If you want to understand what’s wrong with our public schools, you have to look at what is arguably the most powerful force in shaping them: White parents. A five-part series from Serial Productions, a New York Times Company. Hosted by Chana Joffe-Walt.For more information about this show, visit nytimes.com/nicewhiteparents
It’s 2015 and one Brooklyn middle school is about to receive a huge influx of new students.In this episode, Chana Joffe-Walt, a reporter, follows what happens when the School of International Studies’ 6th grade class swells from 30 mostly Latino, Black and Middle Eastern students, to 103 — an influx almost entirely driven by white families.Everyone wants “what’s best for the school” but it becomes clear that they don’t share the same vision of what “best” means.For more information about this show, visit nytimes.com/nicewhiteparents
Chana Joffe-Walt searches the New York City Board of Education archives for more information about the School for International Studies, which was originally called I.S. 293.In the process, she finds a folder of letters written in 1963 by mostly white families in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn. They are asking for the board to change the proposed construction of the school to a site where it would be more likely to be racially integrated.It’s less than a decade after Brown v. Board of Education, amid a growing civil rights movement, and the white parents writing letters are emphatic that they want an integrated school. They get their way and the school site changes — but after that, nothing else goes as planned.For more information about this show, visit nytimes.com/nicewhiteparents
Chana Joffe-Walt explores how white parents can shape a school — even when they aren’t there.She traces the history of I.S. 293, now the Boerum Hill School for International Studies, from the 1980s through the modern education reforms of the 2000s. In the process, Chana talks to alumni who loved their school and never questioned why it was on the edge of a white neighborhood. To them, it was just where everyone went. But she also speaks to some who watched the school change over the years and questioned whether a local community school board was secretly plotting against 293.
Public schools are inequitable because the school systems are maniacally loyal to white families. We can’t have equitable public education unless schools limit the disproportionate power of white parents. But is that even possible? Chana finds two schools that are trying to do just that, and both are actually inside the 293 building. One is downstairs in the basement, where a charter school called Success Academy opened about 7 years ago. The other is upstairs at BHS, the newly renamed SIS.
This episode contains strong language.Chana has traced the history of the school from its founding and come to the present. But now: One unexpected last chapter. Last year, the school district for BHS mandated a change in the zoning process to ensure all of middle schools will be racially integrated. No longer can white families hoard resources in a few select schools. Black and Latino parents have been demanding this change since the late 1950s. The courts have mandated it. Chana asks: How did this happen? And is this a blueprint for real, systemic change?
A mysterious letter detailing a supposed Islamist plot to take over schools shocked Britain in 2014. But who wrote it? From Serial Productions and The New York Times, “The Trojan Horse Affair,” an investigation that became bigger than we ever imagined. All eight parts are available now, wherever you get your podcasts.
Tara Echeverry
I really enjoyed listening to the different viewpoints this podcast offered. It was striking to me, though, that white parents seem to be the only ones concerned with integration, not black and brown parents. The biggest reason for integration, it seems, is more equal distribution of resources. Therefore, (some) white parents want integration, mostly out of guilt and shame for past racism issues and lack of resources in minority schools. Meanwhile, black and brown parents just want equal resources! It would be great if we all wanted to find out more about the way others' live their lives, even if we don't agree, but I degress... How about every school gets equal resources so every kid gets an equal chance? I get that means the rich families will be paying taxes to 'poor' neighborhoods, but if we don't give all the kids an equal platform, then the shame and guilt will continue into adulthood and we've started the cycle all over again.
GodlyBoyish
this podcast is really eye opening on what is happening to your schools
Poshens Brozeal
as it pertains to my quality I reject you and your nonsense black america - a white man.
Nick Bryant
Success sounds like what I would expect a Chinese school would be like.
J Coker
after listening to the whiny blacks and hypocritical liberals I an in favour of segregation. those of us who just want to give the next generation a good education and the rest who want to wallow in problems