A CONVERSATION WITH GALEN KIRKLAND

The meeting with Galen was very insightful. We decided to meet at cafeteria of the Teachers College in Columbia University. Galen had been attending a meeting there with the Harlem Council of Elders and - since we were talking about education - it seemed like the ideal place to meet.

Galen Kirkland has dedicated his life to civil rights and has held prominent positions in public service including the Commissioner of Human Rights for New York, and Assistant Attorney General of New York State and the President of the Association of Housing and Neighborhood Development. Now, he works with other members of the Harlem community to try to provide a better education for children.

We discussed several topics, and key issues that relate to the issue of segregation of schools in New York including:

• Teacher training and commitment to their job

• Parent engagement and connections with the school

• Community and neighbourhood ties

• Disconnect between cultural institutions in NYC and schools Public funding (and lack there of)

• The rise of charter schools and their threat to the public system

• Special public high schools and their selective admissions process

• The stigma around 'inner city' schools Teachers' unions and their relationship with students

• Gentrification and demographic changes

Of course, we also discussed the history of Harlem itself, and its cultural prominence as a centre of African American culture. He drew on his upbringing in Harlem as a schoolkid, and how he was lucky enough to have teachers who believed in him. Other children are not as lucky.

He talked briefly about what he was doing now, and the importance creating change on a legal basis. He lamented the stagnation of a lawsuit before the Recession that called for more public funds to go into the public school system, and we discussed that ultimately, it is funding that is needed and also a change in attitude about what children in the 'inner city' need. Galen argued that a new attitude is needed, that children in neighbourhoods like Harlem have the potential to achieve and be successful.

I ended the conversation by asking him what he remembers the most from his time in school, and what space in the school he was the most fond of. He said 'the classroom, it was always so vibrant.'