Reflections upon high school

I have had two experiences this year of working in the New York City public school system, and last year I taught English in a high school in the Parisian suburbs. All of these experiences have led me to reflect critically upon my own high school experience, especially upon the varying rates of "social problems" seen in all these schools, specifically teen pregnancy and violence within the schools.

When I refer to "my" high school, I'm actually talking about where I completed my junior and senior year of high school. I had transferred from a very small, sheltered private school to a large public school that served many diverse populations in Pittsburgh. I quickly normalized to my new environment. Walking through metal detectors every day was annoying, but bearable. I understood it was for my own safety, and indeed, I did feel safer. I even became friendly with the security guards. I became used to seeing heavily pregnant girls walk the halls, and hear of fights that broke out daily. Although this happened in my school environment, I was rather removed from all this. There were three tracks in my school: gifted, college prep, and mainstream. Nearly all my classes were in the gifted program. All the pregnancies and fighting occurred among the mainstream kids. Furthermore, the three separate tracks unfortunately divided along racial lines. Fired students were all white, college prep was a mix of black and white, and mainstream was pretty much all black. Additionally, all of the bathrooms smelled like smoke. None of the locks on the stalls worked, and the staff took to locking the bathrooms during class so students couldn't sneak off and cut class there.

Despite all this, I never felt like I went to a particularly troubled school. I had wonderful teachers whom I forged strong bonds with, and with whom I communicate to this day (hi there JMS!)

Neither of the two schools in New York have metal detectors. Indeed, the principals at both schools consider the use of metal detectors as barbarous and akin to a police state within the school. In my first school, there was an upsurge of teen pregnancy in the freshman and sophomore classes. Although I absolutely promote sexual health advocacy, it was hard for me to be shocked at this news. Certainly, there was a much higher rate of teen pregnancy in my own high school. In Pittsburgh. Enough to necessitate a child rearing class (called Human Development, which initially I thought was a psychology class, but really it taught how to bottle feed and change diapers). Then I think about how we received no comprehensive sex education whatsoever at my school. In my health class, we discussed cardiovascular health and exercise, but nary a mention of healthy sexuality. It could have been because the teacher's wife was pregnant at the time, and perhaps it was a touchy subject. Still, there is no excuse. At my first school this year, we kept asking whether we could distribute condoms to student. However, we were told we had to go through a special training to be able to do so, one which my supervisor never arranged. Why can't they just do what they did in France and have condom dispensers (like vending machines) in the hallways?

I was shocked when I got to my new school. Even though students hail from the same low income areas as my former school, there is a paucity of teen pregnancy. Fights don't erupt daily as they did both in my own high school and in my first school this year. I don't know what the difference is. Perhaps because this school has a higher ranking by the Board of Ed, students are more motivated to complete work and more engaged with academics.

I reflect on these differences often these days. I find myself thinking "was my own high school really that bad?" I think no, given that I still had a positive experience there and I firmly believe any academic opportunity is shaped by what the individual puts into it. However, what I do find troubling is that all these issues (pregnancy, violence, race division) were out in the open, and yet nobody was having an engaged dialogue about them. Who knows, maybe the faculty and staff were. I have a friend who would reiterate "this school makes you racist!" I certainly don't agree with that. No such power should be given to a social context. People make themselves racist, not their environment. However, what a refreshing surprise it is to see how integrated all the high schools I have worked in have been. Fighting and pregnancy are no longer "the black students problem"; they are EVERYONE's problem, as they should rightfully be. Furthermore,I was very happy that in my new school we've had professional development meetings to discuss academic disparities between the white community and African American and Latino counterparts. These types of issues (and the cultural differences inherent in these communities) need to be actively addressed by the school. School environments have the unique opportunity to combat prejudice, discrimination, and fighting from within.