"This isn't a white school," the kid said to me and my three children aged 12-16. "We're fine with that," I said. We were outside a huge building on a mound of land that looked like a prison. We'd arrived in Boston about a month or so prior and were looking for local schools. There were two schools local to us, Brookline High School, which was in a wealthy white area, and Brighton High School, which was the one we were standing outside of asking a kid who was late for class to direct us to the office. It had been quite a battle to register our kids for school. America invented red tape, and it's dense. I'd rung Brookline High school and was bluntly told that even though we lived a block a way "I didn't have a chance." Baffled, I began to look into the school system. Turns out Brookline opted out of accepting Boston Public School Kids in order to control who came to their schools. If you can’t afford the postcode you are not suitable.
In my last blog I spoke about how Boston children were bused into white areas in an attempt to integrate schools. The point of this blog is to begin to show that segregation in schools in Boston is alive and well - but not kicking. Why are people not kicking against the jams? It's perplexing. Back to school. Inside Brighton High School for our tour, me and the kids were excited. We felt like we were on set at American High School. The woman who showed us around was friendly enough but not effusive. I realised later that she did not expect us to enrol. We could have bused ourselves out of our local area but we didn't want to. We wanted our kids to walk the ten minutes to school; and we decided, it would be good for them to experience what it's like to be in the minority. The school is 5% white.
My eldest son went through inner London state schools, and I have written about class disparity in schools there. The thing about segregation is that it breeds poverty of mind and spirit. There is little aspiration at Brighton High School. One of the primary occupations of the often exceptional staff is crowd control. There are also a lot of educational needs as the school buses in all the kids from across the city and greater Boston who can’t get into other schools. There are lots of recent arrivals. There is an ICE policy. There is a child in Grade 8 who is aged 18 because he keeps failing. There are endless carrots designed to keep kids in school. The high school graduation rate is 62-67%. They have had the same heating system and bathrooms since the 80s. They had to close their on campus food bank which was helping many students due to city budget cuts. Boston is supposed to be the 30th richest city in the world, so why does the city consistently cut Brighton High’s funding? Teachers have to pay for pens and pencils and paper, and the schools track coach had to pay part of their uniforms himself, as they were unable to raise enough money for their team.
Segregation acts as a tool for systemic division based on multiple factors, not solely race. It functions through spatial, economic, and social separation—including income inequality, age-based grouping, and education levels—resulting in unequal access to resources, neighbourhood disinvestments, and limited social mobility. The children in my son’s class have very low expectations from life. My high school son’s best friend wants to be an aerospace engineer. He’s an Asian immigrant and works very hard. There is only one student in the history of the school has gone to Harvard. This was a child from Latin America who emigrated to America during his junior year and ignored and defied expectations. Ours is to reason why.
I see the last time I blogged here was September 2024. This blog began in 2011. 15 years of blogwork! A decade and a half of mostly laughs as laughing is my highest state of spiritual victory and joy. I really have laughed myself silly through the years despite all the ups and downs, some of which is documented in these blogs. Em-Phatic has been around for my eldest son’s passage through the seriously non egalitarian London state school system and into adulthood, art schools music and travel. Em-Phatic began when my daughter was 2, through the birth of my second son, and two years before my third son was born. It has also documented the births of three books, my publishing, editing career and visual arts career - but not my transition into coaching that I will fill you in on. It has been here for the downs - my cancer story - and the story of how I took my stepfather, sister and brother in law to court - and won - a 1975 Inheritance Act case after they conspired to cut me & my docile brothers out of our grandmother/great uncle’s inheritance. I have been somewhat unfaithful to this blog from time to time when I've gone off with Life. As such, there are years of fervid documentation, and some patchy years. 2025 is a blank so I will explain that at some point soon. I am still Em-phatically preoccupied with literature, art, writing, Justice & Jesus, and the experiential nature of Biblical mystical spirituality. I still struggle with the term ‘Christian,’ given it is so loaded. I still do not find myself in keeping with the established, western church. I still cut all my children’s and husband’s hair - the topic of my very first blog. I still make visual art and put on arts events in the UK when I am back on visits.
What has radically shifted? The family. We are currently based in Boston due to my husband’s current occupation. My three youngest children are now at a school in Boston walking distance from where we live. Given they have all been home educated, this is quite a transition. For the first six weeks following our arrival in September 2025, we were jumping through archaic American bureaucratic hoops of such complication that we were quite distorted out of shape. Meanwhile we continued in home education. The icon (actual icon, not a bottomy pouty cut out) that was Jane Goodall died during this time so we studied and wrote about her, having watched an extraordinary National Geographic documentary. We swiftly noticed the segregation in Boston and the gaping divide between rich and poor and began to study the history of the Boston school system. An African American friend told me about the Boston Busing Crisis after I spoke to her about how sharply the schools in our area are divided by racial lines. Beginning in 1974 and continuing to1988, violent racial conflict erupted after a federal court order to desegregate Boston Public Schools was put into motion. Judge W. Arthur Garrity ordered busing students from black majority schools to white majority schools to combat racial segregation and inequitable funding. This triggered intense white opposition, violence, riots, and the flight of white families from the school system. The extraordinary scenes put me in mind of the Soweto Riots except it wasn’t the white apartheid police that were firing live rounds on African school children who did not want to learn Afrikaans, but white families and students lobbing rocks and other handy missiles at these African American children. I am sad to report that over 50 years later this gap is as vast and gaping as it was though the violence has shifted. I will write more about our experience in the gap next time. I leave you with some handy links if you’d like to know more as I am well over my admittedly self imposed word count as I shifted into ranty mode. First up, Jane.
I see the last time I blogged here was September 2024. This blog began in 2011. 15 years! A decade and a half of mostly laughs as laughing is my highest state of spiritual victory and joy. I really have laughed myself silly through the years despite all the trauma, and much of that is in these blogs. It has been around for my eldest son’s passage through the seriously not egalitarian state school system and into adulthood, art schools music and travel. It began when my daughter was 2, my second son was born and two years before my third son was born. It has also documented the births of three books, my publishing and editing career - but not my transition into coaching that I will fill you in on. It has been here for the downs - my cancer story - and the story of how I took my stepfather, sister and brother in law to court - and won - a 1975 inheritance act case after they conspired to cut me & my docile brothers out of our grandmother/great uncle’s inheritance. I have been somewhat unfaithful to this blog. There are years of fervid documentation, and some patchy years. 2025 is a blank so I will explain that. I am still preoccupied with literature, art, Justice & Jesus, and the experiential nature of Biblical mystical spirituality. I still struggle with the term ‘Christian,’ given it’s so loaded. I do not find myself in keeping with the established, western church. I still cut all my children’s and husband’s hair. I still make visual art and put on arts events in the UK when I am back on visits.
What has radically shifted? The family. We are currently based in Boston due to my husband’s current occupation. My three youngest children are now at a school in Boston walking distance from where we live. Given they have all 3 been home educated this is quite a transition. For the first six weeks since we arrived in September 2025, we were jumping through archaic American bureaucratic hoops of such complication that we were quite distorted out of shape. Meanwhile we continued in home education. The icon (actual icon, not a bottomy pouty cut out) that was Jane Goodall died during this time so we studied and wrote about her and watched an extraordinary National Geographic documentary about her. By quickening degrees, we noticed the segregation in Boston and the gaping divide between rich and poor. We also studied the history of the Boston school system and, alerted by an African American friend after I spoke to her about how sharply the schools in our area are divided by racial lines, the Boston Busing crisis. Beginning in 1974 and continuing to1988, violent conflict erupted after a federal court order to desegregate Boston Public Schools was put into motion. To combat racial segregation and inequitable funding, Judge W. Arthur Garrity ordered busing students to integrate schools. This triggered intense white opposition, violence, riots, and the flight of white families from the school system. It was like watching the Soweto Uprising in 1976, except it wasn’t the white apartheid police that were firing live rounds on African school children who did not want to learn Afrikaans, but white families and students lobbing rocks and other handy missiles at these African American children. I am sad to report that over 50 years later this gap is as vast and gaping as it was though the violence has shifted. I will write more about our experience in the gap next time. Meanwhile there is some good education to be had via the handy links if you’d like to know more as I am well over my admittedly self imposed word count as I shifted into ranty mode.
