An articled that recently appeared in the New York Times
chronicled the trials and successes of the Mott Hall Bridge Academy in
Brownsville, Brooklyn. Their school, which has currently just under 200
students enrolled, has 85% of them enrolled in federal free and reduced school
lunch program. The academy is a public chartered middle school and is regarded
as a safe haven in a bad neighborhood. The school has a tradition that is quite
symbolic. Every year the six graders walk across the Brooklyn Bridge into
Manhattan- a place -while only a few minutes away- where many of the students
have never been. The walk symbolizes that there is much more to life than
Brownsville and the world outside of their neighborhood has much to offer.
Students can take a course in entrepreneurship and many of
the students opt to go to high schools elsewhere in New York City.
Mott Hall is not without its problems. Student test scores,
while showing improvement, are below New York City standards. Additionally, it
has been extremely difficult to engage parents their their children’s
education, especially getting the to attend parent-teacher conferences.
Unless we can narrow the socio- economic gap, and unless we
can convince the parents that education is the way of the of poverty culture
and drug and crime culture, then we will be dealing with these same problems
decades from now, wit no better success rates.
I know that this is a tall order for a New Year’s resolution
and most such resolutions are broken in the first eight days of the New Year,
but this is a resolution that we cannot afford to break. The stakes are too
high. We need to find leaders who are willing
to take their students over Brooklyn Bridges everywhere and show them the
marvels that exist out there so that they can find a path for a better
tomorrow.
c.2015 J. Margolis
No comments:
Post a Comment