One year ago, George Washington High School was plagued by anarchy and repeated violence. The day-by-day confrontations are documented in Irving Witkin's Diary of a Teacher (available from the UFT). Now, according to a New York Times report, bloody riots have been replaced by "greatly relaxed tensions, greatly improved stability and morale, and cautious hope that the future will bring instructional reforms that few deny are necessary." Recent reports credit Principal Samuel Kastman with the transformation. This credit is well deserved, but as Kastman himself has pointed out, the changes could not have occurred without the full support of "a group of dedicated teachers, concerned students, cooperative parents, the United Federation of Teachers, the Economic Development Council and Superintendent James Bofman ... " With the spirit of hope now prevalent at George Washington High, perhaps it is time to look at the lessons to be learned.
There can be no doubt that both students and parents had legitimate grievances about the operation of the school -- a large number of grievances. These grievances soon became the basis of a demand that a grievance table be set up in the lobby of the school under the control of a "Table Committee" of students and parents. The press and many public officials supported the "Table Committee." After all, why oppose having a place where students could go to present their grievances? What was not reported by the press was that the existence of the table provided an excuse for hundreds of students to absent themselves from class to roam the halls and ultimately gather in the lobby, where they were given inflammatory literature and incited (by speakers on a balcony) to violence. The press reports also gave the impression that the "Table Committee" was merely a group of local parents. The truth is that the group was led by Mrs. Ellen Lurie, a parent at the school who happens to be the author of How to Change the Schools, a detailed manual for school confrontation and destruction. We can better understand the chaos at GWHS in the light of Mrs. Lurie' s basic premise that " ... we must destroy the system before it destroys all our children." In How to Change the Schools, Mrs. Lurie gives step-by-step plans, to be followed as a start by as few as "five or ten parents." If the parents association does not want to oust the principal, says Mrs. Lurie, these "five or ten" should "form a new group." The book provides a "sample of grievances" and a list of actions. "If you are determined and persistent, you will wear the system down, and the authorities will finally give in just to get rid of you!"
An End to Capitulation
Throughout the months of violence at GWHS there was a view widely held by city and school officials and many prominent citizens that the only way to end the violence was to give recognition to those engaged in the violence and to capitulate to their demands. Questions concerning the correctness of the demands or the representatives of the group were brushed aside. The underlying idea seemed to be that, since only those engaged in violence can stop violence, we must give them what they demand.
Principal Samuel Kastman, the UFT chapter at the school and the overwhelming majority of parents and students have won a great victory by rejecting this philosophy of capitulation. The grievance table has been removed. Those engaged in violence are no longer negotiated with; they are expelled and arrested. Above all, Kastman and the staff spend their time listening to and helping students with real grievances -- students who want to improve the educational program of the school. They waste no time with those continually voicing non-negotiable demands designed to bring about either take-over of the school or its destruction.
A final lesson, which seems to have eluded the press in its praise of Kastman is that, if the Board had allowed the "Table Committee" to choose a new principal -- which was its chief demand -- Kastman would never have been selected. He would have been disqualified - a victim of the currently fashionable doctrine that in a non-white school the principal must also be non-white and that passing a Board of Examiners test and obtaining a legally valid license is a sign of incompetence. As it turned out, Kastman, who would have been rejected because he was entitled to the job, has been the only one able to put the school back together again.
Yet Another Serious Omission by the Press
Whenever a dozen demonstrators picket the UFT, the press reports it. When some individual hurls a charge of "racism" at the UFT, it is reported. Last Tuesday night, 300 needy and deserving high school graduates were each awarded a $4,000 college scholarship - over one million dollars in scholarships made available by moneys negotiated in the last UFT contract.
For the students, their parents and their teachers, as for Bayard Rustin, Board President Murry Bergtraum and myself, it was a great moment, the first time in our nation's history that teachers, implementing a union contract, provided opportunities of such scope for their students. Although adequate notice of the ceremony had been sent them, no representatives of the news media - radio, TV, the press -- attended.