negative comments about the Hmong and Cambodians. People thought the parents were deeply uneducated, and didn't do enough to encourage their children to learn.
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BTW, I became a Chemistry major in college! The old Dupont slogan, "Better Living through Chemistry" became my motto! 
