There are days when my husband & I joke around about shipping our sassy & (some days too) precocious daughter to boarding school. Thus it intrigued me to see the headline - No small plan: Public boarding schools for Chicago - in Friday's Chicago Tribune. Low and behold...the first time I've ever said "Brilliant!" about CPS. Yes, I know I'm hard on the public system that has to cater to us yuppie parents and work to educate kids who don't have the luxuries some of our kids have. But I'm serious that I read the first paragraphs of this article and immediately hit "email story."
Public boarding schools where homeless children and those from troubled
homes could find the safety and stability to learn are being pursued by
Chicago Public Schools officials.
Under the plan, still in the nascent stages, the first pilot
residential program could open as soon as fall 2009. District officials
hope to launch as many as six such schools in the following years,
including at least one that would operate as a year-round school.
Homeless kids getting a steady home? That's a no brainer. The fact that homeless kids are even going to school should be rewarded with a home of their own. Of course to sell this idea, CPS may have to pander to some of the most insidious stereotypes about urban living:
Chicago Public Schools chief Arne Duncan said he does not want to be in
the "parenting" business, but he worries that some homes and some
neighborhoods are unsafe, making education an afterthought.
"Some children should not go home at night; some of them we need 24-7,"
he told the Tribune. "We want to serve children who are really not
getting enough structure at home. There's a certain point where dad is
in jail or has disappeared and mom is on crack ... where there isn't a
stable grandmother, that child is being raised by the streets."
Of course the problem with stereotypes is that there is some truth to it. There are neighborhoods where it is too dangerous to walk around at night and even during the day. As a friend and frequent commenter, Dani, pointed out, that sometimes the older child of the family needs to walk the younger kids to school. That path plus the path to high school may cross gang lines a few times. But are dangerous neighborhoods enough of a reason for kids to be sent to a boarding school? I'd say if the parents say yes, then yes.
Our daughter is beginning kindergarten next year meaning that we're going to rely on her school for aftercare. It just astounds me how many "good" schools do not have aftercare. Is it because there are so many SAHMs that the demand isn't there? That the staff is too stressed to plan an aftercare program? I really don't get it. Thankfully I am sure that the school she's going to attend will have aftercare (those following our kindergarten saga have to wait a few more weeks for an update on the search). I can only imagine how hard it is for parents who are going it alone or working at jobs with inflexible schedules and super tight budgets to figure out a safe place to send the kids for the hours after school closes to when they arrive home. The insane part is that each CPS elementary school has a different start and end time.
Mothers are known for sacrificing for their children. Books upon books are written about our sacrifices. I'm sure enough parents will consent to sending their kids to a boarding school. As for the homeless students, I think this would be a godsend to them:
For her entire freshman year at North Lawndale College Prep,
Tinesheia Howard commuted to school from a homeless shelter, where
privacy was almost nonexistent, theft was a constant concern, and
studying couldn't begin until 9 p.m., after the din around her settled
down for the night.
To make it from the North Side to the West Side by 8 a.m., Tinesheia
rose from her dormitory bed at 5 a.m. each day. By last-period algebra,
she was fighting sleep.
Tinesheia is now a freshman at a small two-year college in Illinois.
But looking back at her one year of homelessness, she says she could
have benefitted from a Chicago Public Schools plan to create boarding
schools for CPS high school students who can't or shouldn't go home.
I would hope that this idea that would only benefit the students' with the least advantages would go over with the majority of Chicagoans. I fear though that the racism, classism, and the "boot strap" mythology will end up killing this idea. On the other hand, the way that CPS has been able to open up many charter schools with corporate support, I think we very well will see the opening of a boarding school in Chicago in the very near future. Plus there days, I don't think that ideas like this are floated as testers...but as early warnings. If we can have a boarding school for the best of the best, why can't we have one for the neediest of our kids?
Yes, Veronica is obsessed with CPS and blogging at Viva La Feminista, WIMN's Voices, Chicago Moms Blog and Work it, Mom!
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