Integration in schools

Upon thinking more about the question during the debate, I had an interesting shift of heart, as I feel many people did. Going into the discussion, I was very optimistic about the topic at hand, thinking that the integration argument must be the easier one to defend. AS the discussion went on I realized that I began to agree with my opposition, as I feel many of my teammates did as well. I think that my opinions on this idea changed because I realized how hard it actually must be to integrate, because of how deep it runs in our society. I began to agree more an more that we need to solve some of the more underlying causes of there being segregated schools, then we may be able to tackle the idea of integration with more success. The general funding of schools needs to be addressed further in the public education system, providing some system that provides more fair coverage across schools all over the city and state. As much as I strongly believe that this inequality is firmly based within race, with the neighborhoods with low funded schools being predominantly Black and Hispanic, I believe that giving them money instead of students would probably solve some of their more immediate problems, like good teachers and spaces. One thing that I do not agree with that was brought up in the debate was the idea of comfort within a school and the case for keeping children with those like themselves. I felt that this idea was perhaps not the true intent of the person speaking it, after all it was a debate, so I definitely do not credit anyone's spoken opinions to their real ones. I think that one of the big problems in teaching people not to separate themselves is to do exactly that; teach them why they are no different than the people around them in the classroom. There is no conceivable reason for our education system to bring of people out of school knowing nothing about any other type of person. I really do believe that integration is a part of a quality education, but I also believe that there are other things that add up to a quality education that do not factor in race, and that they may be implemented in a faster, more logistically sound way in the future. Integration must always be something to strive for, because it allows our young adults to come into a world where they are not afraid to take risks based on their race.