Talking Points # 6 Argument*

1. Separate and Unequal by Bob Hebert

2. Argument
This author Bob Hebert argues that there is "very little evidence that you can have success when you pack all the low-income students into one particular school."

 How you do in school doesn't depend on what skin color you have, but in-actuality whats important is the environment of the schools, "with better teachers, fewer classroom disruptions, pupils who are more engaged academically, parents who are more involved" are all ways that a positive environment helps to improve education. If the poorer schools had better teachers, who really took on the challenge of caring about their students, and wanted to help them succeed and really make something of themselves, maybe the students would do better. It's a "much more effective way of closing the achievement gap."

It's important that we have integration throughout  our school systems, so no one child gets left behind. Some school districts have tried numerous strategies to integrate schools by "establishing specialized, high-achieving magnet schools in high-poverty neighborhoods, which have had some success in attracting middle class students. Some middle-class schools have been willing to accept transfers of low-income students when those transfers are accompanied by additional resources that benefit all of the students in the schools."

We as a society need to get over the fact that we are all of a different race, and for that reason we need to stick together, by integrating schools we not only get the same education, but we can also learn from one another as well. If you put low income students with all low income students, that's all they've ever seen, that's all they know, they don't know how to want, or strive for anything more, so that's were they stay, in the low income category. But the second you put a low income student in with middle income students, its a whole other playing field, they are now embraced with the idea of something 'more' than what they have now, they see the possibility of being 'more', and actually making something of themselves. It's all about the possibilities.