Mark Twain on the 51st State, excerpt 3
![Still image from a news report showing a young black boy in a classroom doing school work](../../images/mark-twain-on-51st-state-3.jpg)
Date: 1974
Caption: Journalist Richard Kotuk explored what courses were available - and not available - at Mark Twain Junior High School.
What do schools try to teach their students? A curriculum is a school’s plan for what its students should learn. In the early 1970s, the curriculum at Mark Twain Junior High School offered fewer challenges and less opportunity to its students than those at other nearby schools. Additionally, teachers and administrators at Mark Twain sorted students into different academic tracks along racial lines. White students at the school had access to advanced academic courses, but most Black and Latinx students did not.
This video includes the school’s principal explaining why he thought students at Mark Twain struggled academically. It also captures Black mothers’ concern about their children’s education. In watching the clip, keep in mind the long history of racist and ableist ideas about who deserved academic opportunity in school.
Categories: Brooklyn, K-12 organizing
Tags: curriculum, racist ideas, racist segregation, student achievement, school administration
This item is part of "Tests, Labels, and Discipline" in "How Did New York City Segregate its Schools?"
Item Details
Date: 1974
Creator: WNET/Channel 13: The 51st State
Source: Richard Kotuk’s YouTube Channel
Copyright: Under copyright. Used with permission.
How to cite: “Mark Twain on the 51st State, excerpt 3,” WNET/Channel 13: The 51st State, in New York City Civil Rights History Project, Accessed: [Month Day, Year], https://nyccivilrightshistory.org/gallery/mark-twain-on-51st-state-3.
Questions to Consider
- What do you think of how Mark Twain’s principal comments on his students’ academic struggles? What parts do you find convincing, and what parts do you disagree with? Why?
- At the end of the clip, a Black mother makes this comment about Mark Twain: “It’s not a school… the only thing they actually learn is basketball and football.” If Mark Twain was not a school to her, what do you imagine a school should be, in her view? What is your view of what a school should be?
- How do unequal academic opportunities in school lead to more segregation in schools, in the past or present?
References
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