Members' Studio
In this section, we'd like to feature members' literary and
art contributions related to education and/or unionism. If you have something to contribute,
let our webster
know. Give your name, job title, work location, home phone and the type of material you have.
And Still We Rise: The Trials and Triumphs of Twelve Gifted Inner-City High
School Students Will Standards Save Public Education? Reviewed by Tom Gallagher
No one involved in the public education system can be unaware of the
plight of black students within it. However, political sensibilities are such that it
can be difficult to even discuss the obstacles they face without appearing to
slight them. Which makes Los Angeles Times reporter Miles Corwin's story of
twelve black students in an LA "gifted" high school program the more
important.
LA has two "gifted" high school programs. One is located in the San
Fernando Valley, and has a black population of but one percent. The one
described in And Still We Rise, on the other hand, is contained within the
larger Crenshaw High School in South-Central LA, a location that makes it
unappealing to the families of non-minority students who would be eligible to
attend. As a result, it is one of the few all-minority "gifted" public high
school programs in America.
Which will break first -- semester or teacher? The Crenshaw campus is every parent's worst nightmare. Despite the two LA
cops with 9mm pistols permanently stationed there, a stabbing occurs on the
fourth day of school. "In the stairwell between the second and third floors,
the names of the students killed over the summer, T-Gunn, Baby Sextage, and
Papa Fuck, are spray-painted beneath: R.I.P..---WE LOVE Y'ALL." When a shot
is fired into a classroom -- while a class is in progress -- it is not the
first such experience for the teacher in that room.
Life outside is no easier. The best friend of Sadi -- one the book's
central students -- was killed in ninth grade. Toya discovered the body of her
murdered brother when she was nine; during the course of the book she will
drop out after having a baby no one else at school knew was enroute. Sabreen
left home at 13 after her mother cracked a broom handle across her back.
Oliva skips out on several foster homes, is caught passing bad checks, and
finishes the year in jail. Miesha has been sexually abused by her
step-father. Princess already has an ulcer, hastened by frequent evictions,
neighborhood shootings and drug busts, and the rats and roaches she lives
with. On top of their honors classes, many of the students work 30-40 hours a
week at anything from theater usher to taxi dancer.
Tough to be a scholar Corwin notes that "Many
parents in suburban neighborhoods hire private
Scholastic Aptitude Test tutors or pay for preparation courses for their
children. Some of these students spend years preparing for the exam,"
whereas "almost every Crenshaw student I followed walked into the SAT exam
cold, with no preparation whatsoever." And yet, California voted out
affirmative action during the period the book covers. But, as the title says, still they rose. These are the kids that
prevailed over the odds; all twelve were off to college. What about the
other 90 percent of Crenshaw, and all of the other schools like it?
Small community connections vs. government imposed standards She points out "the idea that schools are a disaster, and that fixing
them fast is vital to our economy, has become something of a truism." But,
"Now, fifteen years (more or less) after analysts discovered the great crisis
of American education, the American economy is soaring."
So America's educational system is not failing the country as a whole,
but it is replicating and perpetuating the economic inequalities found
outside the classroom. But since the country conducts its political debate
as if the current increase in economic inequality is not happening at all,
not surprisingly, the real issue is seldom addressed.
A real answer will probably cost more than a set of standardized exams,
and the money won't go to one of the publishing company giants that produces
those exams. Kids who go to the Crenshaws very simply need more attention.
They need small classes, and often other adults in those classes in addition
to the teacher.
When we're prepared to put enough people in the classroom to ensure that
the child who already calls himself stupid in the first-grade is not
irretrievably lost, we will surely find that the rest too will rise.
Tom Gallagher is a substitute teacher with SFUSD and an At-Large Substitute Representative for UESF.
By Miles Corwin
William Morrow, 418 pages, $25.00
By Deborah Meier, et al
Beacon Press, 90 pages, $12.00
The book's center stage is the students' senior year Advanced Placement
English class. Their teacher is top-notch, but unfortunately appears to be
in the process of having a nervous breakdown brought on, in large part, by
conflicts with other teachers and administrators that are frequently
self-induced. We wonder which will break first -- the semester or the
teacher. When she fails to return after spring break, the tension mounts
over whether she's missed too much time to allow her students a fighting
chance to pass the exam. When, at one point Corwin himself feels obligated
to take over the class, his indifferent results convince him -- and us -- of
the difference a brilliant teacher can make.
Even the students who have it easier don't have it easy. Curt has two
college graduate parents, but grew up with classmates accusing him of "acting white"
when he did well in school. As his mother says, "It's very tough for a young
black male who wants to be a scholar." Curt wanted to be a scholar, but he
didn't want to deal with kids telling him he was "selling out his race."
Will Standards Save Public Education? -- one in a series of short "New
Democracy" books consisting of a central essay and several responses --
addresses the standardized examinations increasingly advanced as crucial to
precisely those students. McArthur grant-winner Deborah Meier argues
against government-imposed standards, and in favor of the small,
community-connected schools like Boston's Mission Hill School she now heads,
and New York's Central Park East schools that first brought her note.
UESF's Mission and Affiliates
| Calendar
| Committees
| Constitution and Bylaws
| Contract for Paraprofessionals
| Contract for Teachers
| Directory
| Governance
| Know Your Rights
| Member Benefits
| Labor Resources
| Political Action
| Reform and Education Issues
| S.F. Educators in the News
| Teaching Resources
| Treasurer's Accounts
|
