Two years after Zuckerberg's $100 million gift, Newark schools have 'a long way to go
- Thread starter theworldismine13
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Read that early today , Ive worked/work in the Newark school system and while money is good , throwing money at the system isn't going to fix it, there is a greater socio-economic issue at hand
The money is being used though, i know a couple of teachers that have won grant money to start up programs
The money is being used though, i know a couple of teachers that have won grant money to start up programs
It Takes A Nation...
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I respect your experience and while I'm always trying to learn something new I'm interested in your take on what solutions would actually help the situation there in Newark. If you don't mind me asking.
Thanks.
You ever hear the phrase "Teat the Disease Not the symptoms" ? That's the issue happening in Newark, Camden, Philly, Bmore etc etc People are looking at it from a very narrow perspective "what are we doing wrong at these schools" Like i said I've worked and studied pretty much out of every type of school here in Newark public,private, charter,Catholics, magnets all in various rolls from observing administration , one and one with kids and classroom with kids and I can tell you if we start to alleviate some of the social issues happening within the community a improvement in overall education will happen. The excuses we hear as to why the schools are failing vary , you will hear that the teachers aren't good I can tell you from personal experience that's not the issue , sure there are bad teachers but there are bad employees in any work field, teaching is really not a lucrative so most of those that do is because they have a passion for it . I've been told a lot of times that I should be a teacher and honestly I wouldn't do it for an less than 70k starting off and believe me Newark teachers earn way less than that but money aside most teachers want to teach the problem is there caught up in a system which doesn't want them to really teach to learn, wants them to teach for grade results. The other excuse you will hear is that kids dont want to learn, any adult that tells you that is a straight up idiot , children LOVE to learn , in the correct environment though , Ive seen some of the worst kids am talking about 15 yr old blood banging boys with criminal records on them etc taken out of the wrong environment put into the right one and if even for 5 minutes they flourish. Last excuse you will hear is money, this school or that school or this district isn't getting enough money etc etc Throwing money at an issue with not solve the problem unless you get to the core of the issue, i mean look at some poor countries in Africa and else where, those kids come here and excel in the school system.
The real issue is a socio-economic one , here is what i would have done with that 100 million from FB ( a lot of this is paraphrasing like hell too lol), first thing would have taken some of that money and reinvested in creating jobs for the poor in Newark, a lot of these children families are struggling , a lot single mothers with multiple children and are barely able to cloth or feed them, that right there causes immediate social problems so from day one a child is already a step behind create jobs make the household more stable , second thing i would spend money is on reeducating the parents on how important education itself is , chances are if your a poor single mother who barely made it out of high school yourself you will not teach your kids about how important a good education is because you never learned it yourself. If your parents teach you to value education even if that education is of poor quality , you will value it , if your parent though doesn't teach you this and your surrounded by that type of mentality you will be stuck in a never ending cycle. Last thing i would spend the money on is on getting politics out of teaching , teachers and administration are too worried about meeting testing and national standards and there forgetting just to teach. This pressure and stress they them they pass it on to these kids who are in schools with other highly volatile kids from the similar unstable households. In that type of environment brother no one is going to learn.
See none of this is going to happen at the moment though, i was having a talk one day with a guy here when they had the Occupy Newark movement in downtown, he was a teacher from probably one of the worst school in the country not even in the state and he told me something profound he said "there is a investment in our failure not our success"
I'll leave you with that ......
It Takes A Nation...
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Very intelligent post, thank you. You gave me a few things to think about. Also, I'm shocked this thread is getting no attention. Anyhow, after I read your first paragraph I was going to say I don't think the powers that be want the ghetto to succeed. I see you mentioned that in your last paragraph.
Props for a very intelligent post!
Good post
Fundemantelly it comes down to culture, and since the parent and the community isn't providing the proper culture it's on the schools to provide it
The problem is the school system is designed on the premise that the child is ready to learn when he or she gets to class and has the proper culture and mind state
So IMO schools have to be redesigned to envelope kids way beyond school hours because the parent and the community has failed or been broken down
So I hope that's where the money goes and that's why I support vouchers and charters, I think the system has to be redesigned from the roots
Fundemantelly it comes down to culture, and since the parent and the community isn't providing the proper culture it's on the schools to provide it
The problem is the school system is designed on the premise that the child is ready to learn when he or she gets to class and has the proper culture and mind state
So IMO schools have to be redesigned to envelope kids way beyond school hours because the parent and the community has failed or been broken down
So I hope that's where the money goes and that's why I support vouchers and charters, I think the system has to be redesigned from the roots
feelosofer
#ninergang
Yea, having come out of the Newark (and surrounding areas) school system and after having discussed this with my sister, who is works in special ed. It's a combination of issues but most of it comes down to parenting. The Newark school infrastructure is actually pretty good for a city it's size, but even at a young age, parents see school as a way to keep kids out of the streets and as babysitters and little else. I'm saying this is the case of all parents but, it is the case of too many. A lot of these kids are coming from single parent homes where there is little supervision or accountablility for these kids once school ends. I have even seen young teenagers that are running their household because mom or dad are working triple shifts to cover the most basic of expenses. Most parents did not complete school themselves and don't see that future for their kids a lot of times. I think if Newark had better opportunities for low income families to succeed, it would ease the burden of the state, and allow the kids to do well, because there are a lot of good things about the Newark Schools that could be better implemented with improvement to the surrounding areas.
great great responses all around
my question for those @feelosofer would be, how do you convince jobs to make an investment in a failed community???
my question for those @feelosofer would be, how do you convince jobs to make an investment in a failed community???
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feelosofer
#ninergang
Well the problem is that during my childhood (late 70's and 80's) Newark had a lot of building and manufacturing jobs. Once that Reagan recession hit a lot of those companies went out of business or packed up theit bags or went South or West. Now Newark over the past decade has seen billions of dollars of development but the Booker administration has a lot of the places employed by either independent contractors or people of from out of town, maybe even out of state. Did you know that Newarks public access channel has basically no citizens running it? It's run by an independent media company. Now the overall unemployment rate in Essex County is extraordinarily high, especially amongst minorities, but a lot of companies are afraid to set up shop because of the high crimerate in the ghettoes surrounding the metropolitian areas which is caused by the high unemployment and lack of education amongst its youth, fukked up cycle right?
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Hard question to answer to be honest BUT Ill tell you this much there is a "Harlem Renascence " change right now happening very slowly in Newark and if this current generation of blacks and Latinos doesn't get themselves together they are going to be left behind and eventually be pushed into smaller and worse communities and eventually within 30 years most will be out of Newark completely. Developers and investors are starting to see a future in Newark again, started years ago with NJPAC things were slow for a couple of years now we have a couple of huge projects back to back
- Prudential Center
- Holiday Inn
- Panasonic new headquarters
- One Theater Square
-NJIT Redevelopment
-Teachers Village
- Two new Prudential Towers
- Richardson Lofts
-Packard Lofts
Forgetting two more loft projects but these are all high end multi million dollar investments trying to attract highly educated ( read mostly white) individuals to not only come and work in Newark but also to stay and live here. Believe it or not its slowly going to happen.
To answer your original question though jobs can be brought back I believe in one of two ways.
The first way is by simply bringing manufacturing back to Newark which would be difficult because that time has passed not just here but in the U.S ( think outsourcing) but it could be done, that way you do that is by giving companies incentives to build and hire in newark that = cheap labor which doesn't need a high education problem is "our" people dont like to take those type of jobs ( i could write a book just about this) You get those cheap jobs in here people start working , you start building business within the communities ( not mcdonalds or chicken shacks) and people start reinvesting within there community
The second way is be creating more mid to high end job openings for those who are from Newark who graduate from college to either stay here or come back here to work . There are plenty of people who make it "out the hood" so to say but once you have your masters , bachelors etc etc degrees and this may sound harsh but you have no incentive to live here , its either by LUCK find a very good high end job but cant find a place you feel comfortable living/raising a family in OR you find a decent place to live but no high end income so you can live in it ( most of those lofts apartments i mentioned before are starting at 1,500 for 1BR + a month) So we not only have to get high end companies back in here but we have to make it so Newark college graduate want to stay and live here, thus reinvesting back into the community.
Again a lot of paraphrasing there but am sure you get the picture and like i said at the beginning the change is happening now in Newark and i am of the mind frame that newark in 30 years is going to be way different , downtown will resemble something like downtown hoboken or NYC . There will still be crime and hoods but will be reduced to much smaller areas which the higher up will give less fukks about .
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It Takes A Nation...
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Damn, this thread blossumed. I feel like a proud dad whose only thread made it. 