For my senior capstone, I explored the issue of segregation and the impact it had on the educational system in the Milwaukee Public School District. While I was able to find concrete evidence of how segregation impacted more external things like funding and busing, which in turn impacted which schools students attended, I did not have time to explore how segregation impacted instruction. In my opinion, my capstone left out the most important part: how does segregation impact the instruction students are receiving?
When talking about urban education, the issue of segregation impacts learning in a number of ways, but yet it is rarely talked about. I believe that it is important to address this issue, not only as professionals, but with our students as well. I think you would be pretty hard pressed to find somebody that doesn’t agree with the fact that segregation still exists in cities like Milwaukee; the evidence is pretty concrete. Our students are aware of this issue as well. Although they may not readily bring it up in class, you better believe that they are discussing this at home, and not always in an educated manner.
This is why it is important to discuss the issue of segregation with our students. We want to give them evidence to look at, and we want to expose them to multiple points of view on the topic. By doing this, we allow students to challenge what they believe, and validate what they already know.
Our final goal is develop human beings that are independent, critical thinkers who are able to provide evidence and argue their point of view.
There are a lot of ways to introduce this topic in the classroom. You can introduce the topic with a video, a quote or excerpt from a reading, a song, or a short writing period that leads into discussion about the topic. I have given links below to some resources that may help to start the conversation of segregation in the classroom.
The March on Milwaukee Civil Rights History Project is a great project established by the UW-Milwaukee Library. It has a variety of multimodal resources that would be appropriate for classroom instruction.
http://collections.lib.uwm.edu/cdm/landingpage/collection/march
Starting the discussion with a song that talks about racism and segregation is a great attention grabber. I have included the link below to the “clean” version of Kanye West’s “New Slaves”. Many students will probably have heard this song before, and while some may understand the message, many may have not thought about what Kanye West was really trying to say.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O21JyOkaPL8
Starting a discussion based off of a local news article would be a great conversation starter. Not only will this get students thinking about the topic, but it may open some students eyes to the issue for the first time.
Another great way to introduce the topic of segregation to students is to post a quote about segregation on the board. Then, you can simply have a discussion about the quote, or you could have students write a response to the quote and then discuss responses as a class.
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/segregation.html
In addtion to these resources, simply google searching “segregation” under google images will provide you with a plethora of conversation starting images. I have included some of these images throughout this blog post.
The Urban Classroom Expedition 
As a (hopefully) future teacher in MPS, this topic is very valuable to be knowledgeable about in order to serve my students properly. As Milwaukee is one of, if not the, most segregated cities in the country, it is important to have students know what is happening. As you said they are talking about it at home at least and having them be educated on it is crucial to their understand and dealing with the subject. The ideas you gave for introducing it could also be useful in a classroom no matter what the topic is as well.
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Kelly,
Great topic choice. This, to me, is essential in understanding urban education. Students should know the reasoning and intricacies of segregation and how it is ongoing. Also, you mention that most students know about this topic which is true, but it also informs those who may be in the dark on the topic and just think that this is the way schools are designed. It is also so important to bring up topics that are hard to discuss, and this is the perfect example. This will really impact your students and I believe this is the point of the profession, to truly make an impact on those we teach.
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Kelly,
This is a very important issue and I’m glad you chose to explore it! I believe everyone benefits from developing a stronger grasp on the issue of segregation, and as educators especially, we deserve and require a deep understanding of how it affects our curriculums and our classrooms. I can’t wait to see what discoveries you make in exploring this topic!
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I’ll echo those who posted above to say that this is a fantastic topic choice, one that is too often ignored in attempts to hold up illusions of the “American dream” as attainable for all. I know that you are focusing on segregation in Milwaukee but thought that you might be interested in this PBS series of videos looking at segregation in schools (in honor of the 60 yr anniversary of Brown vs Board of Ed.)
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/separate-and-unequal/
In terms of the history of education in Milwaukee in particular, you may want to check out Barbara Miner’s book _Lessons from the Heartland_
http://www.rethinkingschools.org/archive/27_02/27_02_miner.shtml
I have more resources on this topic if interested. Just let me know. I think this topic will be very engaging for students, especially if they are given a chance to voice their views on the issue or remix others’ views on the issue. Please keep me posted on how you decide to incorporate this into the classroom.
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