“We Are Not Throw-Aways!”: A Statement from the High Point Middle College Site Council
“WE ARE NOT THROW-AWAYS!” — A slogan from the fight to save High Point Middle College, June, 2015
Why is Seattle Public Schools (SPS) denying our underserved students an opportunity to become creative, critical, successful learners? Where is the goal of racial equity that the district itself is calling for? Where is the end of the school to-prison pipeline? Where is the learning and teaching curricula through which students become strong, vibrant thinkers, self-determining and able to navigate their way through the real “slings and arrows” of the 21st century?
Middle College High School (MC) was an alternative high school where social justice and a critical pedagogy provided underserved students, students of color, and disenfranchised students a different and personalized education. MC has historically worked to prevent students from leaving education behind and stood on the front line against the school-to prison pipeline. MC was a rigorous educational challenge with high expectations that its students grew into and succeeded while experiencing the transformative reward that comes from meaningful learning. Students who studied in the context of rigorous critical and transformative pedagogy have gone on to do remarkable things.
Then SPS ended this option for juniors and seniors who needed it most. The historically proven MC mission was gutted. High Point MC was closed and the educators dedicated to and advocating of its mission were pushed out.
FROM A PARENT TO SPS: “I really cannot understand why the School District appears to be going out of its way to gut and dismantle a program that has consistently “We Are Not Throw-Aways!”: A Statement from the High Point Middle College Site Council | Seattle Education: