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For many high school students, the struggles of others are often distant problems. In urban inner-city schools, where students have tough home situations and little exposure to the outside world, this is particularly the case. But at Banana Kelly High School in the South Bronx, high school teacher Lauren Fardig aims to change that.
Producer John Tulenko went to Banana Kelly — situated in the poorest Congressional district in America — to film a piece on a remarkable curriculum developed by the Morningside Center. These ninth grade students went through several phases of activities related to refugees, discovering important life lessons in the process.
This piece aired on June 20, 2011 on PBS NewsHour.
This program is made possible by the following funders:
Grade Level Reading Fund of the Tides Foundation, The Sergey Brin and Anne Wojcicki Foundation, The Wallace Foundation, and The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.
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June 21, 2011 at 7:53 am
steve says:
This is a fine and very important piece. Kudos for Ms. Fardig’s work and for Mr. Tulenko’s reporting. This brief film exposed the fallacy behind the current education reform theory. The work these students did will not show up on any standardized test, but the content mattered deeply, the students learned a great deal, and the skills that they used will be helpful for everything else they do. This is what true education needs to be. It is everything test prep is not: important, inspiring, mindful, challenging, and powerful.