The school produces many of the state's brightest students, black and white, and sends them on to the nation's best universities. While there is some truth to both explanations, the more important factor may be the different attitudes of parents toward what kind of education will help their kids get ahead. McKindra is enrolled in five Advanced Placement classes, including her second year of calculus. McKindra believes Central has educated her well, but she thinks those in the regular classes are not so fortunate. The racial makeup of classrooms reinforces self-segregation in other parts of school life.
Most black students walk or take the bus to school and enter through the school's front doors.
Most white students drive cars and come in a side door near the parking lot. Most black students eat lunch inside, near the hot lunch line, while white students eat outside, near the concession stand. And even though most Central High students generally say they have friends of different races, they acknowledge that for the most part they hang out with friends from their neighborhood, their junior high, or their classes. The tendency for social self-segregation is a natural habit, but one that is supposed to be weakened by integrated classes. Why classrooms at Central, and at other schools around the nation, aren't very integrated is a matter of some dispute.