The following are thoughts shared by John Shaw, Adjunct Professor of Music at Rhodes College, who grew up in Memphis and has dedicated his career to education and the arts. We invite our readers to reflect on his perspective and share their own experiences and ideas with JustMyMemphis.

John Shaw’s Comments (Unedited):

Nothing is going to work until some very basic things are enacted. One is that Memphis must return to the concept of neighborhood schools. Except for some special optional programs, kids should be going to school in their neighborhoods. This builds a bond between the neighborhood and the school. Those bonds used to exist, and then first busing and then open enrollment destroyed those relationships. The Memphis Shelby County Schools need to work with state government to try to curb the proliferation of charters in Shelby County. They need to go back to physical books. There is nothing wrong with letting kids use computers at school, but giving the kids laptops has not worked well at all. I think there should in fact be a ban on all personal devices, because kids are accessing music videos and all kinds of non-educational websites and games during school hours. There should be a huge emphasis on reading, and particularly in the early grades. It is also crucial that we put personal finance and conflict resolution into our mandatory courses for middle and high school students. They are not getting this education at home. Memphis had an "urban school district" in 1966, but kids were learning, and to be specific, Black Memphis graduates from the 1960s went on to successes all over the world, in numerous different fields. This idea that being "urban" is a sentence of doom is ridiculous. Yes, we should fund our schools better. But at the end of the day, with everything stacked against them, Black schools in Memphis like Manassas, Hamilton, Melrose and Booker T. Washington turned out successes that have impacted the whole world. And things were much more unfair then than now. I am reminded of the words of Helen Suzman, who for many years was the only anti-apartheid member of the South African Parliament: "I did what I could, where I was, with what I had."

It ruined the city. I am not saying that Maxine Smith meant to do that. But she did that. Whites had the means to avoid integration. And private schools proved to be too expensive, so white people moved outside the city limits, and anytime Memphis annexed anything, whites moved out of those areas too. But the Black middle class followed the whites. I think most Black Memphians would have preferred increased funding for their neighborhood schools. That is what happened in Atlanta. But by the time I was in high school, Memphis was busing vast numbers of Black students from Black neighborhoods where they lived to other all-Black schools in other parts of the city! It was absolutely ridiculous and expensive. And open enrollment has simply made everything worse. One child in Orange Mound goes to Melrose, while another goes to Central, or White Station, or even Cordova if their parents can get them out there. The sense of neighborhood pride that Mound residents had in their local school is damaged when students from there can go anywhere in Shelby County.

The middle class leaders like Maxine Smith did not talk to the Black folks that lived in the neighborhoods to see what they wanted with education. I think that they wanted the right to choose, perhaps. In other words, a situation where a child could choose Melrose or Messick, or where a child could choose Humes or Manassas. But that's not what happened. Busing was forced. Riverview is a war zone precisely because Carver was shut down. And South Side was shut down. And Northside was shut down. One by one, they have been closing the legacy schools. And then opening all these ridiculous charters, many of which only have a hundred kids. And you think about the expense of administration and personnel, and building maintenance for a separate school for only a hundred kids, and what kind of financial impact this waste of funds has on the kids in the regular public schools.

Personally, I grew up in favor of integration. And I still wish we could integrate. But....I live in the real world. White people by and large have the ability to avoid integration, and since it takes cooperation from both communities to integrate, it cannot work. It is time to make sure that Black children have good, resilient education that is not dependent on what white people are willing or not willing to do. It is that simple. That's not where my heart is. But Black people should not have to continue suffering waiting on white folks to do the right thing. 

This was sent to JustMyMemphis from Written by: John Shaw

We welcome your thoughts and experiences. Share your perspective with JustMyMemphis and join the conversation about the future of our schools and neighborhoods.