So, the superintendent of the Philadelphia School District comes to the alma mater of both me and Nya - formally known as CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL (byotch). During an assembly, the students basically boo'd her off as she was introduced to the stage....
Agreed - Central students are jackasses, okay. Fine. But that does not excuse Dr. Ackerman (the Supa).
Here's the situation at hand: Dr. Ackerman wants to make philadelphia a more successful environment with the plan to uplift 85 public elemntary, middle, and high schools with a more hands-on personell and a better application and acceptance system that makes school with great success a little more accessible to the less fortunate. That's great =D, round of applause.
I'm sure she comes with great intentions, and if not....big surprise, she's a politician. But w/e. I think that making all the underacheiving schools better is excellent, as long as it has nothing to do with imagine 2014 (But it does. read up). But, because this little agenda involves loosely accepting less qualified students into special admission schools, central don't real fux wit it.
This is basically a case of, "I'm trying to bring affirmative action into the school system to make this city better." Little does Dr. Ackleman know, the exact opposite will happen and central will eventually ooz down into a neighborhood school. Central knows though..that's why theye boo'd her ass.
I guess every central student knows exactly what it's like to be a "rich white man" in America right now. I mean, here you have someone that wants to create equal opprotunity for the less fortunate, and the more fortunate boo's her off stage. The ones with priveledge, and opprotunity, and a future ahead of them boo's this person that wants the rest of the school system to have what they have. Not knowing that the money to build their new classy library was the money taken away from schools that underacheive because they dont have money to begin with.
But hey, know one wants to make a difference at their own expense. Right, rich white guy? Riight.
Politics just entertain me. that's why I watch CNN like it's MTV. I'm just sayin
-peeeeeeeaaaaace
3 comments:
to the informed reader:
the money used to build central's library wasn't "taken away" from other schools--it's not like the money was the school district's and central just decided to use it all for itself. the money comes from central alumni. I personally don't think that the money would have done much good elsewhere anyway; throwing money at problems, as ackerman will inevitably discover, does not solve them.
the question here is not whether central students would like other students in the city to have the same opportunity as them. the question is whether central students would like to sacrifice their own futures by having central turned into a neighborhood school. small sacrifices for the greater good is one thing, but to give up everything for a cause that in all likelihood will amount to nothing is a very different matter.
ultimately the district's plan under ackerman seems to be to "spread the wealth" of so-called "gifted" students across the city--that is, by dispersing "gifted" students throughout neighborhood schools, they hope to raise the average scores of said schools, probably with the aim of gaining more money under the federal "No Child Left Behind" act.
there are many, many problems with this.
first, peer influence plays a big role, even for the brightest students. part of central's success is in surrounding its students with other students who are academically motivated. students surrounded by less motivated peers are much less likely to be driven academically, especially when academic success comes at the price of becoming a victim of the jealousy, resentment, and overall ill-favor of "less gifted" students.
second, even the top students at these "underachieving" schools (as the government calls them) have difficulty getting into better schools. penn, for example, has been known to reject even valedictorians of "underachieving schools" (which includes both innercity aka ghetto schools and rural aka redneck schools). magnet schools like central, masterman, and northeast magnet then provide an extremely important opportunity for students who take their education seriously to gain a leg-up in life... the 50th ranked student at any of these schools probably has a better chance of getting accepted into an exceptional college than the #1 at a school like germantown or roxborough.
third, it is extremely feasible that, if these magnet schools were forced to become neighborhood schools, instead of sticking around, families with "gifted" students would move to places like (unfortunately) new jersey, where the public school system is much more reputable. thus, it seems as though the average scores of the district are facing a severe drop as a result of the "Imagine 2014" plan.
I know that personally my problems with ackerman stem mainly from her continuous display of ignorance. her hesitance to visit even masterman (which I regretfully must concede IS the best public school in philly) last year, and especially her refusal to visit central despite repeated invitations, demonstrates that she has close to no understanding about how the city works. either that or she is perfectly aware of what she is doing by "sacrificing" magnet schools. my guess is that she was assigned to philly (from san francisco, by the way) as a sort of "lost cause" assignment, without realizing that, instead of getting rid of schools like masterman and central, these schools should be used as models upon which to mold the others, if not in intensity, at least in academic environment.
in summary: although central students may be somewhat impolite in booing her, their justification for doing so is completely valid. their position is not that of the "rich white man" who is threatened by affirmative action (schools like Germantown Friends or Catholic Schools more accurately reflce this), but of the "poor minority" who is being grouped unfairly into an extremely broad classification that prevents them from escaping their unfortunate situation.
-268
how ignorant of me!
You are right, the library is definately thanks to our very charitable alumni. True, true.
And I agree with aaaaaallllll that you said. I tried my best not to take sides in the post because I don't really hold a position on this.
&This is why:
True..Ackerman's vision is flawed. Very flawed. And she is not the most knowledgable when it comes to the phila school district.
Also true: central's prestige is already threatened (or affected) by affirmative action. Because masterman wasn't always thee best my brotha. Ask any alum, today's central is nothing like yesterday's.
And whether it's the "rich white man" or the "poor minority", central students are highly priveledged and don't want anybody handing them out to just anybody.
So, you can spin whichever way but it's still a haves vs. have nots thing.
Post a Comment