Navigating Cultural Change in Schools: Lessons from “The Science Fair Incident”

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The case described in Katherine K. Merseth’s book (1997) is similar to the numerous situations that took place in the U.S. schools during the “after-Brown v. Board of Education” case (1954) period when the “separate but equal” doctrine and racial segregation in education were declared unconstitutional (Martin, p.121). The Science Fair Incident is the case devoted to the situation that occurred in the school where the number of Black students grew. It describes perpetual irreconcilability and violent confrontations between Black and White students.

The Science Fair Incident makes us think over a certain time lag between the moment of the official prohibition of racial segregation in education and the moment the new condition was accepted by people’s minds. This lag took place not on the pages of the book only, but also in real-life: the decision of the Court on the Brown v. Board of Education case was met with indignation and resistance by different social groups, from White students to the local powers of some states.

What we see in The Science Fair Incident is the very this situation: White students had not got used to the idea that since that moment they would attend school together with their Black classmates, which incarnated in mutual disrespect, mockery, and even scuffles.

The school principal Robert Cage and the school teachers faced a rather difficult task: they had to find a way to manage the situation and make the school environment friendly and favorable for studying. It was clear that White and Black students should not struggle against each other or even just co-exist in independent groups, but respect each other, interact and make friends; the only issue that was not so clear was how to fulfill this incredibly difficult task.

We see from the case text that at that moment, Principal Cage did not manage to develop a strategy of managing cultural changes that took place in his school. At first, he did not take drastic measures but limited his actions to react to the situations that he was informed about by the teachers (pp.40-41). After his patience was exhausted and he saw that the situation had gone too far, he issued a statement that prohibited “using racial, ethnic, or religious slurs of any kind” (p.41).

It is difficult to say whether this measure itself was effective or it would be better to combine it with other approaches. For example, when reprimanding White girls who participated in a skirmish with their black peers, Cage said sincere and impressive words, “All of you, Blacks and Whites alike, need to get along. Your races may be different, but you’re all still the same. You need to respect and appreciate each others’ cultures – not debase them with this name-calling” (ibid.). Probably, if Cage combined his prohibition with delivering this priceless truth to students in a peaceable, persuasive manner, he would influence his students’ minds and gradually bring the school environment to harmony.

Managing cultural change in his school was Cage’s primary duty. As a principal, he had a responsibility to several sides: first of all, it was his responsibility to his students and their families to provide a comfortable environment in the school. The students’ main right is being happy and feeling comfortable at school; this is important for their academic performance and their future behavior as members of society. Besides, Principal Cage had a responsibility to the whole community: as the main decision-maker in the school, he had to develop an effective management strategy to provide a healthy environment for teaching and learning.

However, Principal Cage was not the only person to struggle against the problems on his own: particularly, the duty of the community members, especially, the school teachers was to help Principal Cage manage the challenging situation. We see that the teachers and other staff members made attempts to influence the situation by informing Cage about the students’ squabbles and misbehaviors connected with racial issues (pp. 40,41). At the same time, we can state that the teachers were also not ready for the situation that happened at school.

The Science Fair Incident describes a didactic situation: despite having no intent to promote racial intolerance, Greg Richter, the school teacher nevertheless overlooked the situation that aggravated the cultural conflict in the school. Can we call Mr. Richter a racist? We can hardly state that he was. According to the dictionary, racism is the belief that race is the ground for any inequality, and also any kind of racial discrimination (Racism). From the case, we see that nor of these characteristics referred to Mr. Richter’s behavior at school; moreover, he was popular with Black students and was respected by them (p.42).

The teacher did not demonstrate any prejudice to black students and had no intent to aggravate the situation. What he can be blamed for is not racism, but short-sightedness and carelessness in managing a problem that existed at school. First of all, when two students informed Mr. Richter about their intent to carry out a research project devoted to studying racial issues at school (p.43), the teacher should be very attentive to this situation. His duty was to direct the girls’ research into a positive, appropriate channel so that it would not cause an unhealthy stir and offend Black students. Secondly, when the teacher saw the students’ “research results”, he should immediately forbid their presentation: it was possible to predict that it would aggravate the cultural crisis at school.

Thus, The Science Fair Incident demonstrates how big the lag between the official decision and the society’s opinion can be and how important it is for seniors to demonstrate their foresight and effectively manage the situation.

References

Martin, W. E. (1998). Brown v. Board of Education: A Brief History with Documents. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin’s.

Merseth, K. K. (1997). Cases in Educational Administration. USA: Allyn & Bacon.

Racism. n.d. In Merriam-Webster.Com. Web.

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Navigating Cultural Change in Schools: Lessons from “The Science Fair Incident”

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