"Separate And Unequal" Herbert Extended Comments & Connections

This post about the Brown v. Board of Education is a mix between extended comments and connections through service learning. After looking at the sources Dr. Bogad provided, I thought Bob Herbert's article, “Separate and Unequal,” caught my attention the most. Like always, after I read the piece I went through others blogs just to see what they thought of the texts. As I read Hannah’s blog on Brown v. Board of Education, I realized she shared a lot of the same connections I have had in the community I was born and raised in. The town I am from consists of white middle class families, so everyone is for the most part treated equal. Therefore, agreeing with Hannah, RIC is the most diverse school I have attended. Herbert’s article discusses, “Ninety-five percent of education reform is about trying to make separate schools for rich and poor work, but there is very little evidence that you can have success when you pack all the low-income students into one particular school.” I believe that students need to be around different people from different families, so they know that their are other people out in the world. In my town, all of us were the same, so we all saw each other as equal. Though, unfortunately if you take a child from a private, high class boarding school, and put him into an inner city, low income school, he is going to be alarmed by his surroundings. Like I have said in earlier posts, the service learning experience has really opened by eyes. I think that schools need to be more diverse, and this will raise positivity among all the students in the schools to want to succeed. 

* As teachers, I think we need to share different environments with our students, and let them know not everyone is as fortunate as they are. This isn’t a reason for others to be treated differently or unfairly though. Everyone needs to be taught to treat others with the respect you want back, and to not think you’re better than others.