School District/John Bartram High School

Hello world!

Today was such a productive day. Our day started by visiting the Philadelphia school district office. The building was very new with artwork done by children everywhere and they were very receptive to our cause. We met a Terp alumni who works there and he was able to provide us with facts and statistics on John Bartram High School, which is the school that we are visiting this week. The statistics showed that the students could not meet any of the state standards. The artwork in the district office was impressive, however, and it showed us that these kids do have potential. We arrived at the school district unannounced and not expecting much, but we were surprised that even without any notice, they were willing to show us around and set up various meetings for us. This shows us that we have more power than we may assume, we just have to be proactive in finding and using it. Then, we went to John Bartram school. We immediately noticed that the area around the school was run down. For example, there were many check/cash places and there was a police officer on every corner. Another observation was that the food places sold pretty much all unhealthy food. At the school, there was a huge puddle in the middle of parking lot, which set the tone for the rest of place. There were bars on the windows and when we walked in, the first thing we saw was a metal detector. It is disappointing that all kids have to be subjected to this security everyday. We met Jackie, who is our contact at this school. She is very nice and gave us a quick tour of the school. In her room, we met a few of the other teachers and the three Americorps members. She said that some of the teachers there were skeptical of us coming there because they were questioning our intentions. We introduced ourselves and explained our reasons why we were here. We tried to make it clear that we are not there to just observe them, but rather to learn through service and gain a different perspective. We also met two kids who wanted to pursue higher education, which was inspiring because we did not know what to expect about what they thought about higher learning. The teachers seemed frustrated with the students in general and the system. We found ourselves sometimes judging some of the students who were acting out, for example being loud, but realized that these things are characteristic of many schools, and that these kids are probably not bad than most high school kids. Also, we find that they probably do care about themselves and their futures. After we got back from the school, we did the power and privilege exercise. It was a great learning activity, as we got to see the divide that some people have, even in small groups.