DCPS has been very good to me — and my family.
The school system that is much maligned as “dysfunctional” or “worst in the nation” or “needs to be blown up” has helped me raise and educate three daughters. If it takes a village to nurture children, the public schools in the capital were the center of mine. Each school was the glue for our neighborhood.
I write this with a bittersweet sense of relief and sadness on the day our youngest daughter graduates from Wilson Senior High. She sat in white gown and mortar board with 300 other graduates in the city’s biggest public high.
Before the ceremony at Bender Arena, I spied Principal Pete Cahall sitting alone on the dais. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee had heavily recruited him from Montgomery County. He demurred, then accepted. How was his first year? He folded his 6-foot-5 frame down to answer.
“Absolutely wonderful,” he said without hesitation.
Was it different than Montgomery County’s schools? He laughed, hard. “Kids are kids,” he said. “It’s more about the system. It needs work.”
From a parent’s view, Cahall had a rough year. He lost Sarah Tillman, a promising bio teacher; she died suddenly midyear. He battled the usual bugaboos of kids coming late and kids hanging out in the halls. Violence was down; grades were up. “It was my greatest year as an educator,” he said. “The kids were wonderful. The time flowed by.”
Wilson’s student body is without a doubt the most diverse in the city. They come from Vietnam and China, Zimbabwe and El Salvador, Anacostia and Chevy Chase. They are rich and poor and come in all colors. As valedictorian Sam Goldstein made the point: “At Sidwell and Georgetown Day, you might get a better sense of Tolstoy, but at Wilson you come away with the tools to live in a diverse world.”
My daughters started getting those tools at Lafayette Elementary School. Back in the day, Principal Sandra Bond ran it with a strong hand and high wit. I will never forget camping out in front of the school to get my daughter into pre-kindergarten, and waking to see Miss Bond open the doors at 7 a.m. in fairy godmother garb — blue satin dress and magic wand.
Our family revolved around the school’s studies and activities and park. In second grade, Frances Dorsey bonded with my youngest, reeling from family drama. In sixth grade, Jackie Snowden taught all my kids.
At first, Alice Deal Junior High was a shock to my youngest, the only one to go all the way through DCPS. She found solace in Guy Brandenburg, who taught her to appreciate her abilities in math. At Wilson she blossomed in theater and on the soccer field.
My appreciation for D.C. Public Schools came a decade before Rhee came to town to shake up the system and focus on the classroom. Before Mayor Adrian Fenty hired Allen Lew to fix schools, build new ones and renovate the athletic fields.
So as I bid farewell to my days as a parent, I leave with a wealth of sources and good news about Cahall: He told me he’s a lifer at Wilson High.
