Likely not a word ever preferred in an educational setting, but the description the Southern Poverty Law Center found appropriate to assess the state of education about the civil rights movement in the U.S.
Findings from a study -- "Teaching the Movement: The State of Civil Rights Education 2011" -- released this week by the SPLC's Teaching Tolerance program show that nearly three-quarters of states fail at teaching the civil rights movement. An indicator: just 2 percent of high school seniors in 2010 could fully answer a basic question about the Supreme Court's landmark decision in the historic Brown v. Board of Education case.
When given the following quote and asked the following question:
“To separate them from others of similar age and qualifications solely because of their race generates a feeling of inferiority … that may affect their hearts and minds in a way unlikely ever to be undone. … We conclude that in the field of public education separate but equal has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.” —1954
