Herbert article reflection

In Bob Herbert's 2011 New York Times article, the author brings to light the issue of how lower performing, less successful schools are often most attended by poor hispanic and black kids who can't afford to go to a better school. This raises so many other issues and causes us to question why we allow such a large achievement gap to exist between minority children and white children. As Herbert explains, many white children are middle class and have the privilege of going to school with their peers who succeeding in school. Teachers would rather work at these middle class suburban schools that at a school with mostly poor kids in the middle of the city. Another point that Herbert makes is that we need to work on integrating more low performing students into better schools to create more diversity and to make sure that the minority students can improve. Once story I remember from the This American Life podcast, is that the woman, Nicole, was a product of integration in schools. She was a black girl from a poorer neighborhood who was bused to an almost all white school where she ended making friends. They got along well and she told a story about her white friends always invited her to the pool on the white side of town in the summer. This was all fine and good, but whenever she wanted her friends to come to her house or the pool on her side of town, her friend's parents always said no.