“Winning” the Lottery: First Two Weeks at a Selective Enrollment Magnet School in Chicago
This past August marked the beginning of a momentous shift in the fabric of education. An agent to cunning and devious has entered the academic community as a student…all educators should be on notice. That’s right…my student is now a Kindergartener. He is the only one in the family that can now honestly say that, at least up to this point in his young life, that he is Chicago…BORN & RAISED. Another layer to that authentic Chicago socialization experience involves sending him to the 3rd largest public school system in the United States with one of the most active and powerful Teachers Unions, too. It is here that this young man will learn about sociology, biology, reading, geometry, art, history, chemistry, and various computer engineering programs that probably don’t even exist yet. Among his academic learning experience, he will also develop his personality, social preferences, and overall worldview. He will learn how to make friends, how to learn, how to fight, how to dance, how to speak Arabic, how to play sports, and so much more for “free” in the confines of a school building that is over 100 years old.
Parents are reluctant to send their children to public schools in Chicago. Many schools in the city are in areas with disproportionately high violent crime rates and violence is an…
