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“Our schools suck.” This is how many young people of color call attention to the kind of public education they are receiving. In cities across the nation, many students are trapped in under-funded, mismanaged and unsafe schools. Yet, a number of scholars and of public figures like Bill Cosby have shifted attention away from the persistence of school segregation to lambaste the values of young people themselves. Our Schools Suck forcefully challenges this asse… More >>
Our Schools Suck: Students Talk Back to a Segregated Nation on the Failures of Urban Education
For anyone who wonders what the future has in store–the public school system is everyone’s problem! and it’s a great read.
Rating: 5 / 5
There is, obviously, something sinister in the pull-yourself-up-by-the-bootstraps mentality peddled by so many prominant celebs preaching about the “culture of failure” in urban schools systems. Take, for example, Bill Cosby’s statements at the NAACP’s fiftieth anniversary of Brown vs. the Board of Education in 2004: “We cannot blame white people.” Maybe not, but is blaming the victim the way to go here?
As a teacher in an urban, high-need school, I applaud this fine effort, both for the bold and candid title – “Our Schools Suck” – and the chance for students to speak out. At a stretch, it reminds me of Foucault’s attempt in Madness and Civilization, i.e., giving voice to the marginalized Other in an effort to expand normalized discourse. Giving the students their say, then, serves to interrogate contemporary urban pedagogy and highlight the positive self images forged from localized resistance to the impending gentrification of urban school systems.
I do, however, have one (perhaps minor) caveat. Although Celina Su suggests in the introduction that letting students speak for themselves as “an intervention into the adult-driven debates on inner-city youths,” why is it that the students’ unmediated voices do not really take center stage until about p. 90? Primarily because the “adults” want to be sure to frame the context for this ambitious endeavor.(This bothered me about Ron Suskind’s highly prized A Hope in the Unseen, too; that is, while Suskind got all kinds of priase and publicity, Cedric Jennings remains nearly forgotten.)
Otherwise, this book is well worth your time and I recommend it highly to anyone interested in education, political science, or sociology.
Rating: 5 / 5