Othermothers and Fathers?

In “I am a Promise” we are exposed to the raw problems that inner-city public schools face as a result of their location and lack of resources to effectively engage in educating children. The socio-historical context of this neighborhood in north Philadelphia is one of the most interesting aspects of this documentary. The presence of drugs in the community, especially, crack is overwhelming. It appears that almost every child’s parents are connected to the drugs in some way. Almost every situation that the principal and children must act within is connected directly to the drug. Whether it is because the parents are missing and the children must be raised by their grandparents (even when they are not really grandparents as in the case of Nadia) or a worried father comes in on the day there is a narcotics bust right next to the school because his daughter does not come home and he was worried that she may have been kidnapped. There is a sense of fear that pervades the lives of people in the community even when they have the most genuine intentions and goals.

We can also see this in the way that the principal seeks to run the school. In the beginning we are introduced to her using very positive rhetoric, which attempts to compassionately deal with empowering the students in their context. She uses phrases such as “talented, intelligent, and gifted” and “genius children” as anthem for the children to live their lives by. By having such high and positive expectations of the children she hopes to facilitate their success. She expresses her lament at the end of the film that many of these children are just written off because of their circumstances. That most people are “afraid of these kids when they become adolescents.” However, even though she has a fundamentally sound source of compassion for these children she is constantly battling against and even engaging with the fear that these kids experience by being children of the street. It seems that the principal know the fear of their parents that many of these children have and the most ultimate form of punishment will by that “families will be called”. We can see this is how Cornelius responds to the principal after his mother is brought in and she threatens to hit him in the face. Even though the principal seems to play into this contrast of fear and compassion, it seems that it ultimately has an effect on some of the children. She seems to have a great deal of influence over them and they respect her. It reminds me of what Ryan discussed in his blog post and something that Nieto said was very important: the fact that teachers must really have the lives and goals of the students at heart. Even when the principal seems to have a flawed sort of disciplinary pedagogy, her compassion comes through in a way that compensates for any sort of hinderance caused by the way they are punished.

I also feel like this movie has overwhelming examples of what it means to be a good teacher or educator for minorities. We have been constantly exposed to readings where minority students have been allowed to give their opinions on why they have been successful in education and what it means to be a good teacher. We have also been shown by Guiffrida how the African-American concept of Othermothering creates a more successful academic environment for minority students. We can see these two things in the movie through not only the examples of the principal, who steps in as a mother figure, but also through the black, male teacher of the all male first grade class. His presence is very significant in the lives of these boys who mostly live without a positive male role model in his life. I thought his presence was so significant because he grew up with many of the families of these boys and lived in the same neighborhood. He shared many of the same experiences and knew what it was like for these boys outside of the classroom. That can probably not be said for many of the other teachers in the school. Because of this, he was able to really directly relate to the personal experience of their lives, and deal with very real concepts, such as what they should do in dangerous situations. He became more than just a teacher, but also a role model and mentor, which is fundamental is the success of African- American students according to Wiggan. This is also a reflection of what Nieto says is important in the classroom. Teachers must be able to connect with the lived culture of students outside of the classroom, and even more importantly that sympathize, they must be able to empathize. He did have a lot of success in his classroom as shown by 9 of the 20 boys in the class making the honor roll.

However, it seems like the message of the movie was objectively to show the difficulties faced by inner-city educators. One of my biggest concerns was that the principal of the school left shortly after because she was not receiving enough support from the school district. Is it fair for her to do this if she has so much love and compassion for the children? I almost felt like she was abandoning them to the wolves, and it was very disheartening to conclude the documentary with the fact that she was leaving. Do you think that her reasons were good enough or that she was just giving up? Just a side-note of a thought I suppose.