SPUTNIK AND SEGREGATION

In: Commentary, Band 26, Heft 4, S. 332-339

Abstract

Behind the demands that we stop the inequities of Southern Sch segregation there is often hidden the fact of Northern segregation. Here, the separation of the `nice white children from the poor white & Negro children is accomplished both by the private & parochial Sch's & by the move to the suburbs. In the vanguard of the fight for desegregation liberal intellectuals fight for equal' educ'al opportunities for all, + `special opportunities' for the intellectual elite. Thus, Paul Woodring's A Fourth of a Nation proposes separate educ'al policies for the bright, the average, & the below average. The 3 groups would be separated from the 3rd grade & trained for appropriate stations in life. The democratic nature of our gov & soc system came about because, in theory, all children have been subject to identical experiences during their first 12 yrs in Sch. If differentiation is begun at an earlier level, the Sch's will compound the diff's in home background (which many have tried to equalize) with the further agony of intellectual diff's. Let us instead help prepare the underprivileged in home background to make better use of classroom learning. J. A. Fishman.