Recently, KIPP has had its share of bad news, and all of it has been self-generated. Alleged pedophile, KIPP Houston's Mike Feinberg, was recently fired for having sex with a middle school student in the late 1990s. Since the story broke about the co-founder's sexual abuse of children, both KIPP and Feinberg have been quiet as church mice.
Now another embarrassing story is breaking, this time involving KIPP's ongoing efforts to culturally sterilize its students. However, something must have happened on the way to the final brainwashing of KIPP high students in Lynn, MA, for male students are now protesting KIPP's arbitrary decision to ban do-rags.
According to KIPP Lynn's dean students and culture (yes, KIPP has a dean of culture), do-rags are a "direct component of school-to-prison pipeline" and, further, they are "also reflective of some gang culture." If that weren't enough to make any proud teen to don't his do-rag, then there is another consideration that Dean Shauna-Kaye Clarke wants students to remember, too: ". . . they can recede your hairline. That’s not setting you up for success.”
If KIPP were really interested in addressing the "school-to-prison pipeline," the deans of culture at KIPP would be concerned with the hemorrhaging of KIPP students who leave KIPP feeling that they are failures for being unwilling to give up their lives to make KIPP test results look better. KIPP teaches students that those who leave are failures who are unwilling to do what is necessary to succeed. The intense sense of shame that results does feed, we may presume, that school the prison pipeline that Dean Shauna-Kay seems to think can be diverted by ditching the do-rag.
KIPP Lynn kids aren't buying it, and that is the most positive sign I've seen of KIPP's failure so far.
Now another embarrassing story is breaking, this time involving KIPP's ongoing efforts to culturally sterilize its students. However, something must have happened on the way to the final brainwashing of KIPP high students in Lynn, MA, for male students are now protesting KIPP's arbitrary decision to ban do-rags.
According to KIPP Lynn's dean students and culture (yes, KIPP has a dean of culture), do-rags are a "direct component of school-to-prison pipeline" and, further, they are "also reflective of some gang culture." If that weren't enough to make any proud teen to don't his do-rag, then there is another consideration that Dean Shauna-Kaye Clarke wants students to remember, too: ". . . they can recede your hairline. That’s not setting you up for success.”
If KIPP were really interested in addressing the "school-to-prison pipeline," the deans of culture at KIPP would be concerned with the hemorrhaging of KIPP students who leave KIPP feeling that they are failures for being unwilling to give up their lives to make KIPP test results look better. KIPP teaches students that those who leave are failures who are unwilling to do what is necessary to succeed. The intense sense of shame that results does feed, we may presume, that school the prison pipeline that Dean Shauna-Kay seems to think can be diverted by ditching the do-rag.
KIPP Lynn kids aren't buying it, and that is the most positive sign I've seen of KIPP's failure so far.
Perhaps some attention should be paid to the growing inequality between the haves and have nots in our society. I reckon the results would prove more fruitful than the current focus on head coverings.
ReplyDeleteAbigail Shure