Education: A Lesson in the South

"I never thought I'd be going South for a lesson in racial relations," said Linda Lawrence, a senior at Boston's troubled Hyde Park High School. But last week Linda and three other Hyde Park students flew to Charlotte, N.C., to learn what they could from that city's four-year experience with court-ordered busing and school desegregation.

The idea for the trip came from Charlotte students themselves. After reading about the demonstrations and boycotts that have plagued the busing and desegregation program in Boston, students at West Charlotte High wrote letters to the Boston Globe, telling how integration had worked at their school.

The letters...