Music in the Halls: The Heart and Heartbreak of Teaching at a High-Poverty School in Washington, DC

by Bernard Jankowski

Overview

Through vignettes, essays, snapshots, portraits, and poems, Music in the Halls reveals the inner workings of a high-poverty District of Columbia Public School. In it, Jankowski brings to light the visceral and emotional nature of childhood poverty and trauma and how it not only impacts a student’s ability to learn but also how it restricts their ability to live a full life. Uncovering the interwoven worlds of children and their parents, teachers and administrators, and the DCPS bureaucracy— all residing in close proximity to the nation’s capital— Music in the Halls is not simply a tale of hard knocks; it is an exploration of how one man’s understanding and compassion can be transformed and expanded to encompass and embrace this world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781646034246
Publisher:	Regal House Publishing
Publication date:	01/02/2024
Pages:	116
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.30(d)

About the Author

Bernard Jankowski is Head of the English Department and an AP Teacher at an educational facility serving adolescents with severe emotional disabilities. Previously, he was a Teacher and Special Education Coordinator at a high-poverty elementary school. Prior to teaching, he led a groundbreaking foundation research service. He has published two full-length poetry collections and is recipient of the Evelyn Elder Award for American Literature from Montgomery College.

Editorial Reviews

11/17/2023

High school teacher Jankowski (The Bullfrog Does Not Imagine New Towns) recounts his five-year teaching tenure at a high-poverty elementary school in Washington, DC. He conveys his experiences through a series of brief but moving narratives, poetry, and vignettes. A veteran Black teacher helped Jankowski—the only white teacher—learn to teach children whose lives are buffeted by poverty, hunger, violence, drugs, and sometimes parental abuse. At the same time, the school district measured teaching success by student test scores and fired many veteran teachers because of it. Jankowski contends that the educators who were brought into classrooms to conduct model lessons, as guidance for the classes' permanent teachers, were individuals who themselves weren't successful teachers. He also condemns the charter school system, which he says seems to find a way to force out special education students and others after the schools have received funding for them. VERDICT This short, thought-provoking work packs a punch. It sheds light on an education system that seemingly seeks to place its and societal failures on the backs of overburdened teachers and their vulnerable students.—Gail Eubanks

Library Journal