In coming to Mississippi, I had a vague knowledge of how the educational system of the Delta remained divided along racial lines. The black kids went to the high-need public school where we would be teaching, while the white kids maintained their distance by attending the private “academies” that are scattered throughout the region. That this practice is an accepted fact of life in many parts of Mississippi was reinforced by an interaction that I had with student at Holly Springs the other day. When I told him that I would be teaching next year at Indianola he replied without any hesitation, “Oh, at the academy.” Like any do-gooder northern white, I was quick to separate myself from any association with a segregationist institution. “No no, I’ll be at Gentry High School.”
In his ambitious focus-paper Re-segregation Maneuvers, Dave Molina attempts to show that, through analyzing three cases (two in Mississippi) in which financial interests intersected with public education, there is “some sort of benefit” to the white establishment in terms of preserving an economic structure that depends on a large, poor, and uneducated work-force. In first Mississippi case he discusses various legislative initiatives by the state of Mississippi that attempted to foster the growth of all-white private schools, and the supreme-court decisions that declared them unconstitutional. In the third case he makes a connection between the fact that the prison system is Mississippi’s fastest growing industry, the relationship between criminality and poor schools, and the fact that the states school system is still controlled by whites (who benefit from “industrial growth tied to criminal labor force”).
I found the discussion of the succession of dubious maneuvers by the state of Mississippi to avoid school integration to be of particular interest. Apparently the state tried a number of times to approve public funding for students to attend private schools in order to avoid the loss of the state’s sales tax receipts from poor white families who would now be spending more money on education. Fortunately most of these measures were struck down by the supreme court, yet the persistence of the all-white “academies” and the segregation of Mississippi’s schools into the 21st century is an example of how the courts can only go so far as an instrument of change

It is with a little bit dread that I sit down to write this blog. In the past, whenever a new communicative phenomenon has entered into our society, its seems I am always one of the last ones to catch on. My family only started getting aol my junior year of high school, a full two years after most of my peers began gleefully iming each other via the internet super-highway. Needless to say, it was a tremendous detriment to my social life. Following that when cell-phones became all the rage, I personally held out against getting one. After spending a year at Bucknell as the only freshman without a cell-phone (once again, a tremendous detriment to my social life) and realizing that a future without a cell phone was looking increasingly grim, I broke down and bought one. Most recently when the facebook craze was sweeping college campuses, I stubbornly refused to hop on the bandwagon (this time effect on my social life was small, though still negative). And it was only about six months ago that I even discovered what this latest phenomenon called “blogging” actually was. I can attest to that fact that I was never even remotely tempted to join the millions of bloggers worldwide. But now I find myself involved in a program where spilling my guts in an online journal for everyone to see is required. What's even scarier is this thought lurking somewhere in the back of my mind telling me I might grow to like it.

Anyway, since I arrived in the state of Mississippi on thursday evening, things have gone well. I am not overly stressed out yet (though that may soon come). I have met some cool people in the program. I have experienced a little bit of Southern culture and although it and the people involving in it are very strange to me, I think it will be something I will enjoy learning about. Strangely my biggest concern over these last few days has been very basic: how to acquire enough food to quench this persistent hunger that keeps arising in my stomach (mom, if youre reading this, dont freak out, ill be ok). Its seems the world is against those of us who weren't so lucky as to be able to digest a wheat protein known as gluten.

School begins tomorrow, though the first week shouldn't be that hard for us first-years since we will only be teaching two lessons apiece. After that we will see.