Segregated Schools, Segregated Society

I take issue with “A New Approach to School Equality” (May 15), on the inevitability of segregated schools. It’s wrong to give up on this. As long as schools are segregated, our society will remain segregated. And you know what? People have got to learn how to get along.

Having moved back to Los Angeles after 18 years in New York, I am shocked at how divided it is here. People are still very afraid of each other. And much of the segregation in the schools here is the result of people being afraid to send their kids to the local school. The only way a child is going to lose that (learned) fear is to go to school with and sit with children of all races. In doing that, they become colorblind and truly see people for who they are and not what they look like. All this talk about academic achievement and excellence -- what an achievement, both intellectually and socially, there is in such a simple lesson.

Virginia Hoge

Pasadena

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Maybe dialogue, the kind of interpersonal communication that can cut to the core of people’s assumptions, biases and prejudices, is a way to break down their continuing resistance to change. I think this kind of change can occur only through one-on-one exchanges on a national scale.

Otherwise, we will be celebrating the 100th anniversary of Brown vs. Board of Education with an observation similar to the one in your May 17 editorial: “We are not yet at peace with diversity.”

Karl Strandberg

Long Beach