NYC public school system is something that has received a lot of backlash and criticism. How Teens Take Charge, an activism group made up of students is the brand new venture in this forum and hopefully a change for the best. The group aspires to bring about a positive change in the age-old system, hopefully in the foreseeable future.
With the COVID-19 pandemic changing the way things work in almost all sectors, school children are juggling between virtual classes and project submissions on one hand with managing to be sane on the other. It is along with this buzz that these students of the future have taken up such an initiative.
What the movement advocate?
The student-led organization that advocates for fair education in NYC were formed in 2017 recently launched a brand new campaign called Education unscreened aimed to bring forth an admission system that is equal for all public schools in NYC by removing the much-criticized screen system which is a rigorous application process for certain high performing schools in various forms, be it academics or curricular.
A Take Charge member who advocates for the movement states that they are fighting for a better future and what is happening is a tale of two cities, quite contrary to the Charles Dickens titled work, it is a questionable position of those who have and those who don’t.
In light of the movement, the screens have a major segregating effect on the system as a whole, and the organization demand this practice of system be removed for the whole good.
According to their website, to end this discriminatory system of two schools, all sorts of admission tests, state exam scores, GPA, attendance, punctuality, zip code, portfolios, in-person interviews, auditions, and specialty exams need to be done with to attain equality at the end.
How the teens view this movement?
With Attendance being criteria that are checked for screened schools, lower-income families find this especially hard considering and struggle for no reason of their own. The screening process followed in NYC thus fails to take into account an innumerable number of things that the Black and Brown students are made to face on a daily basis.
In the lower-income families, they would not be in a position to hire a nanny or extra help so the eldest child would need to look after the younger ones which makes the student hard to make it to school on time.
Students who did not get into a screened school and had to go with an unscreened college preparatory school because of these criteria are affected mentally to quite an extend and feel that they are not good enough perhaps after they have exhausted all the opportunities in their possession.
