Succeeding in the City
A Report from the New York City Black and Latino Male High School Achievement Study
Professor Shaun R. Harper, et al
We acknowledged in the previous section that not every student lived in a dangerous community. Some declared the absence of crime was something they treasured most in their neighborhoods. Many of them had moved to the places where they presently lived from settings that were less safe. “We moved when I was seven because our ga – rage got shot up by an Uzi [submachine gun].” This young man very much appreciated that senseless gun activity was uncommon in the neighborhood to which his family relocated. Being able to walk down the street and talk on his iPhone without worrying that someone would take it was something another participant appreciated about the safer community to which he had recently moved.
Reply:
A friend of mine was jumped in high school for his Ipod. When my sister was in Junior High School, my mom often went to pick her up her because there was a group of girls who wanted to jump her based on how she looked, beautiful, tall, long black hair, and not shy at all. When I was in Junior High School I didn’t stick around after school because the 8th graders from PS109 used to come to my school grounds and fight with the 8th graders from my school.
As educators we try hard to help our students progress hoping that our own education and training can make up for the lack of equity in the school system. The dark realities that some of our students live in prevents many of them from succeeding academically. Very few students dealing with adversity at home, in their neighborhood, or even at school, make it through this school system that is designed for students who have no distraction, just love, food, clothes, and affection. I pray that one day the government sees that standardized tests don’t do anything for our society. If the youth are the future of our nation, then why don’t we train them to be politicians, teachers, businessmen and women, engineers, or doctors? Instead we train them to fill in a sea of endless bubbles. We feed them information that they can’t remember because they are too busy screaming under the boot of a thief, or thieves, or bullies. What do we do as a society? The weight can’t all be on us educators. The progression of a society takes the collaboration of society, as one, equal, people.