Extinction?
I was originally going to write about the extinction (or at least the growing cultural irrelevance) of the male of our species. I’m postponing this to write about a related topic – the threatened closing of Rice High School. For those of you not from New York, familiar with Harlem, or who think that choice in education begins and ends with charter schools, Rice High School is all-boys, independent parochial school established in central Harlem in 1938.
It seems that even in New York, the only people familiar with the school are aficionados of high school basketball.
School Choice? Really?
Many of the financial Masters of the Universe have flocked to charter schools as the salvation of public education. I’m not here to opine on motivations for many involved in the romance – such as the desire to bust unions, enhance egos, assuage guilt over wealth created without a corresponding value to the larger society, or a combination of paternalism and desire for control. What I am concerned about is that an important landmark in my community may disappear due to neglect.
The Near Future – It’s May Be All They Have
It would be great if the next few weeks brought an outpouring of financial and logistical support for the school. I am concerned that a few things might first get in the way. I have a sneaking suspicion that many of the same people who made money during a period where others in this country lost their homes and livelihoods are also troubled by institutions that proudly proclaim the teaching of morals and character as a part of their mission statements. After all, isn’t that hard to measure? Wouldn’t the product also be threatening to our modern Robber Barons? What would Ayn Rand say? I’ve run into a few who get it (you know who you are) and I hope they read this. But for the others…
Rice High School has a 100% college acceptance rate for the past four years. I don’t know how many ended up at four-year institutions or how these young men did in their freshman year (as a measure of their preparation). I do know that they are working with a population (Black and Latino males of high school age) that many of the shining stars of the charter world have carefully avoided. They’ve done it with a mainly poor and working class population, with much less funding than charter schools receive and they’ve done it for six decades before charter legislation even existed in New York.
Gettin’ ‘Er Done
Yes, I know it’s not the flavor of the month, I know it may not be replicable or scalable but if you’re out there, have some money, believe that Black and Latino male teenagers are people too, and believe that the teaching of morality has a place in education, then please take action to save places like Rice High School and St. Anthony’s in Jersey City.
Hey, if an Episcopalian with a Methodist minister for a father, who has a wife who majored in Jewish studies, who attends a Lutheran church and who has provided a home for Muslims and atheists can figure it out, then it may not be hopeless.
