Disillusioned: Five Families and the Unraveling of America's Suburbs
by Benjamin Herold
.jpg)
I was
excited and surprised to find this book. While I don’t personally know Benjamin
Herold, I was a frequent reader of his articles from The Notebook when I
taught in Philadelphia. His articles were something I looked forward to one a
weekly basis. They provided useful insight into what was happening in other
schools across the district and shared some concerns about issues related to
equity and access to education that many students, teachers and families faced.
Likewise, I really enjoyed his work for Education Week and his focus on how
technology is used further (or in some cases limit) learning. Additionally,
many people talked about Ben’s writing in other places I worked, whether it was
the Philadelphia Writing Project or Temple; his work was always held in high
regard since he frequently chronicled the reality of what teachers, students
and families experienced in Philadelphia schools. Thus, his new and important
book Disillusioned shouldn’t come as a surprise, except I wasn’t aware
that this book was in progress until it popped up on a recommendation. I had to
double check the author’s bio because Benjamin Herold sounded familiar, and
sure enough, it was the same Ben Herold who wrote about education in
Philadelphia. This book not only follows some of the same interests that Ben’s
journalism also tracked—issues of access, equity, technology, but also seeks to
examine these issues on a broader scale across various areas and communities in
America. By doing this, his work sews together a narrative of the different
hopes and expectations that people place in schools, and how the limited
contributions over time (if any at all) have come due. Schools are something
that we all experience in different ways, and as a teacher and a parent, I
really appreciated how Herold presents the various schools across America
(Dallas, Atlanta, Pittsburg, Evansville, and Compton). Herold’s portrayal of
the families and the challenges they face help to show the various struggles
and expectations that they all have for schools, as well as to illuminate the
kind of opportunity hoarding (I appreciate learning this new term) that has
somewhat decimated some public schools. Interestingly, Herold also sets up this
narrative with some useful history tracking the development of suburbia and
white flight from urban areas. More importantly, his analysis also examines how
this movement and the opportunity hoarding that frequently occurs with newly
developed areas leads to the system being tapped and sometimes left empty,
allowing new communities to move in, but ultimately left to manage the problems
and not experience the same kinds of benefits. This was told most importantly
through the experiences and epilogue of Bethany Smith, the mother of Jackson
from Penn Hills, where Herold is originally from. I really appreciated her
epilogue and how she was able to find her voice and teach Herold about his
privilege. Herold’s book is an important entry into a field of books that
examine how social events are both reflected in and transformed by schools. As
I was reading, I was thinking a lot about the book Home Advantage by
Annette Lareau. While it is not exactly the same, it was interesting to read
about the different expectations and experiences of these different families,
and to see how they had different advantages and opportunities based on where
they lived. Notably, Herold shares how the students who were upwardly mobile
often still experienced barriers in schools, whether it was through the kind of
surveillance of their behavior, a disengaging curriculum, or backlash towards
diversity. Furthermore, the book also takes place at the start of the pandemic,
and reading these sections took me back to a fraught time with my own
children’s schooling. I really appreciated Herold’s ability to share these
experiences of different families and learn more about the challenges that they
faced of whether to keep their kids at home or send them to school with a
virulent virus all around. While I can imagine that there are many parents and
families who won’t want to read about the issues that schools face, I think
that this book is so important for many people to read—whether they work in
education or have their children in schools. It helps to remind us that public
education is a right, but that it is also dependent on contributions from the
community, not only financial contributions from taxes, but also a willingness
to engage and challenge the kinds of systems that set up barriers for many
families. It also reminds me that I need to check my own privileges and
recognize that my experiences are not the same as everyone else, and that I
should be willing to advocate for others who want change or to improve their
experiences. I highly recommend this book to many people since public education
is something that we all come into contact with, even if our children are not
enrolled in public schools.
No comments:
Post a Comment