Recently I spoke to a college class about public education in Chicago. They were studying school closures, Ed Reform and charter schools. I know a little about the subject so I added my own two cents to their discussion.
After my presentation we had a student-discussion-question: What was the relationship between community and your high school experience?
This was after I shared my experiences being bused to Newberry Academy through court ordered desegregation. I described teaching at Crane HS and then seeing the entire staff fired during its closure/turnaround. I shared my experiences as a field rep negotiating charter contracts. I told them about participating in strikes as a parent, student and educator.
One student’s response struck me. He said, “Well, there’s not much to it. I went to a normal high school.”
I momentarily chuckled, thinking of the line from Goodfellas when Karen Hill's mother says, “Normal people don't do act like this.” I composed myself and asked him to explain more.
“We didn’t have any strikes, or charter schools or anything like that.” Ohhh-kayyy, so that means districts with strikes are not normal? Perhaps their teachers never had to worry about fully funded schools or fair wages. Again, I pushed him to explain more.
“We had about 2,000 students, which is small. I’m from a suburb (Of a major metropolitan area).”
At that point we ran out of time. I was left to ponder, what did the student really mean by this “normal” thing?
Did he mean predominantly white schools? Did he mean a school with a stable teacher workforce, consistent student enrollment and appropriate resources? Did he mean a community with high property taxes and families who send their children to the local public school? Did he mean a school with activities for every possible interest? Maybe his school had no "Mean Girls" or everyone was just "Clueless."
The student’s learning outcome did not match my objective for the day. After presenting on the destabilization of black communities, school closings and student homelessness I expected a better response. I hoped for something reflective, like, “I assumed every school was like my school, I never thought about the inequalities at other schools." If I’m really dreaming he would have said, “I understand my own privilege better.”
I did my own self-reflection on what I thought was a “normal” school. As a child of the '80’s my thoughts went to John Hughes movies like Breakfast Club. School would be a place where rules were followed, otherwise you had all day Saturday detention. I thought it was going to be "geeks" and "cools" like the movie Can't Buy me Love. The movies taught me what a normal high school was supposed to be like. Boy was I disappointed when I enrolled in Lincoln Park HS.
In 1987, my freshman year started with a 30 day teacher strike. I was 5’ 4’, 115 pounds and deathly afraid of being stuffed into a locker or having pennies thrown at me. As a late blooming pre-pubescent freshman my existence was worth less than a penny! I wanted the strike to last longer, so I could grow a couple inches.
My freshman study hall had 60 students in the basement, its where I first learned to play spades. Sophomore study hall was after lunch, which meant I had a double period of off-campus lunch. I cut study hall everyday, except when I wanted to study for finals. The teacher, sensing I would disrupt the tranquility of the study hall, told me, “Look, you’ve been absent for months and I didn’t report you. Whatd'ya say we keep that up?”
I never attended any football games in high school. The games were played miles from my school and the football team was nothing special. At most, the homecoming game had 200 spectators out of 1,600 students. This type of experience was my norm, as it was the norm for the majority of CPS high school students in the 1980’s and 90’s.
There was no traffic jam of parents dropping off their children at school. The Fullerton Ave bus overflowed in the front, but had empty seats in the back. The back was where the troublemakers sat, so passengers avoided them. I quickly learned to sneak on the back if I wanted to be on time. Otherwise, I had to wait until a bus came with room to board the front.
These were my norms, and despite my experience, I knew from pop culture that my experience was different. Students did not freely hang out like the dinner in Saved by The Bell, instead the original Potbelly’s had an entire dining section for 21 and over. That way we didn’t disturb the professionals and yuppies enjoying their meals.
When your own experience matches the pop culture norm, you don't question your norms. Privilege is being unaware of other's inequalities. You can be oblivious to the struggles that CPS students encounter during their school experiences. Your privilege is assuming everyone has it as good as you do and being blind to the fact that most do not.
As I look back at my recent college visit, I wish I had another chance to flush through the sentiments and perceptions of the students. Next time - I will do better.