The Other Boston Busing Story: Whats Won and Lost Across the Boundary Line

by Susan E. Eaton

Book Overview

METCO, America's longest-running voluntary school desegregation programme, has for 34 years transported black children from Boston's city neighbourhoods to predominantly white suburban schools. In... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0300087659
• ISBN13: 9780300087659
• Release Date: April 2001
• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Length: 306 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.7" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

A GOOD READ -- OPENS YOUR EYES

I picked up this book at a friend's house and looked in it and was immediately hooked. I don't usually read sociology studies by choice but my friend, who is a sociologist, insisted that this was an insightful book and also a great read. Its a very emotional book in parts that shows you the struggles that African American children went through in order to get a good education. It very powerfully debunks the idea that African AMerican kids and parents do not value education -- read this book and you will see that no community can be depicted that way. Being a teacher in a pretty much all-white school, that recently has had a growing enrollment of African American kids -- who've sometimes seemed hestitant to join in -- I now understand that I DID NOT UNDERSTAND. Since reading this book, I have become a better educator, with more compassion and understanding -- and also an understanding of how much better my school is now that it is growing more racially diverse. SInce reading this book, I've also picked up similar books on this subject. None of them are as good -- but I await this writer's next. If you are a teacher in a school that has a minority of black children -- read this book!

this is my life!

Wow. A great book, all about me. Seriously, I got chosen for a program like this when I was in middle school. It wasn't this program, but another. It changed my life. I like the end of the book, too because it provides good suggestions and smart points about why we need more options like this for our kids. My life went in a positive direction and I watched many children with great parents who worked hard and who were so smart, not succeed like I did. All teachers of minority kids in white schools or wealthy schools should read this book.

An amazing and accurate portrayal

I was a student who took part in a program exactly like this one, in another city. I got assigned this book in my sociology class and it was so amazing for me to read it because it is exactly what I went through 5 years ago. Also, many of my friends who are black and who went to suburban schools for different reasons said they could relate to this experience. I could not believe it when I read that this author was white, because all along I was reading it and because it was so accurate and real I naturally assumed she must be a black woman. This made the truth and honesty of the book even more amazing. The book would be really good for all teachers, guidance counselor and school principals and white parents to read because it really speaks to the black child's experience in a white school. And when I was a kid in school I could not have put into words some of the struggles but also all the benefits and good things that grew out of my complicated experience. But this puts it into words what so many young people are feeling but also what they think about their experience when they are looking back as grown ups.

A great read, moving and informative

This is an excellent book. It shows readers a better alternative to so-called forced busing which got its worse name in the city of Boston. But this book is about a voluntary program that let black kids go to suburbia. The writer really lets the former students talk for themselves and because of that it is a really moving book that feels honest and real. When the writer does comment on things, it is always very graceful and plainly spoken. This book does not try to be overly academic, and so is a welcome treat to read. I wish there were more 'human' books out there about subjects like this, which are usually written in very dull, dry styles.

Important insights

The Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity, or METCO, is a program that buses students from inner-city neighborhoods of Boston to various suburban districts for part or all of their schooling. Although the stated goal of the program is to provide equal educational opportunities to students living in districts where the schools are regarded as being lower in quality than in the suburbs, it serves another important purpose in promoting racial desegregation. Most of the students that participate in METCO are African-American, and most of the districts that they are bused to are mostly, if not entirely, white."The Other Boston Busing Story" is not a statistical study of the costs and benefits of METCO and other such programs. Neither is it a single narrative story. Rather, Susan Eaton has interviewed 65 adults who participated in METCO when they were students. Their memories of the experience vary, but there are several common threads running through each person's story. The awkwardness felt by black students in predominantly white settings - as well as the corresponding discomfort that came from losing a sense of belonging to the predominantly black neighborhoods in which they grew up - is explored through personal recountings and reminiscences. The interviewees also, for the most part, credited their years in suburbia with making them better prepared to venture out as adults into a society where they will always be a minority, and will always face some degree of racism and bigotry. The advantages and disadvantages of programs such as METCO are explored in depth and with great sensitivity.I have just completed my first year of teaching in one of the suburban districts that participates in the METCO program. I had four METCO students in my class, and often wondered what they were feeling or thinking, how their formative adolescent years (a difficult time for anyone) were being impacted by this experience. Reading many of the interviewees' comments about the lack of understanding shown by some of their teachers, I had to admit to myself that I have been guilty of similar misunderstandings, and gained some important insights on how I can better relate to my METCO students in future classes. This book should be a requirement for any teacher or counselor who works in a school that participates in METCO (or similar programs in other cities).