Race, Class and P.S. 20's Controversial Principal
This weekend the Local’s Andy Newman followed up the extensive blog reporting on P.S. 20 he’s been doing with an article about Sean Keaton, the elementary school’s love-him-or-loathe-him principal. The story describes Keaton, who missed the Fort Greene school’s graduation last week—he was barred from attending by Dept. of Ed officials owing to assault charges…
This weekend the Local’s Andy Newman followed up the extensive blog reporting on P.S. 20 he’s been doing with an article about Sean Keaton, the elementary school’s love-him-or-loathe-him principal. The story describes Keaton, who missed the Fort Greene school’s graduation last week—he was barred from attending by Dept. of Ed officials owing to assault charges he’s facing for allegedly beating up a teacher’s union rep—as being at the center of a race-class divide: “In the resurgent brownstone bastions of Fort Greene, Boerum Hill and the fringes of Park Slope, affluent parents with one set of expectations for their children’s education — progressive, hands-on, emphasizing freedom — are clashing with longtime, working-class residents who prefer stricter, more structured educational models like the one Mr. Keaton favored, leaving principals caught in the crossfire…At P.S. 20, some of the conflict has been tinged with race: Mr. Keaton is black, as are three-quarters of the students, while many of the families who said they found him hard to work with are white. Much of it has to do with class. Some comes down to personal style: Even many of Mr. Keaton’s supporters say he can be abrasive and inclined to escalate rather than defuse tensions.” In a poll of Brownstoner readers a couple months ago that ran before the assault charges, 47 percent of you said Keaton should be removed from the school; 17 percent said he should stay; and 36 percent said you didn’t know enough about the issue to have an opinion one way or the other.
As Cultures Clash, Brooklyn Principal Faces Assault Charges [NY Times]
PS 20: It’s a Long Story [The Local]
Time for PS 20 Principal to Get The Boot? [Brownstoner]
Photo from the Bridge & Tunnel Club.
Apology accepted.
Fair enough. I apologize.
Putnam,
No, my handle counts the number of years I’ve lived in Brooklyn. Please refrain from making assumptions about me.
Perhaps it’s not the law, but only DOE policy that requires schools to hand out photos of sex offenders. I’m not saying Keaton’s a good principal, if that’s what you’re reading into my comments.
Thanks for playing!
Uh, schools are not required to hand out photos of sex offenders. That’s just silly. In any case, the issue was that for most of the parents in that meeting it was a wasted opportunity to talk about education. Keaton seemingly had no sense we were all stunned by what he thought was important. Much like a teacher who’s handle on a webset indicates s/he is just counting the years to retirement, perhaps?
By the way, schools are required by law to hand out pictures of sex offenders who have moved into the neighborhood, so Keaton was just complying with the law in this case.
bxgrl,
I am not defending Keaton! Not at all!
But I think there’s definitely an issue here for the black parents at this school. When I lived in Clinton Hill and was looking for an elementary school for my daughter (she started Kindergarten in 2001), I heard good stuff about PS20, but ruled it out because without seriously considering it, due to the logistics of getting her there. PS20 has always been a successful school. Regardless of the conflict with and around Keaton, I think that newbies have shown a lack of respect for that success and for the families who sent their kids there because they wanted a structured learning environment.
My daughter is Chinese, and I wound up sending her to a Chinatown school which also has a structured learning environment. I can only speak first-hand about her school (not about PS20). Many white parents who live in the zone of the Chinatown school avoid it. When you talk to them, they say that the school is rigid, that children are not respected, that parents are not allowed to have input in their children’s education. This is absolutely not true–the structure gives the students the opportunity to learn their subjects as well as work and social skills that will help them throughout their lives. And the principal is extremely open and available to parents.
Keaton is gone. But the basic conflict he failed to resolve is still there. I hope the DOE appoints a principal who respects both sides. In Greenwich Village, 2 schools share a zone: PS41 is more “traditional” and PS3 is more “progressive.” Perhaps something like this can be worked out for PS20 and PS11.
“You actually should have an “ignore” feature, hopefully by September…”
Great news.
Guess who will be first against the wall when the ignore feature arrives…
So far I haven’t heard from anyone else who has had or has kids at PS 20. CSA, parents don’t have to be educated to be interested in their children’s education, but I want my kid to go to school with other children who are read to at home, whose parents value booklearning and arts and science; that’s what I mean by educated. Keaton’s constant screaming at children in the schoolyard and focus on very basic and inflammatory security issues (no I don’t think my child is safer if his principal is wasting valuable time scanning sex offenders photos – most sexual abuse is committed by family members and friends) was alien to me. To some extent parents want to replicate themselves and their values in their children. It is perhaps easy to disparage those of us who thought PS 20 wasn’t up to snuff, as well the kind of people who say things like “not up to snuff”, but that’s pretty facile. I am not sure if the people I know in the neighborhood will give PS 20 another chance – we’ve all found other places for our kids. My son is at PS 261, which he loves. Other parents more focused on developing a local school were more welcomed at PS 11. The next year or so is going to be continued turmoil at PS 20 – why would anyone return there.
One of the recurring themes I detect in these threads is a sense of outrage and bewilderment by long-term residents that the old institutions aren’t considered good enough by newcomers. Why do you want to change the school my sister went to, why do you want to change the commercial mix on Fulton Street, why do you want to tell your neighbor to turn down the music at 3 am. I think one of the pernicious effects of racism and classism in America is that it isolates the marginalized in a way which numbs them to the true injustice of their condition. They accept and begin to defend substandard services and conditions in a mistaken over-identification with the conditions of their disempowered position in society. That is not to say that the newcomers are not over-ready to throw out the baby with the bath water or brush aside the new to create coalitions so all could feel like stakeholders.
Perhaps Sean KEaton could have been a good principal – he was earnest energetic, concerned. But sometimes that is not enough.
Who wants to send their kid to a school where the infighting is so vicious and pronounced? Good test scores are an important consideration, but so is a stable learning environment. Discipline is a tried and true way to provide that kind of environment, but it appears that the principal was a bad tempered individual, or to be kinder, maybe the kind of person who likes to rock the boat and shake the trees. Good riddance to that. I hope the next principal is up to the task, and has better luck. He or She will need it.