“Courageous Conversation” on Diversity
Television programming isn’t exactly something I enjoy, so the amount of time I spend aimlessly gawking at the propaganda machine is limited. However, the perpetual frigid weather of late found me with remote in hand searching for the local forecast. As fate would have it, I tuned in just in time to view KOLR’s “Courageous Conversations: Schools Foster Diversity Engagement.” From what I gathered, the premise behind this “courageous conversation” was the excitement over the recently increased amount of “diversity” (i.e. fewer White students) within the Springfield, MO public school system. As Lawrence Anderson, Springfield’s “Public Schools Manager of Diversity and Inclusion” says:
There are statistical trends showing our students of color are slightly increasing year after year. We are almost at a percent increasing students of color since last year.” Anderson goes on to say, “We are at about 20 percent but nationally, things tell you that will continue to change. When I was looking and applied for the job it was at around 16 percent and that was only about three years ago.
The article makes comparisons with other public school systems in the geographic region, like Tulsa and Des Moines:
While the percentage of students who are not White continues to grow, data still shows that number is smaller than in similar cities. Read more