I graduated Byrd in 1975. I’m trying to remember if this was at Byrd or Broadmoor (or both) but does anyone recall how each course was "phased"? "Phases" was the term used - it was school or parish policy/dictate of some kind. So English - for example- had a phase 1, phase 2, phase 3, and phase 4. I don't recall the order of the phases but phase 4 would denote accelerated and phase 1 remedial (or the other way around). Phase 1 =below par, less educated for example. So there would be a phase 1-2 English class and then there would be a phase 3-4 English class. There may have been a class for each of the four phases, I don’t recall. The justification was that the lower phase would not drag down the learning of the higher phases since they would be in separate classes. The de facto result was sub integration more or less. The lower phases were usually black and lower class white. The upper phases were mostly white and some better educated black kids. I somehow took some elective that put me in a phase 1-2 class and it was a real eye-opener. I never felt unsafe or anything but welcome but the folks there made me realize what different worlds we occupied. Greasers like a throwback to the 50s, Black kids that didn’t seem to care or knew there was nothing for them in school; or some that were trying anyway and talked to me like I was Einstein. I never had the feeling of any kind of racial tension overall – maybe just oblivious.
[I hate talking in terms of Black/White but using it to try to define the experience] My first experience with a black teacher was 7th grade at Broadmoor for English. But we started getting graded tests back where the corrections were obviously wrong –basic correct grammar or correct words were labeled as wrong. There were other issues like that sometimes happening in class where it was obvious she was not qualified to be there and if we tried to appeal some obvious point she would get hostile. She would state something that we as 7th graders could not reconcile as correct usage. I can’t imagine the pressures on this young teacher – think about it. Something happened soon enough (parent intervention involved) and she was replaced (she was no longer at the school after that. No explanation, we just came to school one day and had a new teacher).
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