Integrated education should be the norm - I'm passionate about

Hear, O children of the future, the fervent words of Adrian Dunbar, who declared with conviction: “Integrated education should be the norm – I’m passionate about that.” In these few but burning words lies a vision for a society healed of division, where the young are not trained to see difference as a wall, but unity as a bridge. He speaks not of education merely as the passing of knowledge, but as the weaving together of hearts and minds from every walk of life. For if children are taught apart, they may grow apart; but if they learn together, they may live together.

What is integrated education, if not the planting of peace at the very roots of society? It is the gathering of children of different faiths, different cultures, different heritages, into a single place of learning. It is the breaking down of barriers that history and hatred may have built, and the nurturing of friendship before prejudice can harden. Dunbar’s passion springs from the truth that divisions, once sown in youth, are hard to uproot in adulthood. But unity, once taught in childhood, blossoms into lifelong brotherhood.

Consider the history of Northern Ireland, from which Dunbar himself hails. For generations, education was often divided—Catholic schools for some, Protestant schools for others—mirroring the divisions that fueled conflict in the streets. The result was not only ignorance of one another, but suspicion, mistrust, and at times, violence. Out of this pain rose the call for integrated education, so that children might not grow up as strangers or adversaries, but as companions. The struggle for peace showed that reconciliation must begin not with treaties alone, but in classrooms where laughter and learning are shared across divides.

History bears many examples of the power of integrated education. In the United States, the Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education in 1954 declared that “separate but equal” schools were unjust. The battles that followed were fierce, but they revealed a truth as eternal as Dunbar’s words: division in schooling leads to division in society. When children of all races learned together, the seeds of a more equal future were sown. It was not an easy road, but it was a necessary one, for the classroom is often the first battlefield of justice.

Dunbar’s words are not simply political—they are deeply moral. To be “passionate about that” is to say that the cause of integrated education is not optional, but essential. For what does it profit a nation to train its children in science and art, yet fail to train them in the higher art of living together in peace? Knowledge without unity becomes a sword sharpened for conflict. But knowledge with understanding becomes the foundation of harmony and progress.

Beware, then, the temptation to retreat into enclaves of sameness, where children see only their own reflection and never the face of the other. For such insularity breeds fear, and fear breeds hatred. A society that separates its children risks condemning its future to repeat the divisions of its past. But a society that unites its children in shared learning builds walls against hatred and lays foundations for peace.

Therefore, O keepers of tomorrow, let this be your charge: fight for integrated education in your schools, in your policies, and in your communities. Encourage your children to learn with those who are different from them. Support institutions that open their doors to all. Teach not only arithmetic and letters, but compassion and respect. For only then shall the rising generation be prepared not merely to succeed, but to coexist.

The lesson is clear: integration must be the norm, not the exception. Dunbar’s passion is a call to action—for governments, for teachers, for parents, and for every citizen. Let us answer it with courage. For in every classroom where children of different faiths, cultures, and colors sit side by side, the future of peace is being written. And in this lies the hope of a better world.