Perception Redirection

We live in a class society. All of us. The big cheese spenders are up at the top of society and the rest of us take our places accordingly. There is also the aspect of race in that class system. Yep. I said it. Race.

I was watching the news this morning with the mister (I'm so glad to have him home with me for the next couple of days!), and saw a story on a North Carolina school board putting an end to diversity based busing. This particular school board is interesting because rather than bus the lower socioeconomic students to the higher rated schools, they bus the students from the higher rated schools to the lower socioeconomic schools.

I grew up in West Texas. The school district where I attended employs diversity based busing, sending the lower income students to the higher rated schools. I was lucky enough that my parents built their home in a good school district, but that also provided for some drawbacks as far as my real world view is concerned. Amarillo is not the most diverse when it comes to race. Currently, Amarillo is 64% White, 22% Hispanic, 11% other, and 6% African American. This demonstrates how I grew up surrounded by other white students, a few Hispanic students, and maybe 4 African American students. My world was not filled with all the colors of the race rainbow.

Moving to New Orleans has changed my perception dramatically about what is a culturally diverse society. I moved from a city that is 6% African American, 64% white, and 22% Hispanic, to a city that is 67% African American, 28% white, and 3% Hispanic.

I am OFFICIALLY ONE OF THE MINORITIES!!!!!! Yay! I kind of like this. Kev is EVEN more a minority here - being that he is part Hispanic.

This may sound offensive, but while I cherish the education and upbringing I received from my parents, I wish I could have grown up in a city that showed me that the world is not just white with some brown thrown in to appear socially acceptable. (I say showed me because I believe my parents raised me to be an open minded individual. Thanks, Mom and Dad!)

My point is this: It sounds like a step backward for this school board to change their diversity based busing system policy. The original point of their policy was to have all the schools in the district be equal, and perform equally well.

I think it would have been nice to have attended school with some kids who were from the "wrong side of the tracks", you know, like in 16 Candles? Perhaps if the rich kids had to actually play with the poor kids, they could start finding a mutual understanding and stop focusing on the color of one's skin.

This topic is interesting to me. A protester was even arrested. It's getting all heated and stuff. People are rioting. Down with the MAN! Ooops...got a little carried away there.

Why can't everything be equal? Why can't we all sit down and have a little pow wow and a coke and stop bickering so much, and why, when we have a black President, are we still dealing with this?

I don't know the challenges of having to raise a child and definitely don't have to think about educating one. I would have a hard time doing that here - the public schools aren't very good and private schools cost big cheese. So, we have cats.

But, I do know the importance of a person's education. It's time for parents to start parenting again and holding their children accountable for their education. On the same note, parents should CARE about their child's education. Instill in your kids a love of learning...I promise it will pay off for them.