This document has been formatted for printing from your browser from the Web site of the Illinois Association of School Boards.
COPYRIGHT NOTICE -- This document is © copyrighted by the Illinois Association of School Boards. IASB hereby grants to school districts and other Internet users the right to download, print and reproduce this document provided that (a) the Illinois Association of School Boards is noted as publisher and copyright holder of the document and (b) any reproductions of this document are disseminated without charge and not used for any commercial purpose.
Illinois School Board Journal
May/June 2004
Dreamer's reflection: Brown v. Board at 50
by Jacqueline Y. Collins
Jacqueline Y. Collins is an Illinois State Senator, representing Chicago District 16. She is a former journalist with Citizen Community Newspapers and an Emmy-award nominated editor at CBS-TV.
Coming of age in the late '60s, I was greatly influenced by the political rhetoric of hope articulated by John and Robert Kennedy and the public witness of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. But my ability to believe in their dreams of an enlightened democracy was rooted in the seeds of promise sown with the Brown v. Board of Education decision of May 17, 1954. This landmark legislation challenged the "separate but equal" doctrine that pervaded the legal, social, political and economic fabric of this nation.
As a person of color and public servant, I am profoundly indebted to the exceptional courage and extraordinary commitment of Thurgood Marshall, the remarkable NAACP attorney who successfully argued this historic case before the U.S. Supreme Court. His victory in court decreed that racially segregated schools were unconstitutional. This pivotal judgment served as the legal impetus for the grassroots activism and non-violent protest of Dr. King and the civil rights movement.
This historical backdrop continues to color my dreams and frame my legislative agenda, for even as we prepare to celebrate the legacy of Brown, the promise of that decision still waits to be fulfilled.
Fifty years after Brown, segregation is still a glaring and gaping wound on the face of America. Significant racial and economic disparity in educational performance and success is rapidly transforming the dream of justice into a nightmare.
According to the Civil Rights Project of Harvard, "schools are steadily resegregating, and suburbs face emerging patterns of racial and class segregation ... most recent initiatives in assessment, accountability and choice purport to solve the problems of minority children while ignoring or even intensifying segregation."
Evidence of this educational crisis is reflected in high dropout rates and low graduation rates, the widening achievement gaps and the accelerating expulsion rates that continue to negatively impact communities of color. And recent policy trends such as high-stakes testing may be contributing to the resurgence of segregation and racial inequity in the nation's classrooms.
In their new book, No Excuses: Closing the Racial Gap in Learning, Abigail and Stephan Thernstrom argue that racial inequality in schools is "the most important civil rights issue of our time."
If we are to have a reaffirmation of Brown's promise of integrated schools and integrated opportunity, we need a new explicit and enduring commitment by educators and national, state and local leaders. We must revive the dream of Dr. King that calls for the advancement of democratic principles, reduces inequality, expands opportunity and strengthens community. This is the best way to proactively and productively celebrate the 50th anniversary of Brown.
Somehow we must regain our capacity to live, to work and dream together.
The legacy of Brown requires that all citizens, regardless of age, race, ethnicity, religion or economic status, not succumb to the cynicism that distorts our faith in government and the political process.
We still have much work to do. The battle for racial, social and economic justice continues.
A passion for education
by Erin Smalley
Editor's note: Erin Smalley is a seventh-grader at Johnston Middle School in Johnston, Iowa. Her essay, written for an American Education Week contest at her school, was incorporated into Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack's 2004 Condition of the State speech and is reprinted here with her permission.
William Butler Yeats, an Irish poet who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923, once said, "Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire." He made an excellent point, but reading through his quote just once will not make the meaning sink in. I am going to break it down to make it more easily understood.
The first part of Yeats' quote states, "Education is not the filling of a pail ... ." I believe it means this: Education is not just putting information and knowledge into someone's mind. You can't dump fact, after fact, after fact onto someone because it will just go in one ear and out the other. Putting a lot of information into someone's head is just like filling a pail with a lot of water. It will probably just sit there, but it won't sink in. That is why education means something more.
The rest of the quote says: "...but the lighting of a fire." I believe this means that education is all about enlightening students and making them wonder. To light their fire is to make them want to learn more, to build a passion for what they are being taught. When they have an interest, then they will go for it. When kids are given an education, and they discover a passion for something important to them, then they will go higher and higher and never give up, until they reach their dreams. When the light goes on, that's when they start to discover and learn. That's when education is most important because then it will hopefully become a turning point in their life.
Everyone should get to go to a free school to learn freely and learn new things. I want every kid to be able to have a passion for something, and be able to have the chance to go for their dreams. I want every kid to get the chance, because it's not fair if only some do. I hope that having an education will light all of the flames, and not just fill up the pails.