As he sits in a well-furnished classroom and confidently outlines his dreams of college and white-collar employment to Anderson Cooper, fifth-grade student Richar Anozier might as well be the poster child of American achievement. This is quite surprising because Anozier, until only a few years ago, was just another forgotten kid growing up amidst the squalor and chaos of inner-city New York. Now, Anozier is enrolled at the Promise Academy, a rigorous charter school benefiting Harlem youth that aims to graduate every one of its students from college and then send them off into the prosperous world of the American upper-middle class. The Promise Academy, which has been the subject of multiple segments on 60 Minutes and the recent documentary, Waiting For Superman, appears to be on its way toward accomplishing that goal, having eliminated the achievement gap in reading and math between its black elementary school students and their white counterparts in New York City Public Schools. As vital as it is for schools such as the Promise Academy to prepare their students for college and stable adult lives, they must also promote a genuine sense of social responsibility if they hope to break the vicious cycle of poverty that afflicts contemporary urban America. If schools neglect this mission, then they will merely integrate their students into an upper-middle class system of values that endorses material comfort rather than social progress as the paramount objective of educational achievement.
Unfortunately, signs of this self-centered worldview are already evident among many of the young children at the Promise Academy. In his 60 Minutes interview with Anderson Cooper, for example, Anozier was very frank about his desire to become a chief executive officer (CEO) after college. "To tell you the truth, I think you get paid better if you are the CEO," he said. The founder of the Promise Academy, Geoffrey Canada, pointed out in the same segment that material wealth is at the forefront of many students' minds. "You know, one of the first things kids ask me when they really get to know me, they say ... 'Are you rich?'" He went on to explain, "What they really want to ask is, 'Is there any way that you can help me figure out how to get a nice car and maybe get a house?' And I think they want someone to say, 'Yes, you can.' I got out, you can get out." It should come as no surprise, therefore, that the Promise Academy is oriented specifically toward helping kids find a way out of urban poverty and into the cozy security of upper-middle class life.
Most Americans would see nothing wrong with this approach. After all, the dream of a better life is deeply embedded within the nation's psyche and improved living standards are a central goal of anti-poverty programs. But by pandering to American society's determination of self-worth as a function of material possessions, the Promise Academy threatens to transform its students into participants in a social system that nourishes irresponsibility and inequality. Their quest to acquire the trappings of upper-middle class life - a large house, a car and perhaps a nice lawn - will cause Promise Academy students to engage in the same style of overconsumption that led the American economy to become critically inflated prior to the 2008 stock market crash. Furthermore, the excess amounts of land, energy and raw materials used by these budding consumers will contribute to the environmental degradation that America is inflicting upon itself and the world.
It is also likely that many of those who benefit from the Promise Academy will gradually fall out of touch with the sufferings of those left behind in the nation's inner cities. Of course, supporters of the school would cite its existence as an example of the type of private philanthropy that is possible from socially conscious members of the upper-middle class. It is worth remembering that despite the phenomenal amounts of wealth and power controlled by this subset of the American population, there have only been a patchwork of marginally successful anti-poverty efforts from the private sector. Most upper-middle class Americans remain blithely unconcerned with the plight of the urban poor, focusing instead on their own prospects of acceptance into a good college or promotion to an esteemed position of corporate governance. Having been taught that those are the hallmark signs of a fulfilling life, graduates of the Promise Academy may also forget their obligation to help those who are less fortunate.
If education reform efforts such as the Promise Academy hope to make a lasting impact on urban poverty, then they must address the underlying sense of social apathy that burdens upper-middle class values in America. This challenge must be accepted by the entirety of the nation's educational system, even at a more fundamental level. For while it is essential that America's children be given the social and intellectual skills that they need to be successful, redefining success is equally important in a nation that places a dollar sign next to its measure of self-worth.
Matt Cameron's columns appear Thursdays in The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at m.cameron@cavalierdaily.com.
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