I came to the school in 1973, about five years after METCO has started, Race was always on our agenda. The Sixties were still blowing stiff winds through the school. Within my first five years, school was canceled one day for fear of rioting between black and white students (A dispute about a girlfriend or drug deal gone bad triggered this incident, but the tension was there).
At that time, we has a sub group of white working class kids called "Rats"--black leather jackets, the whole deal--who were not shy about being overtly racist. Some of the black kids were pretty tough as well, so for a while it seemed like the school was on a hair trigger. The Boston busing crisis in the late 70"s helped provide an overheated context for everything happening at the school.
From those years to this, there has been a continuous--if often interrupted--discussion about how to bring people together in order to reap the benefits of "diversity" and about "black achievement." There were several years when this was the school goal. Unfortunately, a new goal would be picked the following year. Leveling has always been a contentious issue, along with the associated issue of racial stratification within the school. With the creation of an AP program, perhaps this reality has become even more stark.
I understand that progress has been made in reducing the achievement gap at L-S, though it still exists. Apparently, it first manifests itself in 4th grade in the town schools. As everyone knows, this is a national phenomenon. We have had have had teacher trainers come here who suggested the problem is mainly caused by indifferent or racially-insensitive (or racist) teachers who have low expectations for their minority students. Others believe that the gap can be traced to the historical legacies of racism and class. This debate goes on. Even in the black community and among black academicians there is disagreement as to the cause(s) or solutions.
Over the years, we have tried to deal with this issue of diversity and achievement in a variety of ways. Everyone who reads this can judge for themselves whether we have progressed. My main point is that a number of things have been tried. We have not been totally oblivious.
1) Courses partly created so that they might serve as meeting grounds for diverse students: the old Human Relations Class, American Issues, and African-American history course; our current African African-Studies, Race and Membership, Making & Remaking of Race. Other courses have also served this purpose. I want to also mention our past attempts to create/schedule bi-racial sections of certain courses (I think US Survey).
2) Extracurricular experiences: Sports; Deep South Trip; Operation Integration; the current rap festival; fashion show.
3) Support programs like MYM and the Afternoon Academy
4) A more careful staffing of Metco
5) Special efforts: More aggressively trying to hire minority staff and a conscious effort to recommend capable minority students for higher level classes.
Bill Schechter / 2005
