press - Paulo Freire Social Justice Charter School

DAILY HAMPSHIRE GAZETTE
Radical ideas at the Paulo Freire charter school in Holyoke where
learning is infused with ideas about social justice
Principal Ljuba Marsh, left, talks with Naidelyn Cruz during a break from her American
Sign Language class at the Paulo Freire Social Justice Charter School in Holyoke.
By Gena Mangiaratti Staff Writer
Photos by Kevin Gutting
Tuesday, September 23, 2014
HOLYOKE — Upon entering the Paulo Freire Social Justice Charter
School, there is a small room to the left with five flat-screen computers.
These are for students who do not have computers at home. The room
is also open to students who need extra help with their schoolwork.
“There’s no stigma to needing help in this school,” said the school’s
co-founder and principal Ljuba Marsh on a recent tour of the school.
The Paulo Freire Social Justice Charter School opened a year ago at
161 Lower Westfield Road in Holyoke with 145 students in grades 9
and 10. The school also operates a food pantry that will deliver food to
the homes of students who need it.
“Food security is really important to this community,” Marsh said. “If
students aren’t eating, they aren’t learning.”
The school opened for the second year this fall. It is still building up,
adding an 11th grade and welcoming more than 100 new freshmen. The
school will finish adding grades next year when this year’s juniors
become seniors.
Marsh, 67, of Belchertown, founded the Paulo Freire Social Justice
Charter School last year with executive director Bob Brick, 63, of
Northampton. The same duo founded the Pioneer Valley Performing
Arts Charter Public School in 1996 with the mission to offer students a
college preparatory education through an arts-infused curriculum.
Originally in Hadley, PVPA moved to South Hadley in 2005.
“We didn’t need another arts school. PVPA is doing a great job,” Brick
said in an interview in his office two days before students arrived for
classes earlier this month.
Brick said the idea behind Paulo Freire Social Justice Charter School is
to give students from underprivileged situations, such as those from
low-income homes and who speak English as a second language, an
equal advantage to that of their peers.
“For us, social justice first means access to great public education
because in this country, that’s how you get to other things,” he said.
PVPA Head of School Scott Goldman said he does not believe the two
schools — nor any other charter schools in western Massachusetts —
compete for applicants because they each fill a different niche.
“We are the only arts-focused charter school or public school in
western Massachusetts,” he said. “So I think the students and families
who would be choosing to send their child to PVPA is a very different
demographic than those children who would be going to the Paulo
Freire Social Justice Charter School in Holyoke.”
In addition to academic classes, Paulo Freire students are required to
take one class in each of the four “essentials” — technology, sports,
arts, and social justice. There are 10 different courses that fulfill the
social justice requirement, including one on the social justice of food
that investigates who controls food in the world. There are classes titled
social justice literacy and social justice science.
The social justice mathematics course is described this way: “Math is
an instrument for detailing social justice issues and developing critical
consciousness. Math can be used as a tool to examine and compare the
inequities that exist by examining: population rates, corporate salaries,
economic concerns, infant mortality rates, defense budgets, and
demonstrate, in graphic terms, the way people are oppressed and
marginalized. Math becomes an analytic tool to bring awareness to
important world issues...”
The curriculum also includes a community service component.
Uniforms for all
Brick noted that one of the most striking differences between the Paulo
Freire school and PVPA is that at Paulo Freire, both students and staff
wear uniforms in the school colors: purple or gray. This creates an even
playing field, said Brick, which is particularly helpful for low-income
families.
Paulo Freire, who died in 1997, was a Brazilian educator known for his
work, “Pedagogy of the Oppressed,” and who was seen as radical for
teaching poor people to read.
“I don’t think it’s a radical notion to think everybody ought to read,”
Brick said. “He believed in literacy for all and he believed that
everyone should have an opportunity to learn.”
The school is mainly housed in the former Atlas Copco building. A
mobile building with 10 classrooms was set up across the parking lot
over the summer. Eventually, the school will move to a bigger location
to accommodate 450 students in Grades 9 to 12. Brick said this is
currently projected to happen in 2017.
About 250 students now attend the school. Five are from Hampshire
County, with the greatest number of students coming from Holyoke at
175, and the second largest number coming from Springfield at 51. The
communities that make up the charter school’s priority region are
Holyoke, Chicopee, West Springfield, Westfield, South Hadley and
Northampton.
Educators say they take great care to create a culture at the school
where students who may have the odds stacked against them will thrive.
Like at PVPA, Paulo Freire teachers are on a first-name basis with their
students. They issue hall passes in the form of teddy bears, rubber
duckies and duct tape purses.
“We have very high expectations for our students,” said English teacher
Verónica González, 28, of Granby. But at the same time, “They
understand it comes from a place of love. We always remind them why
they’re here and why we do things.” Her students call her “Vero.”
Classes have no more than 18 students, and all students have access to
their own Chromebooks. In a freshman math class earlier this month,
the desktop background on the teacher’s Smart Board was a picture of
Nelson Mandela and his quote, “Education is the most powerful
weapon which you can use to change the world.”
Also that day, a 10th grade history class had the Democracy Now!
website on the screen as students and their teacher engaged in a
discussion about the violent events in Ferguson, Missouri. The teacher
asked the class how interviewing a police officer in Ferguson might be
different from interviewing a protester about the events.
In a classroom down the hall, another history teacher showed students
examples of protest art, such as prints by labor activists. The teacher
explained that part of the class will involve them making their own
protest art.
The political lessons appear to be making the students savvy. English
teacher Jacqueline Tuttle, 27, of Sunderland, who goes by “Jaq,” said,
for example, that by the end of last school year, she heard students in
the hallway saying to each other, “Stop colluding to your own
oppression.”
New students, she said, are shocked at the amount of respect as well as
individual attention they receive.
“They’re not used to that,” she said. “I’m sad that that’s not the norm,
because everybody deserves dignity and respect.”
Students said they pick up on a spirit of devotion from their teachers.
“It’s different from other schools. They’re more one-on-one,” said
junior Lydia Natal, 16, of Holyoke. “They care more.”
Natal, an honors student, is among those who will take advantage of the
school’s dual enrollment program with Holyoke Community College,
through which students can take classes and earn college credit while
still in high school.
Freshman John Rivera, 14, of Holyoke, said he felt he made a good
decision to attend the school.
“It’s very positive,” he said. “It’s good to see that there’s good people
who can help you out.”
Both González and Tuttle recall the first day of school as an emotional
occasion for returning students. Some of the bigger students lifted their
teachers off the ground and hugged them, they recalled, smiling.
“They’re used to being yelled at and being suspended for every little
thing,” said González. “They’re just so relieved that they’re not bad
kids like they have been told.”
Gena Mangiaratti can be reached at [email protected].

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