With the exception of learning about the history of segregation and integration in the United States, I feel there is no reason a child should have to deal with this issue. We live in the year 2006, and race is supposed to be the last thing on our children’s minds. Unfortunately, it is not the last thing on the mind of our nation’s educators.
I am glad we homeschool because the segregation/integration issue is therefore nonexistent. While our homeschool is of course segregated by nature of our family being the same race, our homeschooling community is integrated. It not something we think about, talk about or worry about. We are the race we are, our friends are the races they are, and no one cares.
So why am I even talking about integration and segregation? I am mentioning it because cases on school integration are being heard in both Seattle, WA, and Louisville, KY, according to Diversity Inc. While the rulings on Brown V. Board of Education ended public school segregation, and therefore allowed black children equal educational opportunities as white children, policies designed to implement the law are said to give black children and unfair advantage over whites.
Any rulings that change the decisions of Brown v. Board of Education or fail to change the inequitable ways that it has been interpreted through the years are likely to have a negative effect on all schools nationwide. Chances are that all children will be damaged to some extent just by being aware of racial conflict at too early an age. All children, both black and white, will have to deal with issues that will affect the perception of their own self worth through adulthood.
I think I will let my children get through their puberty years without any race based hang-ups. I sure am glad we homeschool.