When Grit Isn't Enough: A High School Principal Examines How Poverty And Inequality Thwart The College-for-all Promise
by Linda F. Nathan /
2017 / English / EPUB
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Examines major myths informing American education and explores
how educators can better serve students, increase college retention
rates, and develop alternatives to college that don’t disadvantage
students on the basis of race or income
Examines major myths informing American education and explores
how educators can better serve students, increase college retention
rates, and develop alternatives to college that don’t disadvantage
students on the basis of race or income
Each year, as the founding headmaster of the Boston Arts Academy
(BAA), an urban high school that boasts a 94 percent college
acceptance rate, Linda Nathan made a promise to the incoming
freshmen: “All of you will graduate from high school and go on to
college or a career.” After fourteen years at the helm, Nathan
stepped down and took stock of her alumni: of those who went to
college, a third dropped out. Feeling like she failed to fulfill
her promise, Nathan reflected on ideas she and others have
perpetuated about education: that college is for all, that hard
work and determination are enough to get you through, that America
is a land of equality.
Each year, as the founding headmaster of the Boston Arts Academy
(BAA), an urban high school that boasts a 94 percent college
acceptance rate, Linda Nathan made a promise to the incoming
freshmen: “All of you will graduate from high school and go on to
college or a career.” After fourteen years at the helm, Nathan
stepped down and took stock of her alumni: of those who went to
college, a third dropped out. Feeling like she failed to fulfill
her promise, Nathan reflected on ideas she and others have
perpetuated about education: that college is for all, that hard
work and determination are enough to get you through, that America
is a land of equality.
In
InWhen Grit Isn’t Enough
When Grit Isn’t Enough, Nathan investigates five
assumptions that inform our ideas about education today, revealing
how these beliefs mask systemic inequity. Seeing a rift between
these false promises and the lived experiences of her students, she
argues that it is time for educators to face these uncomfortable
issues head-on and explores how educators can better serve all
students, increase college retention rates, and develop
alternatives to college that don’t disadvantage students on the
basis of race or income.
, Nathan investigates five
assumptions that inform our ideas about education today, revealing
how these beliefs mask systemic inequity. Seeing a rift between
these false promises and the lived experiences of her students, she
argues that it is time for educators to face these uncomfortable
issues head-on and explores how educators can better serve all
students, increase college retention rates, and develop
alternatives to college that don’t disadvantage students on the
basis of race or income.
Drawing on the voices of BAA alumni whose stories provide a window
through which to view urban education today,
Drawing on the voices of BAA alumni whose stories provide a window
through which to view urban education today,When Grit Isn’t
Enough
When Grit Isn’t
Enough helps imagine greater purposes for schooling.
helps imagine greater purposes for schooling.