Efforts to force
trolled public schools. At its peak in 1965, it
rate classes would be fatal, must see to it
enrolled almost 5.5 million students40--11 per-
that intellectual opportunities are acces-
integration of the
sible to all on equable and easy terms.38
cent of the nation's entire elementary and sec-
races, especially
ondary school population.41 Moreover, distinc-
during the 1970s,
tive religious groups tended to live together
Dewey put his theories into practice at his
just like racial and ethnic groups (and there
famous laboratory school at the University of
were, ironically,
was, of course, significant overlap between eth-
Chicago, where he experimented with child-
some of the
nicity and religion) and so the "stratification"
centered education. It was, by most accounts,
that Dewey and his disciples bemoaned was
both a successful undertaking and impossible
most divisive
alive and well.
for the vast majority of public schools to repli-
government
By the 1960s and 70s, often driven by
cate: Dewey's school, led by the dynamic
actions in
efforts to eliminate the religious and racial
Dewey himself, was free from bureaucratic
segregation that pervaded society, political
rules and regulations, blessed with only about
American
and social upheaval was occurring in all facets
six students for every teacher, and composed--
history.
of American life. But those desegregation
in contrast to Dewey's ideal for democratic
efforts focused primarily on forcing physical
education--entirely of white, upper-middle-
class students.39
integration rather than eliminating legally
required segregation as Brown had done.
Although Dewey enjoyed great celebrity
Government efforts to force integration of
among educators, public schooling became no
the races, especially during the 1970s, were,
more unifying or democratic during or after
ironically, some of the most divisive govern-
Dewey's heyday. By the 1950s, in fact, authori-
ment actions in American history. School
ty over education had been placed in the hands
buses were sabotaged, and grassroots resis-
of increasingly large and inflexible bureaucra-
tance to forced busing formed in places like
cies controlled by self-described "experts," and
Denver, Colorado, and Pontiac, Michigan,
"academic" instruction for most students--
after federal courts put them under busing
often against the will of their parents--had
orders. "White flight" from cities required to
been forced out. In its place, students who were
institute busing was a common pattern. And
deemed not to be college bound--the vast
then there was Boston, where in 1974 court-
majority--were given vocational and "life
imposed busing sparked frequent violence.
adjustment" training to prepare them either
Throughout the 197475 school year, Boston
for vocational work or homemaking.
police were a huge presence at many city high
Despite the increasingly centralized control
schools, yet racial violence persisted. And the
and standardized offerings of public school-
rage was not confined to the schools. In the
ing, it was fostering little social unity by the
fall of 1975 a protest march to Bunker Hill by
beginning of the 1950s, and its systematic
400 women from the predominantly white
exclusion and marginalization of many groups
neighborhood of Charlestown ended in a
was becoming intolerable. Most egregious, of
melee between the women, a crowd of their
course, was that until Brown v. Board of
supporters, and police. In addition, in July of
Education in 1954, African-Americans in many
that year a brawl broke out over busing out-
states were legally prohibited from attending
side Boston's famous city hall. That fight was
schools with whites, and even where the races
memorialized in Stanley Forman's Pulitzer
were not legally separated, housing patterns
Prize-winning photograph "The Soiling of
kept different racial groups concentrated in
Old Glory," which captured a white man lung-
their own schools.
ing with a flagpole--stars and stripes still
Separation also remained when it came to
attached--at a black man who was being
religion. Most notably, Roman Catholics--the
restrained from behind. "Sometimes when I
largest non-Protestant religious denomination
look out this window," Boston's Mayor Kevin
in the country--had established a huge school
White was purported to have told an aide as
system of their own to escape Protestant-con-
11