My husband and I are in the process of buying a house and we think we’re going to stay in the same community (I refuse to call it a “town”) that we’re in now. The reasons are plentiful: affordable houses, relatively close to both jobs, safe, lots of kid-friendly establishments, our family is nearby, etc.
The biggest benefit, though, is the school system.
Where we live now is one of the top school districts in the state, rated “Excellent with Distinction.” It’s a step up from excellent. As in, why wouldn’t we want to live there, especially if we can afford to?
As is the case with many top-performing school districts, the district in question is lily-white. As in, only-one-black-student-on-the-football-team-lily-white. Our kids might be the only black students in their classes.
It’s almost 2009 and we still have to deal with this kind of thing?
My options are either to send our kids to one of the best schools in the area and deal with the possibility of having them feel culturally isolated, or we can send them to a decent school that’s a bit more diverse.
I worry a bit about things like Black History Month. How do they teach the African American experience to kids who probably haven’t seen that many of us? Will my kids learn the full extend of slavery, or will it be glossed over in a quick paragraph? What about the civil rights movement? Will they be required to read some of MLK’s speeches? Dissect the organizing tactics of the peaceful demonstrators?
I know these concerns aren’t limited to predominately white schools, as students in more culturally diverse settings still aren’t taught the full extent of their history. But still I worry.
We want them to have the best possible start in life and making sure they attend top schools is definitely part of our plan. So they probably will attend the schools in our area. We’ll just have to provide the missing component of our kids’ public school education ourselves.