Would you like to read another compelling piece on “education reform” and why the system needs (are you ready?) more money and what makes a great teacher and how to get rid of lousy teachers and why “No Child Left Behind” still leaves minority kids behind and why test scores are the only solid way to determine how things are going, except, of course, when they aren’t?
Or, you could dip into the literature about why “school choice” and vouchers and charter schools and magnet schools and private schools are better than the hideous public school on the corner, except, of course, when they aren’t.
And then you could read about the “home school” kids who win all the spelling bees.
Had enough? That, in part, is why Gerry Garibaldi’s recent essay about education, in City Journal (a publication of the Manhattan Institute think tank), took the internet by storm recently.
Garibaldi, a Hollywood screenwriter and executive before he became an English teacher, focused on one embarrassing, difficult-to-talk-about, complex issue in his piece — and then focused on one of his students to clarify the point.
As “Nicole” explained to him — at Goodwin Technical High School in New Britain — “nobody gets married any more, mister.”
Yes, Nicole was enrolled in two of his classes. She was “pretty” and had rings on every finger and was barely supervised by an unmarried mom and often fell asleep in class and had the kind of friends who were never going to join the chess club.
Garibaldi was a hands-on kind of teacher. He saw enough potential in Nicole to envision her, dragged kicking and screaming, into a community college, where she could make something of herself.
Garibaldi called Nicole’s less-than-great mom; encouraged her to manage and motivate her daughter to do better. Nicole began to improve and show her stuff.
And then, of course, the 15-year-old got pregnant. And while Garibaldi spent much of the rest of his article describing the challenges of educating a pregnant girl with little family or community support, his piece really comes alive with more than a hint of the good-old-fashioned sermonizing against the fornicators.
“Within my lifetime,” he writes, “single parenthood has been transformed from shame to saintliness.”
He lays out in detail how Connecticut unleashes all manner of support and welfare services and personal tutors and housing subsidies for girls liked Nicole, once, of course, they get pregnant. “What it amounts to in practice is a monolithic public endorsement of single parenthood — one that has turned our urban high schools into puppy mills.”
As you might imagine, the piece has been posted almost everywhere except Mars. He lays out the challenges and potential for success in urban public education — and then hones in on one of the primary obstacles to success.
There are “success stories,” of course. The Hartford Foundation for Public Giving published its story of Natasha, who got pregnant at age 13, and “shut everyone out, and I didn’t want to go to school.” But, a neighborhood community center apparently worked its magic and Natasha went on to community college.
But the pregnancy toll is huge. And the focus is on rewarding all involved, after-the-fact. As Garibaldi notes, “In today’s urban high school, there is no shame or social ostracism when girls become pregnant.” It can cripple public education in some neighborhoods — and there aren’t many folks ready to talk about it.
Gerry Garibaldi still teaches at Goodwin Tech. I imagine he’s on the alert for the next swollen stomach.
Laurence D. Cohen is a freelance writer.
