By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April’s breeze unfurled;
Here once the embattled farmers stood,
And fired the shot heard ’round the world.

so begin’s ralph waldo’s emerson 1837 masterpiece, concord hymn. the line that closes the stanza, of course, has become a cultural idiom. the shot heard ’round the world is in reference to the american revolutionary war, specifically the battles of lexington and concord. indeed, those shots reverberated around the globe and set our nation on a new course.

and then—on august 21, 2010—there was this:

which was immediately followed by this:

ah yes, the tweet heard ’round the world.

in the aftermath of, specifically, the 2nd tweet, my quick count of responses from fellow twitterers was 65. yes, 65 responses to my tweet. gee. sometimes heated, sometimes congenial, sometimes in the spirit of inquiry. always pointed, always passionate. one little tweet caused all this.

140 characters can, indeed, set off quite the series of passionate response. so, i thought it was necessary for me to expand my thoughts a little, offering equal parts clarification and apology (in the explanatory/defense sense of the word…not the “i’m so sorry” sense of the word).

before i go any further, though, let me just put out a few bits of helpful preface.

1. i’m a product of public schools. with the exception of a couple (random) years in quitman, i attended conway public schools (ida burns elementary, conway jr. high & conway high school) for the entirety of my childhood/adolescent education. so, i acknowledge what is seemingly a bias, but i’ll get to why i think i’m able to step beyond my singular experience.

2. my conway public schools education was particularly valuable directly in terms of racial diversity. while conway certainly doesn’t represent the kind of diversity found in little rock, i am thankful to have a relatively diverse experience in relation to national/state racial breakdowns. for example, in my particular classes in elementary school (which was the “poor kids/black kids” elementary school, at that time), for at least a couple years, i was either the minority or nearly 50/50 black/white composition (now the numbers are more like 32% black [39% minority], which is still far above the national/state percentages). (conway high school is comprised of 31% minority students, which, while lower, is still more than 10 points higher than the overall state percentages.) my first crush, for example, was on a little black girl in my 1st grade class. with just a bit of racial balance, the difference between black and white kids was literally only skin deep to a 7-year old.

3. i mentioned what could be interpreted on the surface level as a public schools bias, but there are well-thought-out and studied reasons for these feelings, beyond my direct experience (though i’m not one to devalue personal experience, by any means). i almost cringe pulling this card (because i cringe when i see people do this on the social web [blogs, twitter, facebook, etc.]), but i think it’s fair and helps to provide a little context in this situation. my thoughts on the racial/sociological impetus/impact of public/private/home schooling isn’t based on mere bias or speculation or conjecture or some kind of agenda. rather, the dynamics at play here are literally what i spent 3 years getting a master’s degree in. i have a master’s of arts in youth ministry. now, sadly, most people hear that and think that means i spent 3 years learning to light farts and plan lock-ins. because of those assumptions, the youth ministry program at asbury seminary is one of the most notoriously rigorous and multi-disciplined learning tracks in the seminary. i often tell people the more appropriate term for my degree is master’s of arts in emerging social anthropology. the ym program at asbury is designed to focus primarily on the social//cognitive/moral/spiritual/psychological development of emerging generations (from birth to adolescence to emerging adulthood, obviously dwelling most in the 2 latter fields of study). it is comprised of equal parts anthropology, sociology, psychology and general social dynamics theory. i genuinely loved it and has prepared me well for life far beyond youth ministry (which i spent nearly 10 years doing before now). again, i don’t like to pull the i-have-a-masters-degree-in-this card, but i think it will offer an opportunity to speak from the point-of-view of someone who has literally poured hundreds of hours into this very type of conversation/social analysis.

ok, i don’t like lengthy prefaces in my posts, but i thought those might help set the stage for everything else. so, take a deep breath and let’s get into the meat.

first of all, i don’t back off my statement whatsoever. not because i’m stubborn, but because it simply makes a fact statement, rather than some sort of indictment.

again, let me reiterate that my tweet/statement was/is not an indictment, but rather, a fact statement, rooted in sociological research and theory. at its most basic level, it carries no value judgment.

the fact is that “self-segregation” is a term that has been used by a handful of sociologists to refer to issues related to white flight and increasingly homogenous social patterns. in essence, the idea is that we live in a culture where blatant racism is egregiously taboo (as compared to just 50 years ago), so more nuanced forms of racism like white flight and “racial avoidance” is increasingly prevalent. so, for many people—**BUT NOT ALL**—in the name of “better education” (though the numbers would disagree) and “increased opportunities”, large segments of white people are flocking to private schools.

some of the push back to the tweet heard ’round the world was that private schools are, in fact, diverse and that i simply have a false or incomplete view of the diversity in little rock’s private schools. well, simple common knowledge told me, at the time, that my “assumptions” were correct. now, though, i’ve actually looked at the numbers and they have almost completely confirmed my suspicions. here’s the numbers:

[by the way, i’m intentionally focusing on black and white percentages. some people talk about “racial diversity” by including asians or other ethnic groups. yes, they certainly represent diversity, but let’s be totally honest: nobody’s fleeing little rock because of all the dirty, awful asians. right? right.]

little rock: 42% black (52% total minority)

public schools: %, +/- city overall % (% total minority, +/- black %)

central: 55%, +13% (61% total minority, +6%) (data)
hall: 80%, +38% (93% total minority, +13%) (data)
ja fair: 88%, +46% (94% total minority, +6%) (data)
mcclellan: 89%, +47% (97% total minority, +8%) (data)
parkview: 51%, +9% (61% total minority, +10%) (data)
mills: 64%, +22% (69% total minority, +5%) (data)

average: 71%, +29%

private schools (%, +/- city overall %)

pulaski academy: 4%, -38% (11% total minority, +7%) (data)
catholic: 3%, -39% (10% total minority, +7%) (data)
arkansas baptist: 3%, -39% (8% total minority, +5%) (data)
little rock christian: 1%, -41% (3% total minority, +2%) (data)
mt. st. mary: 4%, -38% (13% total minority, +9%) (data)
(and much to my surprise…) episcopal collegiate: 17%, -25% (18% total minority, +1%) (data)

average: 5% (3% w/out episcopal), -37%

where i am getting this data?? it all came from the u.s. department of education institute of education science’s national center for education statistics (a.k.a. the official database of u.s. school documentation). you can find it all by clicking the link associated with each school’s data.

indeed, the numbers—with indisputable clarity—confirm my statement. again, one could imply any kind of value judgment or indictment they’d like, but my point was simply to say that, yes, making the decision to place your child in private school is a decision to self-segregate. the numbers are clear.

what needs to be stated over and over is that regardless of intentions, segregation occurs. yes, you might have chosen a private school because of some special program or because you just really like the school or because you have money to burn, but it still creates the same outcome: racial segregation. one of the many jobs of a sociologist is to observe social patterns and accordingly report. the fundamental task isn’t to draw subjective opinions or form scathing commentary. it’s simply to observe and report.

many people got bent out of shape about the tweet, but it simply stated a very easily observable reality: racial demographics at private schools are incredibly skewed, relative to our city’s racial makeup. simply put: putting your white child in private school puts them in a self-chosen highly segregated educational environment.

so, i certainly have very strong feelings in terms of negative social implications from this data, but it simply wasn’t my point in the tweet heard ’round the world.

ultimately, as stated in the tweet, my goal was to get people to pause and think about something that we simply don’t think about too often. the choices we make for our children are deeply personal and intimate (i’ve got 3 of my own, so i know). nobody wants to screw up their children and it’s so easy to do just that. 🙂 so, it’s simply worth pausing to consider what it does to your child to place them in a pseudo-environment of racial sameness. i’m not assuming what your family’s educational priorities ought to be, but at minimum, i hope this whole conversation has given people an opportunity (including myself) to have a serious time of reflection on the long-term effects of our children’s social/racial/cultural educational environment.

maybe we get it right. maybe we get it wrong. but at least we’ve engaged in serious and substantive reflection.