Summary Of Tale Of Two Schools: Race And Education On Long Island

The video “Tale of Two Schools: Race and Education on Long Island” presents David and Owen, two African-American students with similar backgrounds and grades who attend two different high schools in separate districts that have drastically different access to resources, community support, income, etc. Wyandanch Memorial High School is located in a poor district, while South Side High School is located in Rockville Center which is a more affluent and diverse district. The effects of the districts having varying levels of access to quality resources and diversity is exemplified throughout the video with regards to the way the students interact with each other, their grades, and their careers after high school. The lack of resources of Wyandanch

Wyandanch’s students are 80% black and 0% white, while the students at South Side are 77% white and 8% black (Erase Racism 2011). According to Carrol Burris, the principal of South Side “We can’t tolerate racially isolated schools. They just don’t work. Someone at some point has to have the courage to start working either with district boundaries or other strategies to try to better integrate our schools” (Erase Racism 2011). I completely agree with Burris because in addition to learning from texts and physical materials, students are able to learn through exposure of those differing from them. If a school consists of only one type of race or ethnic group, then the students are isolated to the ideals of that specific community. But if diversity exists, the opportunity arises to learn about different cultures and become more well-rounded. This is illustrated by Owen and his best friend Dave, who is white. Even though Owen and Dave are two different races, they do not let that prevent them from being friends. They use their differences as an advantage to learn from each other and to help each other out. I think that this is a beautiful thing because it reminded me of my middle school and how is was predominantly white. I was not well-informed about other races and cultures and was mentally isolated from other groups because I was not exposed to them. Like Dave, when I transitioned into high school, I became friends with people of other races and used that to my advantage to become more