<P> Integration of schools has been a protracted process, however, with results affected by vast population migrations in many areas, and affected by suburban sprawl, the disappearance of industrial jobs, and movement of jobs out of former industrial cities of the North and Midwest and into new areas of the South . Although required by court order, integrating the first black students in the South met with intense opposition . In 1957 the integration of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, had to be enforced by federal troops . President Dwight D. Eisenhower took control of the National Guard, after the governor tried to use them to prevent integration . Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, integration continued with varying degrees of difficulty . Some states and cities tried to overcome de facto segregation, a result of housing patterns, by using forced busing . This method of integrating student populations provoked resistance in many places, including northern cities, where parents wanted children educated in neighborhood schools . </P> <P> Although full equality and parity in education has still to be achieved (many school districts are technically still under the integration mandates of local courts), technical equality in education had been achieved by 1970 . </P> <P> In mid-20th century America, there was intense interest in using institutions to support the innate creativity of children . It helped reshape children's play, the design of suburban homes, schools, parks, and museums . Producers of children's television programming worked to spark creativity . Educational toys proliferated that were designed to teach skills or develop abilities . For schools there was a new emphasis on arts as well as science in the curriculum . School buildings no longer were monumental testimonies to urban wealth; they were redesigned with the students in mind . </P> <P> The emphasis on creativity was reversed in the 1980s, as public policy emphasized test scores, school principal were forced to downplay art, drama, music, history and anything that was not being scored on standardized tests, lest their school be labelled "failing" by the quantifiers behind the "No Child Left Behind Act . In the 21st century teachers report that many students in classrooms seem mesmerized by their personal cell phones or smart phones, often checking their text messages or Facebook page . </P>

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