Hard Times at Douglass High
This is the new documentary from HBO Documentary Films about an inner-city Baltimore high school. It's definitely worth watching. If anything, it confirms everything we saw in Season Four (though it takes place in high school and the kids are much more well behaved than they were in Prez's class). You see characters that remind you of Snoop, of Namond and an English teacher who reminds you of Prez.
While the filmmakers wanted to make it to incriminate "No Child Left Behind," the film points to a singular direction for a lot of the problems in the schools: the lack of family-support. The teachers appear pretty dedicated, the staff committed and passionate. One of the most fascinating scenes was about "Parent's Night." The teachers said that, for a school of 1100 people, they only got 3-4 parents who would show up. This one young woman said she didn't know any body who lived with their mom and dad.
Amazing statistic: the school has 500 freshman and 200 sophomores. Wow! When did the families in these communities start to dissolve? I think this is something that wasn't addressed very much in "The Wire." Simon and co. were more interested in taking on the economic/political/social system as opposed to looking at how that affected the break down in family.
But how do you keep families together?
This is the new documentary from HBO Documentary Films about an inner-city Baltimore high school. It's definitely worth watching. If anything, it confirms everything we saw in Season Four (though it takes place in high school and the kids are much more well behaved than they were in Prez's class). You see characters that remind you of Snoop, of Namond and an English teacher who reminds you of Prez.
While the filmmakers wanted to make it to incriminate "No Child Left Behind," the film points to a singular direction for a lot of the problems in the schools: the lack of family-support. The teachers appear pretty dedicated, the staff committed and passionate. One of the most fascinating scenes was about "Parent's Night." The teachers said that, for a school of 1100 people, they only got 3-4 parents who would show up. This one young woman said she didn't know any body who lived with their mom and dad.
Amazing statistic: the school has 500 freshman and 200 sophomores. Wow! When did the families in these communities start to dissolve? I think this is something that wasn't addressed very much in "The Wire." Simon and co. were more interested in taking on the economic/political/social system as opposed to looking at how that affected the break down in family.
But how do you keep families together?
posted by Andy Sywak at 9:31 PM
1 Comments:
Finally sat down to watch this documentary. Did not realize that it was filmed for the class of 2005...so it appears everyone had to lose their jobs. This represents my city and most every inner city in America. Sad state of affairs...The one teacher that bailed after getting 3 9th grade classes to teach...I felt for him...he completely burned out...It was definitely like watching Season 4 - caught on to the Snoop like girl and Namond...It is heartbreaking.
Post a Comment
<< Home