1961 US Commission on Civil Rights Report Book 2 - University of ...

motivation, the lack of inspiration on the part of teachers who are
working with them, so that our problem, I think, and the problem
for this <strong>Commission</strong> to consider, is how we might possibly find ways
of interesting the teachers in our public school system and how to
overcome these problems which are brought upon us and which are
inherent in the segregated school system.
Oak Park's careful plans to equalize the educational opportunities of
the Carver area children awaits completion. Its first phase—concentration
on the neglected health problems of the Negro children—seems a
sound beginning. Many pupil placement laws contain criteria relating to
health, suggesting an intention to place children in various schools by
reference to their health. This can hardly be proper unless all the
schools are classified in terms of health, and the same health standards
applied to all children attending them. Oak Park recognized that a
single standard should be applied and is trying to solve the health problems
instead of using them as a basis of discrimination.
New York City's Demonstration Guidance Project seems to have
proven two things beyond dispute: (i) that IQ tests are far from
trustworthy, and (2) that the minority-group child can rise to high
academic achievement if shown how to do so.
The marked decline in juvenile delinquency both in Maryland's Ken
Gar community and in New York's Junior High School No. 43 is a
happy byproduct of those projects. The preliminary reports on the
Higher Horizons Program suggest this may be a benefit from that program
as well. Since it is estimated that the cost of curing one juvenile
delinquent is $30,000, the added per pupil cost of $50 a year per grade
for the Higher Horizons Program may be a wise expenditure.
The number of constructive projects in the North and the West,
financed at least in part by local taxes, indicates that many Americans
now recognize that "we have to do a lot more for some children just
to give them the same chance to learn." They also are testimony to
the abiding faith of America that "all men are created equal" and
should have equal opportunities.
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