Re: [pf] public schools/ was we took...

by Julia Grella

12 December 2000 04:38 UTC

The de facto segregation of public schools is one of the great tragedies of 
our era.  The segregation of schools by housing patterns is something that 
even white liberals and progressives have contributed to, and, sadly, there 
seems to be a growing feeling of separatism among progressives that leads 
many to pull their kids out of public schools.

I don't have children, but went to public inner-city schools for K-12 and 
for graduate school (undergrad was at a private college).  My brother 
integrated his kindergarten class; in fact, he used to joke that we were the 
"crusading white knights of integrationism."  That was in the seventies and 
there was a lot of hope in the air, not the fear that is current.  My high 
school was in the inner city of Rochester, where I grew up.  It was a tough 
school and at times dangerous, and I got an excellent education there.  I 
started singing there.  We had a great music department, and my first voice 
teacher, the one who discovered that I had a "real voice" after I joined the 
choir to fill up a free period, was Renee Fleming's mother.

Julia