All I Really Need to Know about Chickenheads, I Learned Tuition-free
February 26, 2009
Now that you’ve got me started on NYC schools:
I actually think Joel Klein is on the track to improving our schools, by supporting charter schools that have their own training programs, and cutting down on wasteful spending. He’s also changed the system so that funding follows the individual student. But even the schools that show good test results (like P.S. 234) are overcrowded. (And why is P.S. 234 performing well? High property taxes in TriBeCa? Maybe. More important, only a select income bracket can live in that neighborhood and therefore send their kids to 234).
Despite its shortcomings, I am grateful for the years I spent at P.S.3, and the public middle school I attended (until my mom realized I was learning more about how fake nails are useful in a fight, and that doorknocker earrings are a bitch if someone decides to grab them with the aforementioned fake nails). My elementary school was incredibly diverse, and I had classmates from all walks of life. We were a group of various races, economic backgrounds, children of immigrants, of liberals and conservatives, and sometimes children of two men or two women. I am thankful that in those formative years, it wasn’t just that I was exposed to so much, but that we were a diverse community. That the school felt accepting and cohesive is a testament to the dedication of the Principal at the time (John Meltzer-who has since had the school named in his honor).
I don’t pretend to know more about how to fix our schools than the people whose job it is to improve them (particularly Joel Klein, who gave up a high paying job to become school chancellor). But let’s face it, the cost of living in this city is remarkable, especially in Manhattan, and you have upper middle class parents competing to get their children into private schools before they are out of the womb. I don’t even have kids, and I’m already worried about where I can send them.
PS 234 is performing well mostly because of the high quality instruction and administration at the school. The average wealth of the kids who go there isn’t the whole story.
OK, full disclosure: I’m a teacher there.
On another note, it’s nice to see substantive discussion of education on a celebrity blog. Keep it up, and come visit our school!
Hello, Julia. I’m glad you’re interested in education. It’s a very complicated issue, involving many players; but the kids are ultimately the ones that need the right sort of reforms to take place. I’d really recommend that you research the issues carefully – and objectively – though, so that your energies, insofar as where you believe change needs to take place, are directed appropriately.
You should also remember that kids, teachers and schools, have changed dramatically – since you or I were children. Kids have gotten a lot more difficult to work with – as well; teachers are more skilled and qualified than ever – as a result of a raising of teacher certification standards.
When it comes to charter schools – one can’t really compare them to a conventional public school. For one – charter schools usually don’t have to comply with the same regulations that regular public schools have to. They usually use this power to expel uncooperative students very quickly. Some schools – like the Bronx’s very successful KIPP academy (a school I once worked next to) – expel students at a rate of 50 percent – for behavior or attendance problems. This helps schools like these, usually run by private organizations that profit greatly from these schools, to maintain an atmosphere that a typical public school could not – insofar as behavior stats, performance on exams and attendance (markers used by bureaucrats and politicians to claim progress) – etc. If you took – for example – KIPP and made it exclusively responsible for education in New York – you’d automatically see their performance rates fall, because they’d be forced to teach ALL of the kids.
Reform – in my opinion – really requires more than what people like Joel Klein or Michelle Rhee have been fighting for: higher graduation rates and regents passing rates. Kids who do well in these areas – as a result of their time in a charter or regular public school – don’t necessarily do well at the college level, because college requires skills that aren’t profitable to the people running them: they don’t help students pass the exams that make a school “successful.”
As a former student and teacher in the city’s public schools – I can tell you that what today’s kids need are practical skills: college prep. – in the form of being helped to research college majors and careers, understanding prerequisites to entering the various professions: grad. schools, internships -etc. And college writing also has to be emphasized: many inner city students can’t write effectively: 85 percent fail CUNY’s writing skills assessment exams, and effective health and food programs, through which kids are taught how to read nutrition labels and how to maintain a balanced diet are also important. You sort of hit on it – when you mentioned how some schools are exclusively open to a certain group of children. This is true and really leads to inequality – between how students are treated, across the city. Another problem has to do with the chancellor not requiring enrichment programs across the board. This leaves a lot of kids on their own – when it comes to knowing what’s open to them, after high school.
Lastly, you have serious behavior issues – amongst the population of students being “served” in our city’s schools. As a teacher – I saw kids and teachers regularly assaulted, verbally and physically. Students bring their cells and I-PODS to schools, and understaffed schools are unable to control the dozens of kids who bring these items into their schools and refuse to listen to reason, because it’s never been used with them at home. Parenting is a whole other issue – because most studies show that kids learn the most fundamental things from their parents: vocabulary, values and morals, etc. School is the final product. So… students who don’t have that at home need extra support, though many of them really despise school and would probably not take advantage of such a program.
Essentially – it’s a very complex issue: definitely not a black and white one. I’m glad you’re involved – because you’re not someone who stands to profit from any of the “reforms” being suggested. As such – it’s that much more important that you make sure that you’re on the right side of the issue.
Take Care