Cities 07

Kari J. Johnson
April 14, 2007

The Inner-City Push and Pull…

“The most effective kind of education is that a child should play amongst lovely things.” - Plato

Before getting to my points, let me ask you one question. What do you think of when you hear the words urban education or inner-city public schools? My guess is that you have thought of things like, crime, drugs, gangs, poor funding, large drop-out rates, poverty, and racial diversity. While some of these things are very true and very alive within city schools, not all are. In the Minneapolis/St, Paul school districts there are some schools who struggle day after day with fear of losing funding, and violent students, but there is hope. In St. Paul there is an Elementary school that is a spotlight to change the face of inner-city education, and rather than fighting against poverty and diversity, they embrace it! Granted Minneapolis/St. Paul are not comparable to the Chicago inner-city schools, there are many difficulties to overcome. Many people have proposed ideas about the inner-city schools on why they do not work, but maybe they do.
Education in Minnesota has always been a strong point among our institutions, until recently. One thing that has always been different is how the same education system works throughout the state. The same curriculums and distribution of funds does not work for all areas of the state. In the rural districts, schools struggle to keep enrolments up, and usually small towns have to collaborate to create enough of a student base for a school. In the suburbs, the public schools are immense buildings and they graduate anywhere from 300-1000 students a year. Finally, the urban schools struggle with funding because of poor performance rates in at-risk areas. At-risk refers to those students who need extra attention because of their home situation and/or poverty struggles.
Comparing inner-city schools to suburban and rural schools is not the same, but from the outside they do not look that much different. The real difference is what goes on inside. The children can have similar attitudes and levels of intelligence, but what about their backgrounds? According to Craig Anderson, the Curriculum Coordinatior/Hamline Liason at Hancock Hamline University Collaborative Magnet School, the big difference between urban schools and others are the language barriers and poverty. Anderson said that around 70 different languages are spoken within St. Paul Public Schools. Anderson brings with him 11 years of teaching experience within the St. Paul school district and has seen first hand the difficulties that arise as a direct result from languages. The young students often do not speak English at home, so, on average a majority of the students in schools that cater to impoverished and immigrant families have limited English. The urban schools do not all see language barriers as a challenge, so even consider it a strength. Anderson said that by the time most of the children are in 4th grade they can fluently speak two languages, when most American born children just know English. Anderson commented that he would like to see a politician take a 4th grade level standardized test, in Somali. Of course most would not be able to do so, but young students have their intelligence tested in English just after learning it.
Another downfall of the inner-city schools are the poverty rates and lack of parent support. Don’t judge the parents though. It is not that the parents do not want to support their children, they just do not have the time. Parents are often working two or three jobs to make enough to survive. That is something that suburban and rural schools have in their favor though. Even with parents working around the clock, families struggle with poverty. For a majority of schools in the St. Paul Public School District, most all students receive free and reduced price lunch. At Anderson’s school 85% of the student population is eligible, and at Como Park Elementary it is 89%, Jackson Elementary is also 89%, Roosevelt Elementary is at a 94% eligibility rate, where as St. Anthony Park Elementary 25% of the student population receives free and reduced price lunch (MN Dept. of Educ.). It is obvious that the children attending these schools and other inner-city school on average have more struggles to deal with than those around the rest of the state.
Having to worry about financial problems can seem menial compared to topics like drugs, gangs and violence. Anderson said that, “Yes, every now and then we will have a student bring a knife or a gun to school, but that happens in the suburbs and rural schools too” (Anderson). Drugs, gangs and violence do lurk within St. Paul and Minneapolis schools, but compared to Chicago, Detroit and New York, the pressures are not nearly as high. On the main page of the Chicago Public School homepage you will not find pictures of smiling children learning, or even stories of the great things happening in the area, but rather a picture of a 17 year old young man who went missing and was murdered in March. The story concludes with a plea for information, but nothing about education (Chicago Public Schools). While what happened is a horrible occurrence, the school systems homepage looks more like a police report in the paper, than a site for children and their parents. The web-page also brings attention to drop-outs with links like “Don’t Drop Out,” and “Getting to the Next Grade” (Chicago Public Schools). The reality is being forced into the minds of young children and adults, and the lack of encouragement is scary.
Yet another disturbing norm of urban schools is not preparing or even encouraging young minds to attend college. For most children they automatically assume that the jobs their parents have will someday be there own, unless they are told they can do otherwise. Author and observational researcher, Jonathan Kozol says in his book, Shame of the Nation, that the low qualities of teachers in some urban areas are “preparing minds for markets” (89). Rather than having dreams of becoming a pilot, a teacher, or a doctor, children are being taught to play pretend as a cashier at Wal-Mart of JCPenny’s (Kozol 90). These disturbing thoughts are quickly becoming the norm, but some schools beg to differ.
Hancock Hamline University Collaborative Magnet Elementary School is located in St. Paul right off of Snelling Avenue. Hancock is not particularly fancy, nor are its ideas, but it is one of the best schools within the Minneapolis/St. Paul inner-city school system. At least Craig Anderson thinks so. Rather than teaching children how to be cashiers at Wal-Mart, the school wants to abide by its motto, “College Begins in Kindergarten.” Because Hancock collaborates with Hamline University, the young students do get a chance to frequently visit the campus, participate in activities and even work with students in classrooms. I spoke with Anderson briefly before visiting the school to get a feel of what I should expect on my visit. I had already made up my mind as to what Hancock looks like, and that they have a lot of problems with violence, gangs, and drugs. Even after talking with Anderson, I still thought that he may be trying to make his school look better than it actually is. I would find out for myself the following day.
Pulling up to Hancock Elementary, the building did not look as inviting as one would think. The brick was an obnoxious red/orange color, but there were a fair amount of windows, except along the street side wall. I parked and walked to the blue doors, three of the four doors were locked, for a means of safety most likely. The school smelled typical of an elementary school, a mixture of sweaty little kids, cafeteria food, and an old building. Walking through the doors I was immediately greeted by staff, including Anderson. He was finishing up a project of putting together these dark green keyboards. They are like computers with a one by three inch screen to see your typing, and then when finished, the documents get transmitted to a main computer. Anderson said they are about $90 and are less distracting than laptops. Just because the school has these nifty things does not mean they don’t have computers. They have a computer lab full of new Mac’s. The office was very busy, Hamline College students walked in and out and some young kids stopped by to say hi to their favorite staff members. Next, came the grand tour. Turning right exiting the office we walked by the first grade classrooms and the science classroom. Jackets and backpacks lined the hallway hanging on miniature hooks. Papers were sticking out of unzipped backpacks and beautiful art work hung on the walls. Every class has a display area to show off their work, in all subjects. Some classes painted group murals, others wrote books with a beginning, middle and an end and others had finger paintings. With the added color from the students’ projects the halls looked much brighter and friendly.
Further down the hall to the right stands the cafeteria. The room is mainly grey, and has many round tables. Anderson said that the school prefers the round tables, so the kids are more likely to interact. The cafeteria also houses a stage and a gym like floor for additional play space. However, the real gymnasium is right next to the cafeteria. I didn’t get to steal a peak, but I heard balls hitting the doors, running feet and little shrieks of joy. My guess is the kids were playing a game of dodge ball. Continuing walking, we ran stopped and chatted with a special education teacher and one of her students. They were playing tennis with a balloon, and the rackets were made of mesh, they were pretty cool! We then walked through two wooded doors into what appeared to be an entirely different school.
We had just entered the Learning Center, which actually is a school within Hancock that focuses on education for “at-risk” children. “At-risk,” again means those students who come from particularly hard homes or life’s. Anderson said the main goal of the Learning Center is to provide more attention to children who have struggled with behavioral issues at other schools. There are three teachers with their own classrooms and nine students in each class. The interesting thing is, almost every child has someone to work with throughout the day, as there are many Hamline students who help specifically in that area. The children were extremely friendly and those that are in the hallway were curious and eager to find out who I was. There were individual study rooms for the Learning Center students and a lot of positive guidance and instruction. Besides walking through closed doors, it looked like the rest of the school, except for two things. Number one, the children in the Learning Center were mostly boys and number two, the walls weren’t as decorated with bright colors. The walls bothered me; I felt that every inch should be covered in color or art projects. Because the children attend school behind closed doors and the walls are more bare, the atmosphere feels like a delinquent center. While leaving the Learning Center I again got curious smiles from the children I passed and I hoped to myself that these young children would find a way to succeed. That they would find a way to beat the odds, that having been told everyday until they started school at Hancock, that they may end up in a gang or drop-out of school or prove another horrible statistic on the endless list.
Walking again past the special education teacher and her student, they both wanted to talk again with Anderson. While he is new as of December at the school, all the children and staff know him. I know for a fact that he is great with children, because he is my cousin’s husband and their three year old daughter, Emily, is extremely social and intelligent. Retracing our steps past the main office, we walked into the main part of the building where 2nd through 6th grade is housed. Coming to a crossway, I looked both ways and again saw the backpacks and jackets hanging from the walls, and artwork filling the white walls. There were students lined up against the walls ready to go to science class I believe. The children all looked happy and energetic, and were extremely patient. As the 2nd graders walked by me and Anderson they all either waved, smiled or said hi, very polite young children! I went into some of the classrooms, and while they were all the same size, the set up was different. Anderson said the teachers have a lot of decision power when it comes to curriculums, teaching styles and room design. All the teachers from a certain grade work together to plan lessons, and they work together to come up with ideas for meeting the standard. I wondered if this is the norm for most teachers in all areas. Anderson said the teachers at Hancock have more liberty to control what happens in their classrooms. In some classrooms the students were working on art projects, some were reading or being read to, and others were working on math. There are a few classrooms that are devoted specifically to teaching English. Hancock is one of the few schools in St. Paul that teach English so intensively, but that may be due to the fact that 62% of Hancock’s students have limited English (MN Dept. of Educ.). Anderson said they do receive additional funding for the programming. The idea of the program is to begin teaching the basics of education in their native language, and then the students begin to learn English. According to Anderson within St. Paul alone, there are around 70 different languages spoken and many of the children in the school are first or second generation immigrants.
Despite the difficulty of language barriers, Hancock is succeeding. Anderson credits the principal and staff for embracing diversity and native languages rather then forbidding students to use them. Why would a school system ever want to take away something that can only be positive and helpful for these students. Continuing my tour around the school we walked up the muddy stairs to the library. Walking into the library I thought, this is not very impressive, but for the inner-city and for a smaller student population compared to my elementary school, it was fantastic. Colorful books were stacked so tightly together to maximize space, and there were small reading spaces for the children. A class was being read a book in the library, but Anderson wanted to show me another collection. Walking quietly behind the small students I entered a partitioned off space full of books in zip lock bags. Anderson said, “It may not look impressive, but schools want this, and not many have it.” The zip lock bags contained approximately five books that fit a certain reading criteria. The scale goes all the way through A1 to Z8, with 8 levels for each letter. This system easily allows teachers to find where their students reading and comprehension skills are at. In every classroom there are various skill levels, because when a first generation immigrant who is 10 enters the school, they do not get placed with the kindergartners, they get to join other 10 year olds in 4th or 5th grade. The idea is simple, but costly. There are books of all types for a specific level, and there are a lot of book! Another section of books consists of example books. For example if a teacher wants students to learn about biography books, or poetry then he or she would take either a green or orange coded book to show a good solid example before the students work on their own poems or biographies. After seeing and hearing about all the great things the library has to offer my view points definitely changed.
Craig Anderson continued to lead me up the stairs to the 4th, 5th and 6th grade classrooms. While the set up is about the same for the 4th and 5th graders as the lower grades, the 6th graders have a different set-up. To get the students ready for middle school or junior high, they have a home-room, and move from classroom to classroom to learn different subjects. Anderson said the teachers also opted for this teaching method, because they all specialize in a certain area, math, reading, social studies. After learning so much about the school and the various methods of teaching I cannot figure out why schools are not doing more to accept children from various races, and embracing the diversity and multiple languages that are spoken.
Hancock is a very typical elementary school, but its collaboration with Hamline sets it apart. According to Anderson about 60 or more Hamline students use their work-study funds to help in the classrooms at Hancock. This additional attention for the children helps them focus on their work and understand the skills need to complete it. There are so many inner-city schools located near colleges and universities that do not have programs like Hancock’s. Tuttle school, located in the Como neighborhood near the University of Minnesota is struggling to meet the standards. If they looked into a program such as Hancock’s the school could become one of the best in Minneapolis.
Funding is another key component to a schools success though. Hancock succeeds with its intensive and respectable English learning program because the state of Minnesota funds programs to teach children English. Anderson said that Minnesota is one of the very few states that actually pay for the programming. Funding from the state arrives if certain areas and standards are met. The Education Budgeting Committee in the Minnesota State Senate and House of Representatives meet every year to discuss how schools should receive funding. In years past, Federal programs like, “No Child Left Behind,” have rewarded schools who have preformed well with additional funding and left the other schools, predominantly inner-city schools with less funding. The initial idea has great potential, but those schools that do not receive the funding to help “at-risk” students are falling even more behind and thus creates a continuous cycle. Working in the Senate with the Education Budgeting Committee I have seen first hand the downfalls of our education system.
Craig Anderson suggests that we have let our education system become so political. Now politicians put education reform and programming on their agendas to win votes. Famous theorists also weigh in on aspects of the urban education system. Fredrick Engels wrote of Manchester during the feudal times when the bourgeoisie and the proletariat struggled to overcome one another. In terms of the wealthy bourgeois and the impoverished proletariat the classic rich vs. poor clash shows through. Although, we haven’t escaped the struggle even in modern society. Engels writes, “Society, composed wholly of atoms, does not trouble itself about them; leaves them to care for themselves and their families, yet supplies them no means of doing this in an efficient and permanent manner” (LeGates & Stout, 66). How is it that over a 150 years has passed and we are still not providing people with a means to advance themselves? Education is the key to development, the key dream, the chance to change the life path laid out by privileged white males. The poverty Engels discusses is just alive today as it was when he wrote about it. Now add to poverty issues of race, gender, immigrants, and language barriers and the whole things looks like a mess! Engels would be disgusted by what our world has become. After clearly writing about the obvious struggles and poverty of the working class, one would think we would have learned to correct our mistakes over a 150 year time period. But, maybe there is still
hope that things will eventually change, even if it is at a slow rate.
A lot of cities try to shut out and invisibly barricade off the poor from certain neighborhoods within the city. However, the idea is not so easily seen in the Minneapolis/St. Paul metro area. Another theorist, Sharon Zukin, author of “Whose Culture? Whose City?” talks specifically about the use of public space the strained or lack of relationship or even intermingling between the rich and poor. Even though public space is supposed to be public, many people feel unwanted in the space or shut out by looks and stares from corporate managers using the park for lunch hour. It is as if our society will not touch culture outside of a comfort zone. Parks are the prime example for space to be shared by people of two different classes. But often those parks have limits to who can be there, a dress code per se. From Zukin’s perspective, looking at the inner-city education system, the use of public space and resources is non-existent. School trips to the park costs additional funding, computers may actually connect children from poverty to the rest of the world, but again they are too expensive. Hancock Elementary has broken the laws and theories of Zukin. The children that attend the school walk around Hamline University as if the college is their school. And, on any given day the students from the college campus, predominantly wealthy, and from the elementary school, mostly from very poor families can be found working and learning together. The invisible wall is broken so progress can be made.
Day after day we watch the urban education system get defeated. The system never wins, and continually sends its students on the way to becoming a cashier at Wal-Mart. Children need to be given chances to escape the pressures of being in a gang, drugs and violence. In St. Paul great things are happening with collaboration and balanced budgeting. Hancock Elementary is using the surrounding resources and college community of Hamline to provide additional attention to young children who struggle with serious life issues. With the right programming, encouragement and embracing diversity the inner-city schools can truly educate. The Hancock Elementary is redefining theories of poverty and public space and new legislation may result. Education is a lovely thing that should be of high quality and readily available. Plato said, “The most effective kind of education is that a child should play amongst lovely things,” and a positive atmosphere will do just that.

Word Count = (about 3,780)

Bibliography
Anderson, Craig. Personal Interview. 7 April 2007.

Chicago Public Schools. Accessed on 10 April, 2007. http://www.cps.k12.il.us/. 2005.

Kozol, Jonathan. The Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in
America. New York: Three Rivers Press, 2005.

LeGates, Richard T. and Fredric Stout. Engels: The Great Towns. Pg. 58-66. London:
Routledge, 2005.

LeGates, Richard T. and Fredric Stout. Zukin: Whose Culture? Whose City? Pg 136-
146. London: Routledge, 2005.

Minnesota Department of Education. Accessed on 7 April, 2007.
http://education.state.mn.us/ReportCard2005/school DistrictInfo.do

St. Paul Public Schools. Accessed on 7 April, 2007. http://www.spps.org/.