Exploiting the Ghetto

...Exploiting the Ghetto Diary of a Harlem Schoolteacher By Jim Haskms Grove Pi ess 149 pp $4 95 Reviewed by Linda Umans This book, written in diary form, covers events that took place m an elementary school m Central Harlem from September 1967-June 1968, a time when author Jim Haskms was teaching a class of children designated mentally retarded The school itself he mdentifles in the Foreword by number (P S 92) and neighborhood (134th Street), and the fact that it is housed in a new building constructed "after a very large rat ran across the stage while Mayor Wagner was visiting the old school a few years back " Diary of a Harlem Schoolteacher, however, is not an honest work?whether viewed as a personal, factual document (which it purports to be) or as social commentary on the ills of the New York City public school system (which it is by implication) And I speak as one who taught at P S 92 during the penod covered in the book, as well as before and after it A deceptively noncommittal tone is set from the start In the Foreword, Haskins subtly denigrates the "no-suspension" policy instituted by the former principal, Elliott Shapiro, stating that the school "receives an uneven number of disturbed children suspended from other schools in its district This stems from the Shapiro days, when it was thought to be the center for children with problems No child was turned away Elliott Shapiro felt he had many answers to the problems of ghetto children, and the administration is still reluctant to suspend any pupil for any reason—perhaps out of fear of tarnishing its already dubious record of never having suspended a child " But here Haskins drops the subject, neither totally agreeing or disagreeing with the policy, much less posing alternatives to suspension?and innuendo passes for opmion Similarly, in the overwhelming majority of incidents he reports involving teachers and children, the encounter is disagreeable and unproductive In some cases, he identifies the teacher in terms of race, in others, race is omitted One suspects the author is trying to tell us something, but as always his demonstrations leave his viewpoint unclear Vague insinuations, though, are not the worst of it Haskins' selective reporting occasionally leads him to imply a personal moral stance that does not bear up under close scrutiny In the November 16 entry, for example, while discussing a rift between the black and white teachers over the permanent appointment of the current (black) prmcipal, he self-nghteously proclaims "Today I refused to attend a 'closed' meeting I felt that since we teachers are asked to function as a unit, all the teachers should have been asked to attend the meeting Instead it turned into a black unit for a black principal " Yet on the following day he writes "One of the many subordinate reasons for the break is that a good number of white teachers m the higher grades encourage students to visit them when they leave or graduate Ninety per cent of our students go to the junior high school three blocks away, they come back on their lunch hour and stay to help their former teachers, going to the store for them for sodas or lunch?which, of course, is against Board directives This was just one of the many complaints that came out of the closed meeting yesterday " Since the author declined to dignify the gathering with his presence, it is indeed remarkable that he would accept and repeat hearsay of less than doubtful reliability For in point of fact, 90 per cent of the students do not go on to attend the junior high three blocks away, it is an all-girls' school, while PS 92 is coeducational Haskins' book is filled with such inaccuracies, many of them close enough to the truth to pass unnoticed They will unfortunately be given credence by most readers, people mterested in the subject matter who have no way of knowing the everyday circumstances in this Central Harlem school Even if one does possess such knowledge, one wonders just how much fictionalizing has been infused into this journal, where supposedly only the names have been changed But perhaps what I find most offensive are Haskins' repeated onesided illustrations of aggressive, negative behavior on the part o?the children, invariably incompletely described, without comment or conclusion In the entry for May 14, for instance, he relates the following incident "A girl in the sixth grade cursed the parent of a boy in the class The teacher had sent for both parents after some difficulty between the two children, but only the boy's mother showed up After school, the young lady followed the boy and his mother down the street, still cursing at them The parent is considering pressing charges against the girl The principal has been informed and some action is pending " Inasmuch as Haskins chose to mention this affair at all, he should have taken the trouble to find out how it was finally resolved The girl was diagnosed as having been in a very disturbed state, later, feeling very badly about her behavior, she voluntarily wrote a very moving apology to the boy's mother In his capacity as "published" expert, the author explains "The children m this school, as in most Central Harlem schools, are very hostile toward one another They rarely engage in meaningful organized play in the gym They prefer tag and similar games m which physical contact is necessary In most gym periods four or five fights will occur, especially when more than one class is participating" And elsewhere, he speaks about crowded conditions in the gym, and how lack of space imposes limits on the kinds of games that can be played safely Yet I myself observed beautifully handled teamwork in basketball and other organized games on the part of the upper-grade children The fights were most often caused by lack of moving room, hardly the fault of the children If this is what Haskins perceives as "hostility," save us from his perceptions' Faculty and parents receive the same insensitive treatment Few teachers, the author insists, have anything on their minds besides the next paycheck and the current sale at Bloommgdale's Now certainly there are many people m the city school system who should not be working with children, and many serious obstacles to the achievement of meaningful and effective education But Haskins devotes himself almost exclusively to describing the deficiencies, he gives little attention to the positive, innovative and creative forces that somehow manage to survive and function Parents are most often characterized as negligent, personally incompetent and unconcerned A frequent complaint is that notes sent home with the children are not answered Thus, on January 31 Haskins laments "Over five hundred letters informing parents that they can attend evening classes for basic English and math were sent out Only fifteen responded Many, many more need these classes, as evidenced by letters from parents He then goes on to quote two excuse notes for illness that have spelling errors His statement, masked as solicitude, really says more about the author's own prejudices than it does about the parents of the children in his class Someone should have explained to him that at times content is more important than the manner of expression In the end, the question remains —what was the author's real purpose in keeping his diary, which evinces so little respect for the feelings of the people he wrote about9 All those who worked for and truly cared about the children of P S 92 —teachers, parents and administrators alike—are ignored as individuals, the very existence of their dreams and goals denied by Haskins' exploitative effort...