Dream Not of Other Worlds

When Huston Diehl began teaching a fourth-grade class in a " Negro" elementary school in rural Louisa County, Virginia, the school’ s white superintendent assured her that he didn't expect her to teach " those children" anything.  She soon discovered how these low expectations, widely shared by the white community, impeded her students' ability to learn. With its overcrowded classrooms, poorly trained teachers, empty bookshelves, and meager supplies, her segregated school was vastly inferior to the county's white elementary schools, and the message it sent her students was clear: " dream not of other worlds."