DEE-TROIT CITY

My family lives on the outer rim of the ring of suburbs around Detroit--the far edge, to be precise, of white flight. When our two children were small, we took them on regular adventures in the city, including a shared block of tickets for Tiger games. We chose to live in our town because I had a teaching job there, and my husband’s commute was manageable--but we worried a lot about our community’s reputation as narrow-minded, non-diverse, even racist.

Our kids heard early on from their classmates that Detroit was dirty and dangerous; we wanted to counter that impression with information about how Detroit’s fortunes rose and fell with the auto industry. We wanted our kids to see Detroit for what it is—a city with heart and grit, a wellspring for artistic creativity, a rust-belt city that provided the economic lifeblood for generations. Mostly, we didn’t want our kids to be fearful or to repeat hollow prejudices about Detroit.

Detroit has not experienced the rebirth—or multiple rebirths—that other big cities have. In fact, it seems to have gained new notoriety for its haunting urban ruins—a beautiful, noble city in tatters. In November, Sweet Juniper! posted a series of memorable photos of a rotted old building—the former main Post Office, which served for many years as the Detroit Public Schools Book Depository. In true Detroit fashion, the buildings and the books were abandoned, left to the ravages of snow and squatters’ fires.

The photographs are strangely pitiful—a kind of post-apocalyptic vibe. I’m sure there are stacks of plastic-wrapped, unused books in most school districts, video disc players still in their boxes in storage closets, pristine workbooks from 1970s texts. But the photos feel like a particularly egregious kind of public mismanagement—blatant squandering of resources that belong to children. 

I know many teachers who work in the Detroit Public Schools, mostly National Board Certified Teachers and candidates for national certification. To a person, they are committed to the kids they serve, and sincerely interested in becoming better educators. They meet to dissect videotaped lessons, and assemble portfolios of data on student learning—and the workshops often feel like revival meetings. NBCTs are a tiny minority of Detroit Public School teachers, but they represent threads of hope in a place where there isn’t much optimism. And they come to school every day willing to care for children who don’t have choices, and who cannot be responsible for bad decisions of the people who run their schools.

It was surprising to me when Joanne Jacobs featured Sweet Juniper’s photos in her excellent daily blog roundup of education stories, and the immediate response was a kind of gleeful recitation of all that’s wrong in Detroit (and there’s plenty)—with no corresponding suggestions for how to do right by the students there, beyond further abandonment of considerable public resources and turning all 100,000 kids loose in the educational marketplace. There are some fine and innovative charter schools in Detroit. I’m all for more schools created to serve the specific needs of urban students, but don’t think it hurts, now and then, to give credit where credit is due.

Teachers in Detroit aren’t working under the best conditions. But—like doctors without borders in war-torn countries, or lawyers doing pro bono work with indigent clients—their efforts are making a difference to somebody.

Comments

[TeachMoore]

Nancy,
As a transplanted Motown baby, thank you for this. I owe my education to the Detroit Public Schools, and for all the hard times the city has been through and continues to face, it is still home to some of the finest teachers I've ever known. They and the students they serve deserve to have their work acknowledged and tangibly supported.

[DROB]

HI NANCY
This is not a Nancy Drew Mystery? Does Joanne Jacobs remember a State takeover of the Detroit school system? For several years State/Public Official appointed executives that ran the system & even the school board. It was during that time that gross mismanagement & questionable...and maybe even criminal financial dealings went on. So while it is true that Schools in Detroit and throughout our State face many challanges, As a Detroiter I am very hopeful and have full confidence in the new Superintendent. Enrollment is up and She has made tremendous fiscal strides in a very short time. I will not respond to the Mrs Jacobs post but I will add her to a long list of people that have victimized and exploited the children of Detroit and Michigan for their own personal intrest.

[Mary Tedrow]

I'm mostly familiar with Detroit's troubles through their favorite son Michael Moore. I think that the destruction of a vibrant city and its people has come about through our reverence for corporate power and an emphasis on consumption. Woe unto us.
I think when government and business converge it is called facisim?
Two teachers joined our staff this year from Michigan. Way down here in lil ole Virginny.

[Nancy Flanagan]

Actually, Michael Moore is from Flint, another rust-belt city whose fortunes are joined at the hip with the auto industry. Detroit and Flint were once both proud and thriving--the photos of turn of the century mansions in Detroit now in ruins are evidence of good times long past.

I am loathe to blame this solely on government, although they stood by in good times while the Big Three supported the state tax base, and haven't been able to get past political infighting to launch a new vision of Michigan as a 21st century, business-friendly place.

And the car companies have been producing gas guzzlers that sold, and blaming consumers for their lack of leadership and innovation.

At the moment, business and government are not converging much at all, unless it's getting close enough to point fingers at each other. And then they turn, in sync, and point fingers at the failing schools.

Seventy percent of new teachers produced by Michigan's (still good) university programs were unable to find jobs in MI last year. We imported them to states like NC, FL...and the Old Dominion state. Hope they're doing well down there.