NICIE recently received a letter of support from a colleague in Florida. Below is an extract:

Dear Colleagues at NICIE,

I was happy to find your website today, and am writing to send you support and encouragement in your efforts to offer students from different traditions and ethnic backgrounds the chance to know one another in school. I grew up in Florida during the 1950s and 1960s, during an era in which segregation of black and white students was the law of the land. When the federal government finally struck down the unjust and destructive laws of segregation, we went through an era of suspicion, wariness, and fear. But as the years passed and students became more and more comfortable with each other, things got better for students of all races. Things are incredibly better now. I have had the chance to see students interact in schools since the mid-70s, and have been overjoyed to see the expanding positive effects of integrated education. I still work with student groups on a regular basis, and they are incredulous that students in this country were ever separated from each other. They cannot imagine the “bad old days.” We really are moving into an era, envisioned by Dr. Martin Luther King, where children “are judged not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”

…Some day, I can imagine students throughout Northern Ireland having the same thoughts as ours….”We can’t believe we were ever kept apart.” The world is growing increasingly enmeshed, and all the old prejudices and bias will eventually be replaced with the first-hand knowledge that we are much more alike than we are different.

ends