Date: Thursday, April 11, 2013; 5:45-7:00 pm
The last time I did this project,
I had thoroughly enjoyed myself and the first thing I did upon returning back
home was sign up for this month.
However, it had been a tough day at work and I was exhausted. I was about to cancel my shift, but upon
looking online I saw that Christina, the Volunteer leader for this project, was
struggling to sign people. My presence
would be required and so I set out for the location armed with the knowledge
that we would be debating the topic of ‘School
Closings: The Effect on Our Youth and Communities’. Now, I had been on the periphery of this
topic without really following the details.
All that I had been interested in was checking if any of the schools that I go to through Chicago Cares were going to be affected. So I arrived for the debate totally
unprepared.
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| Phoenix: Flame on |
The first thing Christina asked
me was if I would be willing to lead this project next month since she was
going out of town. I told her it would
be difficult for me to commit so soon, but if she still required someone as we
got closed to the date, I may do it. The
volunteer turnout was very poor this evening, as was the attendance by the
residents. There was one other volunteer,
Ashley and 5-6 other ladies, besides Josie who is in charge of the
program. Christina started with an ice
breaker, asking everyone, “If you could
be any animal, which one would you be and why”. We had a variety of responses such as ‘Panther’ and ‘Parrot’ as well as ‘Fish’
and ‘Wild Monkey’, which was proposed
by Christina. Josie chose ‘American Eagle’ and went on to say that
she liked and collected eagles I wasn't sure what that meant, so I asked and learned that she has every type of eagle
in either picture or model form. Next it
was my turn and I said that I was going to pick a mythical creature. I said that I was quite content being the
dominant species on this planet and so there really wasn't any animal that I would be comfortable being, especially since I did not want to be chased for
food! I was thus picking
a fantasy creature and that was the bird ‘Phoenix’. I said that this way I could fly and also
never fade away, since I could keep getting reborn.
People seemed to like my logic and after that our
real debate was about to commence.
We started by reviewing the pros
and cons that Christina had laid out.
According to her, the supporters of school closings argued that by
consolidating students they would be better served by being in schools with
superior facilities and better staff and programs. Furthermore, closing the schools was going to
save a lot of money. The opponents point
was that this was a minor attempt to alleviate the districts $1 billion deficit
and the whole concept was racist, since majority of students affected were
minorities. Plus, they claimed that by
closing schools, the city was breaking down the community and was detrimental
to neighborhood revitalization.
Josie jumped right in by
stating what the problem was according to her.
She said that the displacement of students is going to cause children to
travel much further from their homes and there was increased likelihood of them
coming to harm through gang violence.
Besides that, they would find acceptance into a new school a problem and
would have difficulty in adjusting with other kids. She also claimed that the in-coming students
will have to learn new skill sets and will eventually lose motivation and
quit. I listened to Josie and then
stated my point of view. I said that in
terms of distance that the kids would now need to travel, this could be an easy
fix and perhaps the city could provide buses as transportation. As far as the kids losing interest because of
a new environment, I said that the kids are always looking for an excuse to
drop out. Shame on the parents; for it
is their responsibility to keep the kids engaged and in school. I said that I had not studied this issue in
detail, but it seems like most were agreeing that the overall infrastructure for
the kids was going to increase. This
meant that once the kids were inside the school walls, their quality of
education was going to improve. So if
the problem lies outside, let’s try to fix that. Let’s – once again – try to identify the root
cause.
I said that I am sick and tired
of people playing the race card time and again.
It is just not fair to blame everything on race and maybe we needed to
look at the bigger issue. Why are the
minority schools closing? If it is due
to low enrollment, then let us try to understand why there is low enrollment,
rather than calling this a racist plan.
I said that I was a minority myself, yet refused to blame my problems on
race. It is always easy to list
problems. Time had come to discuss
solutions. After this if people really
wanted to talk about race, let the Mayor challenge the minority communities to
increase enrollment and keep kids in school.
I said I would much rather close schools that are suffering due to lack
of resources and move the kids to another one where their quality of education
will improve.
Christina said that while these
were good points, she sided with Josie on the distance that a kid
would now need to travel, and the possibility that they could lose their
life. “What was one life worth”, she posed the question. I said we should be aiming to save hundreds
to thousands of lives by finding a permanent solution and that can only happen
through fixing the root cause. Why would
the child be harmed on the way to school?
Gangs? Well, why are there gangs?
Lack of education? Wouldn't new schools
with better infrastructure help in this?
If I have said it before, I will say it again. It will take a long time for change, 50 years
perhaps, but we should not be looking to put a Band-Aid on every issue, but take a long-term
view. Can we guarantee that there would be no tragic consequences? Perhaps not; but if we do nothing, we are looking
at a problem that will keep on recurring.
Speaking of change, one of the
ladies talked about growing up in Mississippi during the 60s. She said that she had been a part of an ‘integration
process’ back then, having merged with a ‘white school’. She talked about the bullying that she had
undergone. I asked if the new school had
improved her standard of education and when she said yes, I replied that’s what
I had been talking about, the long term fix.
The other ladies who had been listening, said that the government did
not care and while we could come up with any number of solutions, they will not
change anything. I said that it's not just the government that has been guilty of poor planning, we have too.
We could have done something a long time ago to increase enrollment in schools,
rather than complain now. Christina said
that there was a website where one could air grievances about school closings
and I said then let’s use it constructively.
My final thoughts on this issue
were that if we dig deeper, we will realize that the root cause is not school
closing or race, but other issues, including development and lack of
education. We cannot fix everything in
short-term but need to work at it every year. Yes, there will be set-backs. But
there will also be victories, and that’s what we should aim for. This had been a tremendous debate and fortunately
the women did not have to rush to see ‘American
Idol’ like previous month. I bid the
ladies goodbye and took the train back into downtown with Christina. We discussed this program and I told her how
enjoyable this usually is. Hopefully I
will be able to return next month and I can only wait with anticipation for our
next topic.
*All the client's names have been changed in order to respect their privacy
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