The Invisible Schools: Educating the Children of the Poor

The challenge of educating the children from our poorest homes and neighborhoods remains a task of the highest priority to America. Much progress was made in the twentieth century during the Kennedy-Johnson administrations as well as in work done in the George Bush and Barack Obama presidential years. The Elementary and Secondary Education Act provided vast new sums to our TITLE 1 schools, those with the most concentrated populations of poor students; the vitally important community colleges were expanded and enriched; public and private scholarship funds were increased and targeted better to the needy; emphasis on the teaching of reading at all grade levels has spread throughout the Nation. Also, improved public health services, wider availability of health insurance and improved public housing. And yet, each year, thousands of young teachers are entering upon their teaching careers in these challenging schools where they face children whose backgrounds, cultural traditions and experiences will require their utmost energy, skill, understanding, sensitivity and creativity to enable them to bridge this cultural, racial and economic divide. Thankfully, these schools are no longer "invisible" as they were before the mid-Sixties. Yet, the need for innovation, experimentation, creative methods and materials remain as urgent as ever. It is my hope that this book's panorama on the early reform period in urban school will provide today's teachers and administrators with insights and useful perspectives as they work to improve their students' chances for a brighter future.