What continually stuck out for me throughout the reading had to do with discrimination and trying to make everything equitable.  I still have a hard time understanding the bias that existed and still exists.

It was fantastic to read about the student walk out/strike in Crystal City in our text, School The Story of American Public Education.  The situation was in need of change. The list of demands that included a plea for teachers to stop calling Mexican Americans derogatory names should have been a wakeup call for everyone involved. But it wasn’t!  I’m disgusted by that.  It troubles me. It’s difficult to believe, but I do.

The fantastic part is that students with parental help organized petitions, federal mediation, then a walk out/strike and then a campaign to change the occupants of the school board.   Knowing that the school board was the place of power, and through the democratic process, the community was successful in bringing about change for the better. The avenue to make change existed.  Working through the conflict in a peaceful and effective manner to bring about change that needed to happen is a celebration. Also the fact that students were seeking a better education, for more education, for more local control of their education, for the right to value  their culture through their education shows the opposite of apathy and the strength of engagement.

I do not understand the level of prejudice that existed that wouldn’t even allow students to speak at a school board meeting.  I’m sure I don’t understand the fear that must have been present in the students and parents who were speaking out and actively seeking change.  I’m sure I have no idea of the hardship and frustration that existed in their life.

What matters is that change happened that brought about more opportunity for an increased amount of the population.  The scales of balance were brought a little bit closer to equal. What matters are that people saw the way to implement a shift; a change.   Did the system work when people worked the system?  We all have rights and responsibilities and when we actively engage in invoking our rights responsibly it protects our democracy. Will we always be striving to make things both excellent and equal for all ?   I hope so. Will there ever be a complete balance that makes it “just right” for everyone?

It’s hard to imagine the prejudice and discrimination that we read about throughout the book. Several years ago my husband’s grandma told me a story that made my heart hurt.  My mother-in-law was in grade school and had asked if she could bring a friend home for lunch.  She brought the friend home and they ate lunch together in her kitchen.  This was her best bud that she played with at school all the time. After school she came home and the cup and plate her friend had eaten on were still by the sink in the kitchen.   This was unusual as lunch was always cleaned up by the time she came home from school. She asked her mom about it and she said, “Honey, your friend is black.  I think I need to throw those dishes away.”  She was raised that African-Americans were dirty and carried diseases and all sorts of undesirable habits. She said she was troubled about her daughter’s friendship with this little girl at the time.

She (Grandma Great) was a good person full of love and kindness.  But her views, at that time, were shaped by society, obviously. That would have been around 1945 or so.  I do not judge her or hold her in any less esteem. The fact that she was willing to tell about this incident in the light of the “error of her thinking” endeared me to her more.

There is always hope  for the  better.