Approximately 50 people gathered for Monday night's Great Expectations District 4 agenda forum at the North Light Community Center (175 Green Ln) in hilly and narrow-streeted Manayunk/Roxborough. I sat down at a table with 5 locals, most who had been to a previous Great Expectations meeting. Barbara was especially pleased she attended the citizezns convention in December and was looking forward to seeing how the Nutter administration does over the next year in regards to the agenda laid out by the citizens through this project. The ongoing basketball games next door in the other gym kept a steady beat throughout the night for the group to work by. The fluorescent lights kept things difficult for me to take photos. We were told that 4th District Councilman Curtis Jones Jr., 40 days into office, would be attending and hopefully At-Large Councilwoman Bondell Reynolds Brown would make it too.
The night was actually a double booking for a community meeting on education to be led by Arte Verbrugghe, Associate Director of the NLCC. With the added group of education-minded people in the room, I decided to go to and sit with the smaller breakout group which had the Education agenda point. Group B also discussed Arts & Culture, Knowledge Economy and Poverty. The 15 member group comprised of NLCC members, young students, educators and residents quickly went through the Group B agenda points and settled on Education being the most important point upon which the other points depended to succeed.
Billy cited the old proverb of giving a man to fish and feeding him for a day, but teaching a man to fish is to feed him for a lifetime; educating the next generation would enable them to do anything they want to do. The issue of poverty finished a distant second, but was overwhelmingly the second most important issue for the group. Diane thought that raising the minimum wage would account for the most impact.
Two of the group members were area principals (didn't catch their schools or grade levels). Glen, at right above, thought that as more kids are held back in grades, the more likely they would be to eventually drop out. We must find ways to teach kids at the level they're currently at and continue to advance them with their age group peers.
The gentleman at left, I believe he was an educator of some sort, spoke of keeping the kids engaged and "on the train" in school. Finding new ways to engage the new generation is crucial. The kids now are not the kids of the past and the way kids are taught must change with the times. Or else, the downward trend of dropout rates would only get worse. Moving onto questions the group could ask Councilman Jones, this gentleman wanted to know how to get more money for after school programs and summer programs. He felt strongly about education not ending at 3p and that it must continue at school after 3p, at home and over the summer. He wanted to ingrain the notion of education in today's youth and ingrain it as a lifelong journey.
Steve, whose Socialist views irked some, but found nods with others, wanted to guarantee free education for all through college. He added that healthcare should also be free for all. Glen retorted that he grew up in a country which tried Socialism (I'm guessing by his accent it was England) and he said it failed there. He thinks that if people are given things for free (like education) that they take it for granted and don't make proper use of it. He likes how things are done in America where you must work and pay for everything you want and implying that you work for the things you really want like a good education. He stressed, again, that the way we teach must be changed and that kids shouldn't be told they're wrong so often between the ages of 2 and 8, but rather, to encourage them. Arte asked about the missing PPA money for education. Barbara wanted to see how Council would get the school budget back on track in the wake of Vallas' leave.
Harry wanted to find out what interests today's kids. And once those things are found out, to challenge them towards other things as well. Diane wanted to see more partnerships between the public and private schools; she noted that Chicago was doing this well. Arte, piggybacking on Diane's and Harry's points, wanted to build better partnerships between public sector the private sector to help the schools. Additionally, how to provide more vocational-tech options for those who don't want to go the college route or additional options for those who cannot. Tom wanted to develop a scholarship commitment from area colleges for Philadelphia's high school students. This request reminded me of a new program by freshman state legislator Tony Payton (D-179) called REACH:
Payton’s legislation would create Reliable Educational Assistance for College Hopefuls, referred to as REACH, a statewide, merit-based scholarship program for all students in Pennsylvania who maintain at least a 3.0 grade-point average and a 90 percent attendance record. The program would ensure those students would receive a scholarship covering all tuition and fees to any university in the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education.
The youngest participant of the night had some strong points to make. She wanted to make sure all schools had some kind of program to get neighborhood youth involved in their communities. Doings so expands knowledge and builds leadership. When Billy raised the issue of how to more effectively teach proper sex ed in schools, communities and religious institutions, she had more to add. I didn't catch her exact age, but I'm going to estimate she's in late middle school or early high school. She noted the number of teens pregnant she knows and how the things taught in schools don't resonate with today's youth. Sure they now know how to get STDs and the theoretical percentages of how many of her classmates have certain STDs, but kids are going to do what they want to do regardless of how much their taught. Billy pointed to new ways to reach kids - he cited a television commercial he saw with young kids in it and not adults simply telling what to do.
Wonderful discussion was had in this smaller breakout group and wonderful questions were raised. I'll cover the second half of the evening with Councilman Jones present to answer questions and talk about the 4th District in my next post.
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