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Show Page Three April 4, 1968 are losing faith in us because when they point to a problem we react with a defense rather than a willingness to seek a new solution. Let me give you an example. Following a dinner party conversation with a friend of mine on the Negro problem, I sent him an article from the Stanford Observer written by a medical student entitled "Futility of the Ghetto Schools." My friend, who is a moderate, reacted to the article in part in these words. "1. Certainly these "angry" people, like Kirk Holloman, must be listened to with the hope that improvements will come from their thundering criticism. "2. Everybody seems to agree that education is the only means of eventually solving the white-black race problem. It seems to me, therefore, that even though the ghetto schools are "unbelievably bad", they are better than no schools at all. "3. America (forgive me if I lecture) means privilege and discrimination. It is one place, even in the environment of the ghetto school, where even an intensely sensitive youngster still has the privilege (however remote) of overcoming all the many obstacles, and reaching a level nowhere else obtainable. It is unlikely, indeed, that a Johnnie Scott or a Kirk Holloman would ever emerge in tribal Africa or in most areas of Asia. "4. Perhaps it's time to stop telling these intensely sensitive youngsters how bad things are. Perhaps a more positive approach |