In a meeting with a black parent, Paley listened to a complaint about what the child's previous teacher had said to the parent: "There is no color difference in my classroom. All my children look alike to me." The parent responded to Ms. Paley:

What rot. My children are black. They don't look like your children. They know they're black, and we want it recognized. It's a positive difference, and interesting difference, and a comfortable natural difference. At least it could be so, if you teachers learned to value differences more. What you value, you talk about (Paley, 1979, p. 12).

This parent was right. It was ridiculous to pretend as though all children of various ethnicities and races were alike. We had a similar realization amongst our faculty. Towards the end of the year, every teacher read Gloria Ladson-Billings book, the Dreamkeepers (1994).We were able for the first time bring up delicate and difficult issues. Our sessions were emotionally charged and sometimes painful. But most of us felt closer for having spoken about differences that we had long ignored.

We brought up important factors that I had not thought about. For example, Decatur's successes are often attributed to the fact that it has neighborhood schools. But when 50% of a class is bussed from public housing to a school that sits on a street with $300,000 houses on it, whose neighborhood is it? For this reason, there have been many meetings, conferences, and school performances held at the Community Center in the housing developments. There is moderate response from the housing project neighbors.

Our school has formed a committee with white and black parents who are working together to achieve greater understanding. It will take time, but it is a worthwhile and essential goal.