Public Housing and Public Schools: How do Students Living in NYC Public Housing Fare in School?
NYU's Furman Center and IESP, Furman Hall
1.5 Hours
At this event, I was first impressed that we got breakfast, there was a coat check, and we all got name tags. I felt very professional and I was glad I dressed up. It felt very empowering to be sitting in a room with professionals, and I was nice to see that other professionals take my profession seriously, even if it is not their own.
I think Angelica took care of the the facts that we learned, and it really did relate to a lot of topics we have discussed in class. Essentially, students living in NYCHA public housing are not doing as well as their peers. They are less likely to go on to college.
But I also learned that public housing was not always meant to be what it has become today. Many people, such as Joel Klein, grew up in NYCHA. It was just supposed to be a way for people to afford housing in New York. But I am speculating that in the 80s, when the disparity between the rich and poor in New York really began to grow again with Wall Street executives and elites and such, public housing began to really fall in to its current stigma. From this comes issues such as opportunity, privilege, racism, etc that we have talked about in class.
However, what really bugged me about this event was that it was not run by educators. Educational researchers, perhaps, but no one who was really in the classrooms, teaching these children. The only person who had any insight was an after-school program organizer. One attendee asked if any of the data collected came from actual students, and she was mostly dismissed.
The overarching theme I got from this event was that privatization was the answer. More money needed to come in from outside sources because it was not coming from the inside. I really resist the idea of the privatization of public institutions, and from this event, I am not swayed in this direction, rather, I am now beginning to understand the need to reform where are students come from as well as our own classrooms, and that is their right, not a business venture.
1 comment:
I agree that it would have been nice to have some educators on the panel. Definitely would have given it somewhat of a different perspective and provided more insight into what I think you and I were really focusing on getting out of by attending. I felt a little bit stilted when I left because of the unbalance in panelists because I felt as though the greater portion of the presentation was about the NYCHA/Public Housing portion of the "Public Housing and Public Schools" title it was given. Glad to see you there being a professional too haha.
Post a Comment