Last week we looked at a school district integrating by accident. This week: a city going all out to integrate its schools. Plus, a girl who comes up with her own one-woman integration plan.
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Norman Rockwell's "The Problem We All Live With," depicting Ruby Bridges, the first Black child to attend an all white elementary school in the South.
Artwork approved by The Norman Rockwell Family Agency.
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July 31, 2015
The Problem We All Live With - Part One
Prologue
Chana Joffe-Walt talks to Kiana, who went to a school that was overwhelmingly black and Latino,
but when some white students showed up one day on an exchange program, she went up to them
eagerly. And since then, has embarked on a one-woman school integration program. Among other
things, she wanted to see “white wasted.” (9 minutes)
Act One
My Secret Public Plan
Chana Joffe-Walt reports on the Hartford, CT school system, which actively seeks to integrate. The
results have been impressive. It used to be that 11% of Hartford students were in integrated schools.
Now it’s nearly half. But the trick to the whole thing is: convince white families it’s in their self-
interest to go to integrated schools. This requires the kind of marketing skills and savvy we’re more
used to seeing at Apple and Pepsi than we are at a public school district. (38 minutes)
There's a book by Susan Eaton about Hartford's integration plan, called The Children in Room E4.
There's a book by Susan Eaton about Hartford's integration plan, called The Children in Room E4.
Act Two
What’s It All About, Arne?
Reporter Nikole Hannah-Jones, who has investigated integration in schools for years, joins Chana
Joffe-Walt to interview the Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan. The Obama Administration says
it’s in favor of integrating the schools, but doesn’t seem to do so much to promote it. They seemed
to have the perfect opportunity, integration advocates say, with their Race to the Top program. But
even then they didn’t act. Nikole and Chana ask: what’s the deal? (8 minutes)
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Act Four: Every Day I Forget Something Else
An excerpt from Nicholson Baker's novel The Everlasting Story of Nory, which is narrated, more or less, by a ten-year-old.
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