Stop Shooting. We Love You.

Like I said before, I grew up in a quaint little suburban bubble where the biggest news stories, besides real ones like DUI’s, were about a naked man running around dressed up like Zorro. When I came to Pittsburgh two summers ago to work at a place on the North Side, I brought that background with me. I was there for 2 months and lived at the place that I worked. I had no expectations as to what the neighborhood would be like, what the summer would be like, or the things that I would see/hear, or the people that I would interact with. Sure, I knew it was a “bad” neighborhood. I mean, there was trash everywhere, run-down houses on every street, and a corner at the top of the hill you knew to stay away from because it was a breeding ground for drug deals and prostitution but every experience I had there was pleasant. The people were great; the community I was a part of was great- I knew not to take tours at night by myself but overall I would say I felt really safe. We had heard stories about shootings or heard our friends tell us about people that they knew that were either in jail for life or had their lives taken by the streets. But hey, those were just stories.

We would hang out almost every night outside the guesthouse where we were living and on one night in July myself and a friend were sitting outside waiting to go get some sweet tea from good ole’ Mickey D’s. I was sitting up facing the alley and he was lying down commenting on the clouds. We were chatting when I heard a rustle in the bushes that accompanied a path, which led into the alley, which was right next to the guesthouse. In my head I told myself it was just some kids playing tag (my bubble was my defense mechanism). Then I heard some yelling and saw a ball of fire (which I convinced myself were sparklers) and heard bangs (which I convinced myself were firecrackers since the 4^th of July had just taken place). I heard one of the kids yell, “Shit man, he got me in the leg,” and convinced myself further that it had to be a sparkler fight gone wrong, like what happened at the beach a couple of summers before. Everything happened so fast but in my mind, it was slow motion. At that point, I was still battling within myself as to what happened, clinging to the bubble I knew but slowly coming to the conclusion that those weren’t fireworks and it wasn’t an accident. My friend pulled me up and he ran towards the schoolhouse as I ran towards the guesthouse- everything was locked. At that point, everything started to cave in on me and I panicked, my body went into automatic and tears and fear just started flowing out of me. I banged on every door I could like a mad woman until finally someone let me in. When my friend opened the door, seeing I was visibly upset, asked me what happened. Through the sobs all I could get out was, “I don’t know”.

That is when chaos ensued- people were running everywhere. Some inside, to make sure that the campers that were with us were ok, some outside, to find out what happened and make sure everyone outside was ok. As I was talking it out with myself, I decided it had to have been fireworks and as I opened the door to go back outside all I could smell was smoke, or as my friend quickly told me, “That’s the smell of gun powder, Emily”. As I went outside, I called 911 (don’t worry, I wasn’t the first person) and it was busy…BUSY! Luckily, as I walked over to the dumpsters, and saw a kid (yes, a kid- he was 13 and the other kid who shot him was 17) lying on the ground with a gun shot to his leg, I was comforted in the fact that HE had already called 911 himself. Is that normal?

It took the police a while to get there and while we waited most of the people from the neighborhood either a) wanted to handle it themselves or b) kept saying, “Just another Northside shooting” and either walked away or went inside- only the white people (the outsiders) were dumb enough to talk to the police. And from the police I got the same sentiments, “Welcome to Pittsburgh - welcome to the Northside - surprised this hasn’t happened sooner.” Is that normal?

I think this was maybe on the last page of the local news section of the newspaper. Two weeks later, there was a murder of someone most of us knew two streets down. That might have made the news- doubt it; it was just another homicide in a "hot" week. Turns out, there were bullet holes behind me and to the side of me; I know, that if the tables were turned and I happened to be the one to have gotten shot, instead of some 13 year old from the Northside, it would have been a whole different story. Do you know what that tells me? I matter and you don’t. I can’t imagine how I would feel or how I would act if my education told me I was nothing, the police told me I was nothing, the media told me I was nothing, etc. My parents could love me all they want but when no one else is pouring into my life and no other institutions are providing me with any kind of opportunities whether it is social capital, or whatever, and if my life was just dubbed “another shooting,” you’re setting me up for failure. How in the world can we have an abundant community, as McKnight describes, if it feels as though our children’s future is determined before they are even born? There is so much more to the Northside than violence and there is so much potential lost in our kids. 

Ever seen this sign?

                  Image Credit: Love Front Porch

How do we rally around our kids, yes kids, and let them know that they are more than a statistic, more than the street, more than a number? How do we combine institution with community and make it so that our kids know that there are things out there for them that are better than this and mean it?

Check out Love Front Porch, which is the organization that started this sign campaign and is an organization showing how communities can rally around our kids and become the abundant community McKnight speaks of, in my humble opinion:

http://lovefrontporch.com/post/27422296727/about-love-front-porch

Separate but Equal, Right?

I grew up in a town called Chalfont, Pennsylvania, which is nestled in the heart of historic Bucks County. Growing up, I never realized how much of a bubble I lived in. Mainly everyone in my town was middle class, mainly everyone was white, and most things like education were not ever questioned. People had their family secrets but for the most part no one went "without". We were the epitome of the American Dream- our parents worked hard to give us all the opportunities we could ever want. Granted, people were different: not everyone drove a Mercedes to school, some of us had Mini-Vans, some had old Jeeps, others (the poorer ones) had cars passed on to us from our grandparents; it was rare, however, if someone was without their own car. We went on trips, traveled the world, were involved in any/every after school activity our parents could think of; looking back, there’s rarely a time where I feel like I missed out on any aspect of life.

I attended Central Bucks School District (CBSD) and our public schools were (are) some of the best in the state, so until I came to Pittsburgh I had never even heard of a charter school. We had the best facilities, had all the resources we could dream of and, once again, were never “without” when it came to class choices, teacher quality, etc. The only reason why someone went somewhere other than public school was either a) because their parents were really religious (and/or Italian) and wanted them in Catholic school or b) if they were really good at sports and wanted a better chance of getting recruited they would go to private school. When (not if) we all graduated it was up to us if we wanted to go to college or not (although almost everyone went) and everyone had at least 2 or 3 options. Never, did our parents have to worry about our education, any aspect of it. Growing up there, it was easy to hear and believe the sentiments that you can do anything you want, achieve anything you want, and be whoever you want. Growing up there, it made sense that people thought that it was through hard work that people got where they are. Growing up there, it made sense that people thought that others had the exact same opportunities that we did. Why wouldn’t they? It wasn’t until I got to Pittsburgh and started working closely with Pittsburgh Public Schools (PPS) that I realized how much of a bubble I grew up in.

I’m not saying that bubble was a bad thing but it does severely alter your perceptions and allows you to have preconceived notions about things you can’t understand until you live in somebody else’s shoes. Now, I’m not sure if I could look any person in the eye while they tell me that we have equal opportunities in this country, including education. The fact that something so different can be happening in the same state is mind-blowing. Pittsburgh Public has schools shutting down left and right, schools failing and not meeting AYP (which is another debate), low PPSA scores (also another debate), an abundant amount of kids who are chronically absent, losing kids to charter schools, many schools who do not have a proper support staff, insufficient funds, etc.

For a comparison of the two districts you can check out:

CBSD http://www.cbsd.org/communityrelations/Documents/CBSD_InfoPacket%20_2011.pdf

PPS

http://www.aplusschools.org/wp-content/uploads/pdf/cspr12/A+2012-front.pdf

To add to all of this CBSD, who does not need a lot of extra money, is benefitting from No Child Left Behind while PPS, who does need a lot of extra money, is suffering because of No Child Left Behind. I’m not saying that failing schools should be rewarded but why are the schools that are suffering the most being given more and more barriers to succeeding?

Even bigger than money, I think that public schools and education play a big role in how you view yourself, your community, and society as a whole. When you go to a failing school, you lose out on precious social capital. You’re also basically socialized to think that you don’t matter. How could you think otherwise when the neighborhood you live in is considered trash, your school is considered trash, and there’s not one “government” institution that is investing in you and your future? Do I think that education outside of the classroom is important? Absolutely. However, I will not settle for kids having a second-class education and second-class opportunities simply because of their geographic location. That’s not America.

This video discussing the growing education gap in America pretty much sums up my sentiments:

What do you think? Do you think that this is true? Or do you think that school education is just a piece of the pie and that people can succeed even without the best education/opportunities?

I think that this can be remedied but I think it will take a holistic effort; one that encourages both changes in the system and encourages communities to acknowledge the abundance that McKnight discusses, one that takes environmental factors into account and one that doesn't ignore implementation barriers when making policy, and one that does not make policy just for a quick fix. The book, Learning to Liberate: Community-Based Solutions to the Crisis in Urban Education by Vajra Watson looks at ethnographic research and gives strategies as to how this community-based reform could be accomplished.