A Dream Denied

Last week I was getting ready for school when I heard the breaking news of Coretta Scott King's death. I was immediately saddened by her departure from this world. I never met Mrs. King, but I felt as though I knew her. I grew up in Alabama, her home state, during the Civil Rights Era, attending the Birmingham City public schools from grades 1-12. It was a very confusing time for me.

I recall the many times my mother and I would ride the bus to shop in  downtown Birmingham. In those days, going shopping was quite an occasion—we put on our best dresses, white gloves, and my mother always wore a Sunday hat. I distinctly remember asking my mother why we could not sit in the back of the bus. I thought the long leather seat at the back looked like the best place to be. I can never recall her answer to me, but I think perhaps she told me after we got off the bus that black people sat in the back. I did not understand this at all.

As a young teenager, my best friend and I would ride the bus every Wednesday during the summer to go to the Shopper's Matinee at the Alabama Theater. By then, the white gloves were gone and there were no restrictions on where anyone sat on the bus. But I was really an adult before I understood the sacrifices of Rosa Parks and others who persevered during the Montgomery Bus Boycott to make this a reality.

Today, I wish I could say the racism and classism the Kings so fervently opposed has disappeared from Alabama and our nation. But I still see it every day as I look into the eyes of Brighton's children. There is still a great stigma attached to being a poor child of color.

You may recall that Brighton School is a K-8 school, housed in two buildings separated by several hundred yards. For years, students in our small middle school have not had a designated feeder pattern to a high school but instead choose from one of two high schools in our area. Other students who attend these schools start together in middle school and then go to their feeder high school together. Our students are scattered, and their transition to these large high schools is bound to be traumatic, after spending their middle school years in small classes with as few as 10 students, all on one hall.

In addition, our students do not have the extra-curricular activities offered in our other middle schools—nor the accelerated academic classes. Our eighth grade students have historically been older than average. Currently, almost half of of our 45 students in eighth grade are overage, due to retention.

Simply put, we are producing drop-outs. Who can blame the students for giving up when they enter high school? They are immediately identified as "the Brighton kids," who come from the school with the low test scores. Their high school support systems are weak, at best. What are the odds that they will graduate?

So long as our system continues to isolate these children in a small, under-supported facility, hidden away in one of the county's most impoverished areas, this isn't going to change. These kids and their families don't have much clout, and you really have to wonder how much different their lives are today than the lives of their parents and grandparents 50 years ago.

This is the most blatant discrimination I have ever seen first hand. And we are living in 2006, not 1966. I am sorry, Coretta Scott King. We have not yet realized the Dream. Most importantly, I apologize to all "the Brighton kids" across our state and our nation who have been failed by public education.

Comments

[cathy@aplusala.org]

Betsy, Thank you for all that you are doing for the children at Brighton. Please know that many Alabamians (and folks from out-of-state as well) deeply appreciate your commitment and involvement.

[John Norton]

I'm posting these comments about Betsy's "A Dream Denied" entry for Susan, a fellow member of the Teacher Leaders Network:

Betsy goes straight to the heart of unequal education issues. Until we level the playing field for both resources and expectations, we will continue to fail these children. There is a small school system near me where 4th grade standarized test scores are low and 8th grade scores are much lower. This community applauds itself on its high 11th grade scores, high SAT average scores and AP scores. I am amazed how many intelligent adults in this community willfully ignore the obvious message: Low performing students were driven out of the system at 16.

This same community frets that it has a higher concentration of unemployment and families on assistance than the surrounding counties. Those who have the greatest capacity to create change cannot or will not acknowledge the communities' complicity in this circle of failure.

It is easy for me to say this behind a veil of anonymity. It is quite another thing to have the courage to say it in your own community and take on the social and political fallout.

Betsy, thank you for giving these children a face and a voice. Good people sometimes look away from what is unpleasant and complex. When our son was a toddler, we would often respond to his chatter by nodding and agreeing without really listening. He would take my face between his little hands and say, "Look at this and nothing else!" Keep holding the faces of those who politely listen but are loath to commit—hold them between your highly credentialed, well educated, compassionate hands and say, "Look at this, and for just a moment, nothing else!"

Go Betsy! You are one of the bravest, toughest women I have ever met.

[Carletta]

Thank you so much. I know first hand what it's like....which is sadly as you described it. I didn't allow people's negative attitudes to get in the way of my success and neither did many of my peers. Most of the children who left Brighton Middle School are on top of their game and continue to succeed because of the teachers and other employees at Brighton, who may have lacked clout outside of the community, but nurtured us and believed in us. Thank you for being apart of that support system and I sincerely hope that you are encouraged to continue.