Fitzgerald: Geography of a Revolution

Chapter X: Education Strains

Chapter X: Education Strains Some alienation between the schools and the community in Fitzgerald has always existed, but now it is increasing. In the past the white Protestants and Jewish upwardly mobile groups were powerful enough to keep the schools healthy. The Fitzgerald and Post schools ran especially fine academic programs, which fit in well with middle class cultural traditions. But in the 1960's, the racial composition of the neighborhood changed greatly. Fitzgerald's percent of black children in the public elementary school has increased year by year from 19.6 in 1961, 24.8 in 1962,46.0 in 1963,66.5 in 1964, 78.9 in 1965,88.4 in 1966,90.8 in 1967,96.5 in 1968, to 97.7 in 1969. While the public schools have become increasingly black, the Catholic schools have remained heavily white. The increase in non-white children enrolled in Fitzgerald 's schools has been accompanied by an increase in the total number of children enrolled . Total enrollments at the Fitzgerald School, for example, have skyrocketed from 1,060 in 1960, to 2,155 in 1967,to over 2,500 in 1969. The number of college-oriented families, conversely, has plummeted. These changes have aggravated the many latent tensions between the schools and the citizens of Fitzgerald. At times alienation has burst into violence. Fitzgerald suffered thirteen cases of break-in and one of arson in the fall of 1966. The tensions are most extreme at the Post School. At Post, children increasingly talk back and increasingly defy their teachers, according to their former principal, Miss Irma Dayton. The children throw food in the lunchroom, a prisontype protest. Indeed, at the December, 1966 meeting of Post's PTA, a Caucasian parent, referring to all of Post's children, asserted, "Our children are being kept shut in a prison all day." Much of the tension results from overcrowding. The lunchroom, halls, and lockers were not built to accommodate the number of students now at Post. In order to run the children through lunch in twenty-minute hurry-up shifts, they must start "lunch hour" at 10:30. The teacher turnover in the schools is rising, in spite of pay increases. Teacher turnover 187 PERCENT OF INTEGRATION IN DETROIT ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS 188 X-3 Is the school a prison? Or perhaps a pre-factory assembly line, mechanically turning out factory fodder like sausages? rates in local Catholic schools tend to be lowered becausethe teachers are sisters who are highly stable. The high rate of teacher turnover is, not surprisingly, accompanied by a high level of teacher disaffection.Teacher morale has lowered considerably. In 1931, Post had the following clubs and student activities: Dramatics , Woodcraft,Household Mechanics, Home Economics, Art, Stamp Collectors, Chess, Poetry, Bird, Checker, Girl Reserves, Library, Dancing, Cartoon, Inky Fingers, and Newspaper . Today it operates only the following: Newspaper, French, Latin, Drama, Model Yacht, Ushers,Y-Teens, and Future Teachers Club. This representsa drop in activities of over fifty percent, in the face of an increase of at least fifty percent in the number of students. This drop is partly caused by teachers' unwillingness to contribute time after school to these activities, an unwillingness that intensifies as the unions succeed in organizing the public school system.Also, many young teachers attend graduate school part-time or hold two jobs in order to make ends meet, and are thus exhausted by moonlighting as well as by trying to maintain discipline in overcrowded, stressful conditions. Sarah Foley, a powerful figure in the city and state PTA, understands many of the problems faced by teachers who do not keep up with the changes in a changing neighborhood. A teacher must constantly renew herself. An in-service training program must be a regular part of the school system and every teacher must every other year go through a training period and be reimbursed for her time. Cultures change; the teacher must be able to appreciate the many variances of the pluralistic society that we live in. Another cause of the heightened tension in Fitzgerald's schools is the new awareness of the bias of curricula. Although the question "What are the pernicious effects of a prejudicial curriculum upon minority school children?" is often asked, the question "What are its effects upon majority school children?" rarely is. It is difficult to imagine a "majority child," for the United States is truly a pluralistic...