black history month
BY ROBBIE SEQUEIRA
NYC Schools Chancellor David
Banks learned an important Black
history lesson in his visit through the
creatively-adorned walls of the PS 160
Walt Disney Magnet STEAM School,
the fi rst of a slew of NYC public school
visits the Adams-appointed chancellor
made on Wednesday.
During the tour of the Co-op City
elementary school, Banks learned
that Alfred L. Cralle — a Black man —
invented the ice cream scoop in 1897.
For Banks, the presence of Black history
in NYC classrooms like PS 160’s,
at a time when 37 states are considering
limits to the teaching of sexism,
racism and inequality, is paramount
to American education.
“There are so many different parts
of (Black) history that many of us still
don’t know, so we should all be learning
and growing each and every day,”
said Banks to reporters following
his tour of the elementary school on
Wednesday morning. “And in a school
like this, they do a phenomenal job
that kids are learning about their history
… and it’s critically important
across America that we continue doing
that for all kids.”
Much of the pushback against
Black History Month and, more specifi
cally, critical race theory — a near
40-year-old academic concept that
race is a social construct, and that racism
is not merely the product of individual
bias or prejudice — has been a
result of deepening divides among political,
social and cultural lines, analysts
cite.
“So many of these laws say that,
you know, any references that could
make students feel uncomfortable,
especially white students, feel uncomfortable
in some way about racism
or about the history they’re being
taught, that parents can complain
about that,” said Nadra Nattle, an education
reporter for The 19th, in a PBS
interview earlier this month. “And
that’s what we’re seeing, parents saying
they’re uncomfortable with references
to racism.”
But in the halls of PS 160, children
across a spectrum of identities are
engaging meaningfully with Black
history curriculum, whether it’s a
second-grade class learning about
African American art or the various
Black fi gures written about by
students that decorate each tile space
BRONX TIMES REPORTER, F 50 FEBRUARY 18-24, 2022 BTR
of the school.
Principal Lori Baker said it’s a
part of the school’s 365-day approach
to not only Black history but wellrounded
curriculum that challenges
children age 5-11.
In addition to learning about the
past, the Black and brown students at
PS 160 are also getting opportunities
to excel in avenues previously shutout
to minority students, such as the Science,
Technology, Engineering, Arts
and Mathematics (STEAM) fi eld and
student government.
PS 160’s Magnet STEAM program
allows Walt Disney students to work
in rotating groups where they exhibit
their block-building, problem solving
and applied scientifi c and mathematical
development through the use of
Lego towers, paper airplane throws
and teamwork.
The need for Black representation
in STEM is an evergreen issue
in higher academic circles, as Black
participation in the fi eld has steadily
waned over the past decade.
The proportion of Bachelor of Science
degrees awarded to Black graduates
remained fl at at about 9% from
2001 to 2016, according to the most
recent available fi gures from the National
Science Foundation; but in the
fi eld of engineering, it declined from
5% to 4%; and in math, it dropped
from 7% to 4% over that same period.
Black students earned 7% of STEM
bachelor’s degrees, according to the
latest Pew Research Center report in
2018.
“If you’re Black, you may have the
drive, you may have the passion, but
you also have defi ciencies that were
born of differential opportunities,”
says Shirley Malcom, director of
STEM Equity Achievement Change,
an initiative of the American Association
for the Advancement of Science
in Washington, D.C., that supports
making institutions diverse and inclusive.
One PS 160 teacher told the Times
that PS 160 Walt Disney’s STEAM
program allows students to see themselves
as future mathematicians, scientists
and any STEAM career they
desire.
The school is also building the future
leaders of today, as evidenced by
their welcoming committee of redclad
student government offi cers who
greeted Banks, U.S. Rep Jamaal Bowman
and NYC Councilman Kevin Riley
to their school on Wednesday.
“The fact that they have a student
government in an elementary school
… we should have student government
in every school in the city,” said
Banks. “They have a very robust student
government that I think is a big
deal, and these kids had to run for
offi ce and campaign. That’s important
because if we want young people
to grow up into adults and take their
rightful place in a democratic society,
you have to practice that in the K-12
space.”
Around 10 a.m. Banks left PS 160,
impressed by the school — from its
uniquely designed counseling space
to its project-based learning and
stress on community — he believes
it could be a model for other schools
in the city Department of Education’s
portfolio.
“School is the place where we have
to teach and help young people learn
how to grow and how to be healthy,”
said the chancellor. “And it’s on full
display at this school and it’s the great
leadership and culture that they’ve
developed here that should be seen by
every school in New York City. ”
NYC Schools Chancellor David Banks peers
out the window of the new, in-progress science
lab at PS 160 The Walt Disney School in
Co-op City. Photos Robbie Sequeira
Co-op City school lauded by chancellor
for infusion of Black history
NYC Schools Chancellor David Banks assists
a PS 160 Walt Disney student in the school’s
STEAM classroom.