First Person

Thirty-two urban education students from Swarthmore College recently watched the introductory First Person DVD on their first day of class. Over the next several weeks, excerpts from their responses will be posted as part of this blog.

The portraits presented in the First Person documentary…challenged the distinction that it is made between urban education and other types of education. These portraits reminded me that, though we can call these students “urbanâ€?, they are nevertheless, still high school students, experiencing many similar events to any public high school across the country.

This film will impact how I view urban education simply because it focuses on real individuals instead of statistics or generalizations. I believe that the film will broaden my concept of urban education and the students that attend urban schools. Having heard many statistics about students in urban schools concerning pregnancy, drop-out rates, or gangs, I often have a singular picture of who an urban student is. This film will change my perspective by reminding me that thinking about a “typical� urban student is not significant since these real schools are made up of real, unique students. Even if some of these students are connected by similar statistics, such as socioeconomic class or school drop-out rate, these students think, feel, and learn very differently from each other. Keeping these unique portraits in mind, along with the idea that there are millions of other unique students in what we lump together as “urban� schools, will change the way I think about urban education as a whole. In presenting issues that both challenged and affirmed my previous thoughts, the film will hopefully broaden my understanding of the reality and complexity of urban education, instead of limiting it to what can be implied by the term.

Thirty-two urban education students from Swarthmore College recently watched the introductory First Person DVD on their first day of class. Over the next several weeks, excerpts from their responses will be posted as part of this blog.

I would be lying if I said that I have never seen students like the ones in this documentary. Personally, I see students equally as motivated every day; students caught in the nets of a broken system. Nonetheless, I do think that portraits like the six young adults in the film are important to be shared. Having more representations of students who are driven to succeed is both helpful to rectify the misconceptions that the general “non-urban� public may have about “urban students� and also to serve as mirror images for students stuck in similar predicaments in their educational experiences.

However, at the same time that I think that the tendency to portray urban high schools as a place where “only the strong survive� firstly does not address the root of the problems (funding, class size, qualified teachers…), and secondly the individualistic rhetoric of success and achievement , I believe, is not the most effective for the successes of entire communities.

Thirty-two urban education students from Swarthmore College recently watched the introductory First Person DVD on their first day of class. Over the next several weeks, excerpts from their responses will be posted as part of this blog.

The word “urban” contains numerous racial and economic connotations. Generally, in the media and everyday life “urban lifestyleâ€? is portrayed as something poor, non-white, and dangerous. Director Benjamin Herold combats stereotypes associated with the word urban in his documentary First Person. By following six Philadelphian high school students, he frames urban education around the possibilities of six bright individuals rather than the institutional problems of Philadelphia public schools. Through the grace of his lens, he encourages his audience to move beyond the restrictions of the idioms coupled with everything urban.

A problem that is continual presented to me is the preconceived perception that most people hold about urban school systems. As a Black woman in a usually predominantly White environment, I find myself always defending Philly and its people. This documentary allows me to be silent on the issue, and permits the real students to tell their story. The documentary confronts a handful of stereotypes within its short trailer. Its structure prevents the director from telling a story about what he thinks is right or wrong with urban education. The video diaries of real Philadelphian students allow the audience to partake in a visual ethnography. The voice of the student is what matters most. In the director’s note of the First Person website, Herold writes, “If I’ve done my job well, audiences from all walks of life will find themselves viewing the path to college through the eyes of Steve, Macho, Malikka, Shalisa, Fresh, and Kurtis.� Herold uses their stories as a framework of urban education.

Because First Person is a first hand account of what it is like to be a high school student in North Philly, the documentary works as a great start in contextualizing urban education. It does not over compensate by showing all the good or all the bad because the students are explaining their lives. Although a small sample, I think that the documentary frames urban education as rich yet restricting environment. These qualities make First Person a great tool for teaching about urban education for those who have not attended such an institution.

Thirty-two urban education students from Swarthmore College recently watched the introductory First Person DVD on their first day of class. Over the next several weeks, excerpts from their responses will be posted as part of this blog.

First Person offers a nuanced portrayal of the lives of high school students in an urban environment. For teenagers who attend high-achieving schools and come from families with generations of college graduates, going to college is an expectation rarely challenged. For such students, struggle revolves primarily around applying to and choosing between a handful of colleges and universities. First Person documents the obstacles faced by public high school students in urban Philadelphia for whom college is not necessarily the next step in life.

Steve, Fresh, Malikka, Macho, Shalisa, and Kurtis face formidable challenges—such as financial strain, family obligations, neighborhood distractions, and deficient high school experiences—to their future as college students and graduates. Shalisa struggles to keep up with her schoolwork as she helps raise her three younger sisters. Fresh has grown up without strong family support, in a neighborhood rampant with drug dealing. He sees an alternative to college in the army or navy, a path commonly chosen by young adults who seek a structured life and financial support. Kurtis finds himself distracted from the prospect of college by his social involvement in street life. Though Malikka is academically driven and appreciates her supportive family, she acknowledges the financial burden her mother will face trying to send three daughters through college. Collectively, these stories illustrate the myriad forces that act against many urban public school students as they prepare for life after high school…

As a prospective teacher in urban public schools, I reflect upon this documentary with anger at the unfair obstacles many urban public school students face, happiness for the rich and promising things in these students’ lives, and utmost respect for the effort they exert each day to construct and pursue positive futures for themselves. What goes on in the classroom does not represent the entirety of these students’ stories. This film illustrates that in order to best support students, educators must be cognizant of and sensitive to outside influences in their lives. Implementing stringent security measures in school buildings does not adequately address the problems in urban schools. Providing emotional, intellectual, and cultural support in the classroom that embraces rather than neglects students’ backgrounds would be a far more significant way to improve urban education.

Thirty-two urban education students from Swarthmore College recently watched the introductory First Person DVD on their first day of class. Over the next several weeks, excerpts from their responses will be posted as part of this blog.

When I think of urban education, I most often envision a poor school within a deteriorating, overcrowded, dirty, struggling, and polluted environment. I imagine noisy, crowded classrooms with inexperienced teachers who cannot control their students. First Person, on the other hand, gave little attention to this aspect of urban education. Instead, the film was devoted to highlighting the lives outside the classroom of students who attend schools in urban environments. As an outsider, it is easy to remove the individuals from such an environment and become caught up with how depressed and hopeless their situations appear. The six students in First Person, on the other hand, are not looking for sympathy. Although some of the students’ schools resembled the picture of urban education I had in my mind, the students try not to let these factors distract them from their goals, for most of which included going to college.

After seeing this film, I believe that all children really want to do something meaningful with their lives, whether that means going to college or being a positive influence to younger siblings. Although self-motivation is important, children need reinforcement and someone to believe in them in order to remain focused and motivated towards achieving their goals. They need someone to support them as they work towards graduating high school and college and transitioning to living independent and productive lives. Despite the conditions of their schools, most of the students in First Person remained optimistic about the future because they had support from their friends and family along with self motivation.

This film has also made me realize that you cannot generalize students in urban environments. Although the schools of many of the students in First Person face many of the same issues, each student lives a very different life. Each student faces the daily pressures of school while dealing with a variety of issues at home and on the streets. As a result, education policy must account for and reflect the diversity of the students it affects.