LETTER FROM MICHELE
Possibilities for Education Reform: A Birthday Card for Gus Trowbridge
By Michèle Solá, Director
Gus Trowbridge, who founded MCS at age 31, celebrated his 75th birthday in August. Forty-four years after the doors first opened at 7 East 96 Street, the new school year has begun in earnest. NYSAIS has renewed our accreditation. Classrooms have quickly become beehives of productive activity, challenging the broad diversity of MCS students. An exceptional outpouring of creativity and energy speaks, I believe, for the education model developed here. As New York City and the US Department of Education cast a broad net, there is new relevancy for the mission. Increased visibility for the school is leading to collaborations within MCS and partnerships with organizations of like-values. Some of the essentials we take for granted we in fact owe to the combination of vision and pragmatism that Gus Trowbridge seeded from the start.
Progressive Education
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has a $5 billion Fund for Innovation to shape school reform. There are many who would wish to influence his thinking. Progressive educators seek to join in the public dialogue about reform. MCS represents a particular strength as the goal of overcoming historic inequities in K-12 education becomes a national priority. Twelve MCS teachers are on the program of the Progressive Educators’ Network (PEN) conference this fall. Their question “What do we stand for?” is paired with illustrations that work and play, multiculturalism and social justice, identity and community, the farm and sustainability offer evidence and results to inform the national debate of our time.
Permission and a Purpose
The cover of a recent issue of Newsweek has a provocative title, “Is Your Baby Racist?” Articles inside cite longitudinal research studies that now substantiate what we have witnessed in MCS graduates. The research variables are early experiences in diversity, as well as explicit conversations and multicultural curriculum. The challenge to talk honestly about a world that lives imperfectly by democratic values turns out to have a measurable and positive impact on academic achievement, identity development and social relationships. It defines our purpose when answering the question, “Why do we educate?” with “to bring about change.”
At the time MCS opened its doors, newspapers and television were replete with images of the Civil Rights Movement. Last November, Gus told me he thought he would never see an African-American President elected in his life time. He hoped for vigorous reflection about the ways such a victory could have local and global consequences. He was also unwilling to accept that one historic moment could result in a post-racist society. Now a media world that includes blogs and YouTube engages the legacy of racism in America and its influences on policy. Today our horizons have expanded, but it is comforting to have this history as a foundation.
I have heard Gus interviewed by 6th graders, telling them that starting a racially-integrated school in New York City was the way he and Marty acted to bring about positive change. Witnessing much of what transpires at MCS today reveals the same hopeful constructive purpose.
Farm/School Connection
The MCS Farm is on the map, and a new “Sustainability Highlight” page on the MCS Web site emphasizes our close relationship. What a change for a remote location, selected purposely, where a meaningful sense of interdependence could be achieved. Installing 14 solar panels at the MCS Farm initially seemed an unrealizable addition to our model of sustainable living. The enthusiasm and support of students inspired the broad MCS community; dreams were transformed into reality. MCS educators will be presenters at a Farm Education Conference in November. Michele Hatchette (’01) will be the environmental intern at the Farm this year, preparing to help transform her family’s Delaware farm into a resource for schools.
Tuition Reform
Last year Debo Adegbile (’80) circulated a “Letter to the MCS Community,” announcing the creation of a Tuition Reform Task Force. Gus and Frank Roosevelt subsequently spoke to parents recounting the values of equality essential to the school’s mission that they hoped to align with the method of charging fees. “In October 1970, MCS began to search for a new way of financing the school. This new way would be based on the precept that the school is one community of individuals joined in the common task of educating children. In such a community there is no such thing as one child; rather, there is a total school operating budget, the burden of which must be shared among the parent body…in an equitable manner.” Years of striving for a community of this kind now favorably position our 8th graders for admission to high school. It also motivates Farm Festival committees to invest themselves fully in producing the shared pleasure of an afternoon together – current and former MCS families and friends from the neighborhood.
Recent national statistics show a widening income gap and increasing segregation in public school districts. National statistics on independent schools show that 19.4% of students receive financial aid while at MCS three times that many families pay a fee on the sliding-scale. I recently heard that the Board of a school with similar values in Denver replaced their traditional tuition/scholarship system. Adopting the major principles of our system they will implement a sliding-scale. Like other schools before them, they are evidence that Tuition Reform is replicable.
A parent survey last year revealed universal admiration for Tuition Reform, as well as increased recognition that the success of such a system depends on outside support.
Being faithful to Tuition Reform has meant that 30% of the budget must be covered by means other than tuition. Fundraising has always been crucial. Events and annual appeals must meet ambitious goals. Major donors from within and outside the MCS community helped build an endowment. Its value decreased last year, which means our fundraising burden will be greater. An annual budget approaching $5 million dollars would have been unimaginable in 1970, as would the need for more major capital improvements to our building. Who would have imagined that East Harlem would be changing so rapidly, or that we would again need to buy a new bus to transport students to the MCS Farm? The Board’s commitment to comprehensive long-range planning will define the vision that will inform the ways we will address these challenges.
“Share the Gold”
At one crossroad moment in the school’s history, Paula Wehmiller offered her perspective on our choices and priorities. Her advice was to “share the gold,” finding gold at MCS twenty years after she’d been a 6-7s teacher here and ten years after she’d become a leading diversity consultant. What would she say now upon learning that the current 6-7s teacher is educating future teachers at City College? What if those who believe they replicated fundamental parts of MCS in new public and charter schools were to tell their stories? What if families applying to MCS on the eve of our 45th anniversary were to know what has become of the children who spent time here years ago? You are fond of talking about what is “in the blood stream of the school.” The security with which current and former swimmers in that stream create institutions of their own is a trend we have been following. The trajectories of their diverse lives will become a permanent display of alumni profiles in the courtyard.
“What do we stand for?” “Why do we educate?” These fundamental questions are not new to MCS, yet they inspire new thinking every time they are asked aloud. As we wish Gus a Happy Birthday, the best gift we can offer is our commitment to today’s children in a community whose practices are defined by values articulated in the founding principles.
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