I Have a Dream

Photo cribbed from the Internet

In observance of MLK day last week, the fourth graders at Watkins Elementary School - the DC public school where Dear Daughter is a 1st grader - recited King's famous "I Have a Dream Speech"on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. This is the seventh year they have done so, and this year it was prominently featured in the media.  Here is the amazing slide show of photos taken by my friend, neighbor, and fellow school parent, KJ.

The slide show is quite remarkable, as it captures the dream *somewhat* realized almost 50 years later.  A reality where African-American and European-American kids go to school together.  They are classmates, teammates, and *sometimes* actual friends.  These school kids don't know it any other way.

Dear Daughter's school is somewhat of an anomaly in DC, in the DC metro area, and in the country as a whole.  Its demographics are a fascinating socioeconomic study in itself - 64% Black, 30% white, 3% Asian/Pacific, 2% Hispanic.  That ethnic diversity is hard to find anywhere. Twenty-nine percent are eligible for free or reduced lunch  - it's unusual, and I think quite remarkable, to have this mix of economic strata.

Watkins School's reading and math proficiency scores don't knock your socks off - hovering around 60%  and 65% in  math and reading testing proficiency respectively.  This is respectable, if not still totally unacceptable, in light of its demographic and socioeconomic context.  

So-called thriving DC public elementary schools in Upper Northwest - aka, Upper Northwhite or Upper Cupcake - tell a different story...
The testing numbers at Murch Elementary and Janney Elementary in these neighborhoods are in the high 80th% percentiles.  These schools "boast" - word choice deliberate - enrollments of 74%/14% White/Black and 63%/20% White/Black at Janney and Murch respectively with free and reduced lunch eligibility at 6% and 12%.

It's not all about test scores, race, and a free lunch....but in my world, with some metrics and social science to back me up, it matters an awful lot.  I'm proud of my daughter's school.  It teaches math, reading, social studies, art and computers.  It also provides a very important life curriculum about diversity, acceptance, working with others, and serves as a living laboratory for the complex community and society in which she is growing up, and will one day inherit.

One of my favorite recent films - and will likely end up an all-time fave - is the 2010 documentary "Waiting for Superman," featuring former DC Public Schools Chancellor and education reformer, Michelle Rhee.   Public education in the US is no walk in the park.  Urban public education even less so.  But even so, I, too, have a dream....