Ghetto Schooling: A Political Economy of Urban Educational Reform,   ISBN:9780807736623

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Anyon has used ethnographic and historical material to make a case that's been made before, though I don't think it's been made this well: Schooling is a contextually determined institution. If the context -- in this case the urban U.S. -- is declining economically and socially, schooling will decline as well. If the cities in which schools are located are impoverished, crime-ridden, and devoid of opportunity, schools and their students will face with the same vastly diminished prospects. Anyone who has read Bowles and Gintis' Schooling in Capitalist America, Willis' Learning got Labor, or Devine's Maximum Security already knows that schools can't be fixed from the inside out.

It's convenient to blame teachers and administrators for the damaging conditions which prevail in places like Newark's Marcy school, but what are teachers to do? Imagine a teacher who has just spent four or five years in a college or university acquiring the behavioral repertoires and theoretical perspectives which qualify them to be called education professionals. They get their first job at Marcy school. None of what they learned seems applicable -- the students are too poor and routinely brutalized, their colleagues are too demoralized, the principal is too cynical, parents are victimized by an unforgiving set of circumstances which constitutes their daily lives. Putative experts who bring the most recent reforms presented in the guise of staff development are clueless. It's easy to see that teachers would become alienated from and hostile to an environment that prevents them from doing the professional job that they were trained to do.

Anyon's claim that there's nothing special about Newark, that the same destructive processes are destroying education throughout the urban U.S., is indisputable. Furthermore, much the same applies to schooling in rural America. I've seen it in the West Virginia Coal Fields and in the poorest, most rural parts of central Kentucky.

It's a cruel oddity that in all these places, whether urban and poor or rural and poor, the same sort of educational reforms were being sold to the same sort of disaffected teachers and administrators by state officials who haven't set foot in a classroom for 30 years.

Until the context of education is massively reformed, bad educational jokes like No Child Left Behind will continue to be an intrusive nuisance for teachers and an embarrassment for the rest of us.

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Ghetto schooling touches on the failure of inner city schools but especially the failure of the school system in Newark, NJ. She takes a look at the expansive school system from the years 1860- 1997. Her book looks at the failure of school reform but better yet the failure of the city and how it has failed to educate it's minority students through mismangement of money to political partronage that promotes unskilled teachers and adminstrators. She traces the school system as a product of the development of the city. To Jean Anyon, the city has a direct effect on the progress of the school. As she states, "The contours and fortunes of schools in the twentieth centruy have also been intimately linked to the economic transformations of the city--and to federal and state policy as well as to local and national corporate decision making" (156). In stating what she feels is an obvious, Anyon describes the rise and fall of Newark and how fiscal prosperiety directly affected the quality of schooling. She states that through several discriminatory practices by federal and state governments such as redlining, housing segregation, financial disparity between districts and even efforts by corporations to restrict municipal spending and borrowing, education in Newark took a turn for the worst. She also says that the decline in quality of education is aligned with the increase of minorities into the city and the exodus of middle class residents to the suburbs. Anyon does a good job of presenting the historical factors that have influenced education in the city. She also shows how this has occured in other major cities. Another selling pointo f the argurment is that she presents a reform agenda that although expensive does to the root of the "underclass" urban education problem. While in no way belittling the residents of the inner cities she calls for action from these individuals and how their participation in the process strenthens the ties of the community to education. Anyon's book is only the beginning in a long line of cities that are afflicted by the same ailments as Newark, NJ.

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Since as far back as formal education existed, Newark NJ school district has suffered from numerous problems. In the book Ghetto Schooling - A Political Economy of Urban Educational Reform, Jean Anyon deals with the topic of the Newark school district and what has been done and what should be done in the future. The book begins with her experience of being in the Newark School system (Marcy School) as a member of a group trying to restructure eight schools in this school district. Then she follows up with a chronological break down by era of what went on in the Newark district and around the country. The book begins in the present, goes to the past, and finishes up with how we are supposed to learn from our past.
In the present time, we see schools that are ill equipped, dirty, having unqualified staff, and chaos. These children come from poor homes (if they have a home), with chaotic lives, neglect, abuse, histories of poor helth and chronic health problems, emotional stress, anxiety and anger (Anyon, 1997). If the children are coming from home environments like this, it does not seem that it would take much to make them want to come to school. However, quite a few students that were interviewed did not want to be there. Why? They did not respect the teachers. They thought the teachers were only there for the money or could not find a job anywhere else. One student did not like the abuse inflicted upon the students by the teachers. This section of the book is the one that stands out above all else. The reason being, I cannot believe how these students are handled. What these teachers say and do is uncalled for. This stems from the fact that these teachers do not have the proper training to be a teacher. We are not going to stop this vicious cycle if we do not train these teachers. We learn how to parent from our parents, and how to teach from past teachers, unless otherwise trained. If I did not get anything else out of this book, I do know how not to teach.
I am sure the information presented in this book is all true. It is just hard for me to fathom that a school district was ran this way without little interference from the outside. I know if this were the education my children were getting, I would definitely have something to say about it. I would be at every board meeting, every PTO and PTA meeting, be up at the school during class time, and hold these people accountable as well as my child. I have never been to or worked in a school of this nature. I also hope I never will. If I did though, I would pray that I would be a better, more caring, understanding teacher than the ones presented.
I found this book to be a hard read. It included entirely too many statistics. If I had to come up with my favorite part of the book, it would be part 1. It was real and easier to read. My least favorite part was Chapter 7 - Class, Race, Taxes, and State Educational Reform: 1970-1997. It was cumbersome to say the least. It seemed to have more statistics than any other chapter. If I could change one thing about this book it would be to reduce the amount of numbers included and include more real life situations.
Revisiting Marcy School got my attention again. It almost felt like I was there. I am not sure it is a place I would want to be. I know I would not go at this time in my life. I am not equipped to teach these kids. I sub in a small school district in Illinois and experience none of this. I probably would do more harm to these children than good. On the other hand, it sounds like they just need someone to care for them and let them know they are cared for. It broke my heart to hear what the white teacher had to say. She said,
" These kids have major problems! Incest, drugs, the girls to from boyfriend to boyfriend. You look at them and say `what's the matter,' and they cannot tell you. I have a little boy [in first grade] who's wondering where his mother went. No one knows. No wonder things go in one ear and out the other [when you're trying to teach them]."
Another teacher said,
"We think, `they're only going to sweep floors' - why teach them science?"
And another added,
"When you realize who they [the students] are, you laugh, and you can't take it [teaching] seriously."(Anyon, 1997)
These statements made me want to help these boys and girls. Saying they were only going to sweep floors is such a self-fulfilling prophecy. Even if that is what they are going to do, science may help them someday. If these teachers cannot take teaching seriously, who could? These students need more teaching and caring than the average student does.
Jean Anyon appears to have all the qualifications needed to write a book of this nature. As the books states she has her Ph.D., and is an Associate Professor at Rutgers University. She taught elementary grades in inner city schools in Bedford-Stuyvesant, NY; Philadelphia; and Washington D.C. She is Director of the Institute for Research in Urban Education on the Rutgers-Newark Campus. She has published widely on the relation of social class and race to issues of curriculum, equity, classroom practice, and school reform. This is her first book (Anyon, 1997).
If I were asked if I would recommend this book to someone else, I would definitely respond with a hearty NO! If you are interested in research for this subject, you might find some useful information, with some careful reading. This just was not a book I could not put down. Usually I want to read a book from cover to cover in one sitting. This book seemed to be never ending.

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Anyon gives us a glimpse into the world of inner city schooling and everything that goes with it. This is an eye opening journey for educators that do not teach in the inner city schools. I do feel that she is way off and don't believe that some of her suggestions would actually work to improve the schools. She has not herself worked as an educator in the inner city schools. So how does she know that what she is reccommending will work?
She does make a good point and that new funding is needed in the schools. It is just a matter of where to get those funds. I do believe that educationing our young children is a responsiblity for all of America, therefore everyone should help in the funding process. I do not think that one soul contributor should be used.

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Jean Anyon's book, Ghetto Schooling: A Political Economy of Urban Educational Reform paints a harrowing portrait of the struggles of those who have a role in inner-city schools. It is written in three parts that address the present situation, reflect upon the past, and look to the future, respectively. The book took several years to write due to the level of research involved for the historical content, but the personal account was based on four years of the author's participation in the reform effort in Newark, New Jersey, beginning in 1992. The reform efforts targeted eight schools in the central section of the city. (On a broader note, the historical text of the book points out that the decline of the schools really began in the 1930s.) The book begins by showing the present state of education within the reform district, but then postulates the reasons for this status by looking at the historical foundations of the problems. In the first chapter of part two, Anyon begins the historical breakdown by looking at early situation with educating the children of the many immigrants who came to Newark beginning in the 1860s. Despite early attempts at reform, the seeds had already been planted for the disenfranchisement seen today. The historical context of Anyon's research design shows decade by decade the continual decay of the Newark schools. Reform efforts were suggested, but never truly implemented. After the period of organized crime and municipal scandals had arrived, Anyon notes that:
"Because there was no rescue of the Newark educational system in 1968, it would continue to limp along, and further generations of Newark children-the grandchildren, the grandchildren, the great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren of the southern rural immigrants-would
join their parents in the ranks of the uneducated and the undereducated. Many would therefore be unable to participate in the economic and political institutions of U.S. society" (p. 127).

This generational cycle of poverty and hopelessness is at the heart of Anyon's determination that changes can only be effective if they consider the sociocultural status and economic plight of those involved. I found the accounts in the book to be a revelation to say the least. I think people like myself who are born and raised outside urban areas live in blissful ignorance as to the true state of education for the thousands trapped in a cycle of poverty and despair. I like that Anyon takes such an honest approach to her research, realizing that to be effective she must be disclose everything she witnessed. The only change I would like to see is the statistical information presented in some type of graph form so that it would be easier to read and interpret. Otherwise, I found the book to be an invaluable read as a future educator. In fact, it has made me think beyond the world of education and to ponder my place among the human race and the responsibility I must take for needs of my fellow man and the generations to come.