New York City School Chancellor Rudy Crew gave a public lecture last night to a packed 105 Dartmouth Hall about the ways the city school system is currently failing its children and how the system could be reformed.
Crew spoke generally about urban education, but he also stated his belief that the New York City public school system over which he presides is at a crossroads: "Either I will preside over its resurrection ... or its demise -- there is very little in between."
Crew's speech, which was punctuated throughout with laughter, emphasized that schools revolve around human contact and are not simply a factory where students are educated.
"Education is a profession that is relationship-driven," and teaching is all about relationships moving people from one state to another, he said.
Crew said he thinks school systems are failing to instill several standards in their students. One such standard is academic adequacy. He argued a literacy test is a necessary component of this standard.
Children also need to acquire a sense of personal adequacy, Crew said. He said the worth of students should be just as much a part of the curriculum as technology or reading.
"In failure to attend to this issue, young people feel they lack anything to give meaning to their lives," he said. He added it was a "travesty" that people were dying after joining gangs just to add "meaning" to their lives.
Civic adequacy is another standard Crew feels is under-represented in the current school system. He said young people lack a feeling of connection with their neighborhood or community and they need to understand how and where they fit.
Crew lamented that many young people are learning about life by watching television shows and said it scares him that the expression made famous by cartoon character Bart Simpson -- "I'm an underachiever and proud of it" -- has become the motto of a generation.
Occupational adequacy is the final standard schools need to teach, Crew said. He wants all youngsters to feel they are not just ready for the 21st century, but feel they are ready to "break through."
He said youngsters who know they are capable of taking care of themselves are not the people resorting to violence to solve problems.
The principle problem Crew said he faces is how to take a million children and make sure everyone is left more confident than when they first set foot in the system.
He said it is not a question of whether he can fix the problem, but a question of when.
