A Bad Joke

When I was growing up in the 1970’s a certain joke made the rounds at family gatherings. (I hope you will take this to be a better reflection of the decade than of my family, but either way, you might not be far off.) Anyway, it goes like this:

A man asks a woman: “Would you sleep with me for a hundred dollars?”

The woman replies, affronted: “Of course not! What do you think I am?”

“Okay, okay, you’re right. Listen, what I was really going to ask you is…would you sleep with me for a MILLION dollars?

“A MILLION DOLLARS! Well…okay, yes I will. For a million dollars I will sleep with you.”

“Good! So now we know what you are; it’s just a question of price.”

It was perhaps not the healthiest of avenues for me, as a child, to ponder the deep ethical and practical ramifications of hypocrisy, or especially to consider the tragic consequences of such a moral lapse for any woman acquainted with my Great Uncle Harry, but I am deeply aware that this is an original seed for this aspect of my character development.

So, even when I learned that Success Charter is backing off the elementary school and middle school housing the ASD/Nest program, it caused me no moment of relief to learn that they were, instead, . Let me tell you about them. 

A few years ago, it was not an awesome vibe walking by Court and Baltic at 3 p.m. The kids were rowdy. The security guards yelled at them. In return, the kids laughed. But that has changed. So much so, in fact, that people started to say the old school shut down, and a new one had taken up residence there. Some people said it was now just a high school. None of that is true.

What has changed is the people manning the fort, and the efforts they have put into improving that school’s grade from an ‘F’ to a ‘B.’ They applied for and received approximately two million dollars in funding to upgrade the curriculum and facilities. So far that has included computers and technology which students and their families may have access to even on the weekend. What has changed is that the administration and teachers now treat the students with respect. In return, the students behave respectfully. 

I remember hearing those stories about seniors being arrested for spiking brownies with laxatives, and giving them to staff members. Let me tell you, I went to about the prissiest all-girls private school your imagination can conjure, and I remember the seniors there playing the same prank, but no one got arrested in that case. We also had a principal run off with a senior. So, I’m just saying…There might come a day when you want to send your kids to that middle school on Baltic and, if we don’t fight for it now, it might not exist as an attractive option. Either way, however, it is important that we all understand what is at stake here, not just for our own children, but also for other people’s children. 

Yesterday I went to a meeting at . There were teachers there, not just from the middle school on Baltic, but from elementary schools, middle schools and high schools all over New York City. They came to inform, educate and help. They were awesome. Wow, do we have some great teachers out there! They’re smart. They care. They need our support. 

I heard how co-located charter schools take over public schools, narrowing them into tighter and tighter spaces, so that they loose not only their libraries, art, music, science rooms and special education services, but even their principal’s offices. There becomes no way to function or succeed. The charter school then counsels out its ESL, behavioral, and academically challenged students, overburdening the public system. Ultimately, the public school is declared a failure, and is forced to shut down. The charter then takes up full occupancy in its former space. 

To achieve its high test scores, charters not only focus intensely on test prep, to the exclusion of essential critical thinking skills, but also dismiss students who they think will diminish their average. Last year, East New York Preparatory Charter discharged 48 percent of their students just prior to state exams, according to a brochure published by the Grassroots Education Movement.

A teacher from the public school building housing Harlem Success Charter described how the public school in that building was forced into a space so small, that the students there must now take classes in the basement, next to the boiler room.

At the same time, the charter receives $649 more per student in public money than the public school, according to the Independent Budget Office. That is in addition to the millions in private funding they raise.

It sounds like a bad joke, but in my experience even bad jokes can teach profound lessons. 

There’s more…believe me, there’s more. You need to hear about this. Don’t let our teachers fight this fight alone. They need our support.

On Wednesday, November 9 at 6 p.m. please come to PS 261 (Pacific Street, between Smith and Hoyt streets) for a free public screening of “The Inconvenient Truth Behind Waiting for Superman,” followed by a panel discussion. There will be free onsite child care provided, just email 261UNITE@GMAIL.COM.