There's alot of craziness going on in the Philly area today because it was just announced that nearly 50 Catholic elementary and high schools are closing or merging at the end of this school year. I went to Catholic school up until 12th grade, so I have a bunch of facebook friends commenting on the matter. I also have lots of friends who are teachers and as you can imagine this is a huge blow to job availability in our area. I, along with my fellow classmates, have been hanging on to the news feeds all week to find out if our own alma mater makes the cut. And I admit I breathed a little sigh of relief when I saw neither my grade school nor high school is closing. I was surprised with myself because I really have no intentions of sending my kids to Catholic school at all (for many reasons that are not of importance to this particular post). But I do still have allegiance to both schools, and I would be sad to see them close their doors. (plus, my grade school hosts a kick-ass Penny Party every winter, and I'd hate to see that end!)
But it's still incredibly sad that this is happening- my heart does go out to the alumni of these places. In fact, one of the schools that a few of my friends went to is actually merging into my grade school, so it does hit home. Also, I feel for the kids who are now displaced- especially the ones due to graduate this year. I switched to a public school in my senior year, so I understand what it's like to not graduate with the class you grew up with.
I think about education so often now as Anna is only a few short years away from jumping into that pool. We are extremely fortunate to live in a suburb with an award winning public school system, but I often wish we had the money to send her to private (and by private school, again I should emphasize not Catholic.)
When I switched to public school in 12th grade, I was blown away on so many levels. It was a very well funded public high in the burbs- state of the art computer labs, excellent science facilities, a beautiful theater--- a friggin’ ART WING?!?! I was told that the football stadium, which had been built just a few years prior, cost roughly 1 million dollars, and they also have separate fields for practically every sport. My old Catholic high school only had what can best be described as a Football/Field Hockey Pit. But one of the most important things, at least speaking as a parent about to send her kid off into this world, is that my new public school had a staff of social workers who worked individually with each and every student on post-high school goals and college. If I remember correctly, my Catholic high college advisor was also my Italian teacher…. So, yea…
But there’s something to be said about Catholic education--- and I’m not talking about the religion side of it. Of the 6 kids in my family, I am one of 3 who switched to public (my two younger sisters moved over at the same time). I’ve had this conversation with my sisters many times--- that while we were enchanted by the bright stadium lights and the pottery kilns and state-of-the art library--- we could not believe how these kids talked to the teachers and administration and all the adults in general. The attitude, the back talk, the open defiance--- you just did not get away with that shit at a Catholic school.
However, when I weigh apples to oranges, the fact remains that our particular public school comes out on top. That I have intentions of sending my kids to public is a personal decision. If religion was a factor for Dave and I, we would think differently, and it’s simply not. But, again, that is not where I want to go with this post...
I worked as the Education Coordinator at an Art Center in Cheltenham for 3 years. My main title meant that I hired and managed all the teachers, but I wore many hats in that job (as is the case with nonprofits). We ran an outreach program that brought one-time visual and performing art programs to schools. In most cases, a teacher or group of teachers at a school would get a grant to fund the cost of us to bring a project that tied into their curriculum. It was always a very tight budget, so oftentimes I would fill in as one of the teachers because I was a salaried employee while my teachers were all contracted hourly. I’d let my teachers- the education professionals- create the project, and I’d follow their instruction and just lead as many sections as I could. We always wanted to work within the school’s budget because these are city schools that have no art programs whatsoever. This is an issue that is very dear to my heart because I believe the arts, in every way, play such a vital part in a child’s education.
There’s an incident from this time that still haunts me. Two of my teachers and I brought a clay project to a middle school in the Fishtown section of Philly. I was in charge of the 5th grade group, and there was one boy in particular who was acting up the entire time I was explaining the lesson. The teacher kept snapping at him to settle down, but this kid could not stay focused. The teacher rolled her eyes at me several times and apologized for his behavior- “He’s always a problem. Every day. Let me know if you want me to kick him out.” I thanked her and said, “Let’s see how it goes once we get started on the project.”
I handed out balls of red clay to each of the students and started to explain how to work with it. I showed them how to roll it out and break it apart and connect pieces together using a scoring and water technique, which acts as a glue that will withstand the heat of the kiln. The kids were having a great time and being well-behaved… and then I looked over at the one who had given me a problem in the beginning of the lesson. He was quietly manipulating the clay, carefully following all my instructions. He was so concentrated on that project, it seemed as though the entire room and all the distractions fell away from him. He carefully worked on his project for the duration of the class, and at the end he brought it up to me--- and it was a really great piece- and I told him so. He smiled right at me and told me he really liked doing the project because he’s never touched clay before. I said, “It’s kind of like play dough, right!” and he said, “Yea, I never had that before either.”
And then he thanked me.
I think about it often---how I’m lucky to have been born into the class I was born into- in the location of the state I am from- in the part of the United States I live--- in the part of the world I claim my nationality. I really do think about it all the time- My God- I could have been born anywhere else in the world under any other circumstances---- and there are millions of possibilities--- but I wasn’t. I was born in middle to upper-middle class white suburbia. I know people who are trying to claw their way out of the circumstances they were born into. I have no idea what that’s like. I can sit here in white suburbia and say “Shucks, now I can’t send my kid to my alma mater and all I have left is the option of a fantastically over funded public school system. What’s a mom to do?”
The people I see on the news today are the moms and dads and grandparents in the inner city. West Catholic is closing its doors in June, and for those parents, it’s not about their kids not being able to graduate from their alma mater or not being able to finish out their senior year with the class they grew up with. It’s about scraping and saving to send their kids to a school that feels safe and gives a an education and a set of values that the public schools around there simply cannot afford to do. It’s about the panic they now face with figuring out a way to get their elementary school kids on the subway and connecting to the number 5 bus then getting on the number 8 and walking four blocks to their new school every day. It’s about their high school kid who now has to travel so far to the new school that they’ll now get home too late every day to keep that after school job which pays the money to give that extra help around the house. It’s about the serious possibility of having to scrap that idea altogether and sending their kids to the grossly underfunded public options around them.
I’m not discounting that alumni around these parts shouldn’t feel the sadness that they feel. I’m just saying, while we’re all crying into our Starbucks about the good ol’ days, are we using those values we learned from these great institutions to help those who cannot help themselves? Are we putting people in office that will bring about the positive changes needed to help these families? Are we even voting? Are we remembering the lesson that we are all brothers and sisters on this crazy rock hurling through the universe- no matter who or what created it and everything else around it- and are we speaking up for the kids who don’t have the ability to speak for themselves?
Don’t let those schools close in vain. Let’s stop making status updates and instead--- let’s polish off that set of values and get out there and actually do something that would make your teachers and parents proud of that Catholic education they worked so hard to give us.
