The more you look at some things, the less they seem to make sense.
Our youngest son just graduated from high school at TASIS, England – an American International School very near London. I reflect on how much racism and prejudice remains in the educational institutions whose missions strive to treat all students with mutual respect and understanding.
Looking beneath the kimonos of American schools both at home and abroad signals we still have some ways to go. Yes, I hear the echoes of “look how far we have come” – but remember, opening our kimonos is about peering beneath our robes to expose all of what is there.
I watched him standing for his class picture, one of two black faces, the other a girl. I remembered my own high school graduation in Kenya, 39 years ago: I was one of two black faces, the other one a boy. I realized that the prejudices my son faced with some of his teachers and an administration that did not want to know were not much different from mine.
How much longer will it take?
Just wondering,
