As Bad as They Say?: Three Decades of Teaching in the Bronx

3. It Was the Worst of Times

3 It Was the Worst of Times In 1975, America was in the midst of yet another economic crisis, and New York City was close to financial ruin.1 Mayor Abraham Beame and Governor Hugh Carey looked to President Gerald Ford for a bailout , and on August 30, 1975, the New York Daily News printed as its headline what was essentially Ford’s response: ‘‘drop dead.’’2 (His callous response was in stark contrast to President Barack Obama’s response to the financial crisis, in 2009, of giving federal bailouts to major financial institutions, auto companies, and insurance giants.) Mayor Beame, on the eve of filing for bankruptcy, successfully negotiated an agreement with Albert Shanker, president of the United Federation of Teachers, later to become president of the American Federation of Teachers. City officials said that they had no other sources of cash in reserve and that the teachers’ union was all that separated them from declaring bankruptcy. Mr. Shanker agreed to commit $150 million, a huge sum in 1975, of teacher pension money to bail out the city. Even with the teachers’ largess, thousands of teachers were let go, take-home pay was cut, and wages were frozen at the pre-June 1975 level.3 It was at this time that repairs to public schools ended abruptly—with catastrophic results, as you shall see. In 1985, ten years after New York City’s financial distress, I transferred from the (mostly) all-white Harriman High School in the Bronx, to the (mostly) all black and Hispanic Carter High School in the Bronx, a distance of only a few miles, but in terms of the physical plant and student population, worlds apart. Harriman High School was just thirteen years 36 It Was the Worst of Times 37 old, and hadn’t yet reached its prime. Carter High School, at sixty-two years of age, was way past its prime. Was it significant that in 1985, thirty-one years after the Supreme Court’s ruling that ‘‘separate but equal’’ was anything but, we were back where we started? It was apparent immediately, as soon as I entered Carter, that it was a decaying infrastructure. Unfortunately, there were so many more schools just like it.4 I didn’t know then that this building would be grossly neglected for another fifteen years, almost until the year 2000. For a total of twenty-five years, 1975–2000, an entire generation of students would pass through this crumbling school, damaging not only their health and physical safety but also their self-esteem. It is important, for you, the reader, to understand the overwhelming obstacles many Bronx students faced not only in their homes and streets but also in their schools. As you read further in my book and come to understand what my students endured, you will be better able to judge if Bronx high school students are really ‘‘as bad as they say.’’ The best way that I can describe the physical conditions of Carter and make you ‘‘see’’ how it functioned—or didn’t—is to take you with me through a typical day in my life as a Bronx high school teacher, and let you see, in a compressed or snapshot form, all the problems for yourself. Now, not all the incidents occurred every day, but they did occur often enough to enable you to get the picture. Nothing is exaggerated—every teacher can corroborate what I am about to tell you—so be prepared! Come—walk with me. It is a Monday morning in October, 7:30 a.m., and I am just arriving at Carter High School. It is a scramble to find a parking spot in this very old, but fairly well preserved Italian neighborhood, just a few blocks from Fordham University, the Bronx Zoo, and the Botanical Gardens. These three sites will be vastly improved over the years, unlike the public schools. Priorities, I guess. There are many two-story houses mixed in with apartment houses sharing the street with Carter, so parking anywhere in the neighborhood is extremely difficult. Arriving early enables me to park in the fenced-in schoolyard, formerly a playground. This playground is a reminder that this school began its life in 1923 as an elementary school, and remnants of its early days still remain. (When we enter the building, notice the very narrow, dark halls, built for small children and small adults? Also, you’ll see two sets of handrails...