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Guggenheim Class of 2004 speaks out....University of Pennsylvania student thanks Guggenheim for her success

Joe Linehan - February 03, 2010

[Editor's Note: Substance reporter Joe Linehan originally learned of Kara Crutcher's interest in speaking up for Guggenheim from the blog "District 299.com"... "Un this case, the original letter that set off your reporting came from my site, district299.com," wrote District 299 chief Alexander Russo.]

Penn Sophomore Remembers Guggenheim. About a week ago, I came across an open letter to the Chicago Board of Education from a remarkable young woman named Kara Crutcher. In the letter, Kara eloquently and passionately made the case against closing schools. I did some research and was able to contact her. Kara is a student at the prestigious University of Pennsylvania, which is the 4th oldest university in the United States and has remained one of the country’s elite schools since Benjamin Franklin first founded it in 1740.

Above, Kara Crutcher with her eighth grade graduating class at Chicago's Guggenheim Elementary School in 2004. Substance photo provded by... It’s a long way from the South Side of Chicago to the University of Pennsylvania, but Kara is part of the 2004 class of Guggenheim Elementary School. That's only six short years. According to Kara, that time spent at Guggenheim was a key part of her success in the Ivy League.

SUBSTANCE: How do you think Guggenheim helped to prepare you for your current academic pursuits?

KARA CRUTCHER: Being a student at Guggenheim has definitely helped to prepare me for my current academic endeavors. Guggenheim first and foremost provided me with a good education. I had wonderful teachers, all of whom deeply care about the well being of their students. We held school-wide science fairs, history fairs, Kwanzaa celebrations, all of which allowed me to explore different concepts and broaden my academic horizons. However, I think the most important thing that Guggenheim has taught me cannot be found in textbooks. As a student, I learned the importance of self-motivation, hard work, and positivity. Everyday, Guggenheim faculty members came to a school in the impoverished Englewood neighborhood with smiles on their faces. They were there to motivate us and push us to work harder for what we wanted in life. I never realized until I went to high school, just how significant a simple smile from a teacher as you walk down the hallway could be. I felt comfortable at school, and I never had any doubt that any teacher there would be willing to help me with anything. Being at Guggenheim taught me to never doubt that I could do anything I wanted in life. It is those lessons and memories that keep me motivated in college.

SUBSTANCE: In your letter, you called Guggenheim "a place of warmth, friendliness, and security amongst the dangers that surrounded its doors". Can you explain this a little?

Kara Crutcher (left) recently. KARA CRUTCHER: Well there are several issues that the Englewood community faces. It has one of the highest crime rates in the country, and many of its inhabitants are living below the poverty line. With the effects of gangs, drugs and crime on the streets, it’s difficult for children to grow up blind to what’s going on around them. They see everything.

They walk to school amongst all the negativity on the streets, and it affects their moods, their goals, their lives in general. However, the school brings aspects of positivity into the lives of its students and also teaches that we as students have options. We don’t have to get involved with drugs; we don’t have to commit crimes to make money. We have options in that we can go to school, work hard, and become something more. Guggenheim is the alternative to everything bad students might see going on around them.

SUBSTANCE: Were any people at Guggenheim especially helpful or inspiring to you?

KARA CRUTCHER: Honestly, I have a very unique connection to Guggenheim in that my mother, Shirley King, and my aunt and uncle Jackie and Ernest Jones, were all faculty members during my time there. Of course, they were all there to inspire and push me to do well. However, I can honestly say that there is not a single faculty member at Guggenheim who wasn’t inspiring or helpful to me. Everyone was always willing to help students. I feel like the most important and unique aspect of Guggenheim is that as a student, I felt comfortable. I felt comfortable learning, I felt comfortable getting help from my teachers, and I wanted to be at school. I wanted to help my teachers in the classroom. It truly is a family.

SUBSTANCE: How are you doing at Penn?

KARA CRUTCHER: I love every minute of it. Coming to Penn is very different from what I was expecting, but I think what makes the difference, and what motivates me is that I’m confident that every hurdle Penn throws my way will only make me smarter, stronger, and closer to achieving what I want in life. My freshman year, I had a very difficult time at Penn for several reasons. However, I am doing great now and honestly, that truly was made possible by the lessons I learned at Guggenheim. I cannot stress the importance of self-motivation, particularly at a school at Penn. Academically and even socially, it is a challenging place. You have to be able to remind yourself that you can do whatever you want if you work hard because at Penn, you don’t always see the immediate results of your hard work. It is this kind of self-motivation that has allowed me to succeed academically and socially in college. I am majoring in English with hopes of attending law school. I currently have plans to study abroad in France for a semester, and I must say that things are going very well.

SUBSTANCE: Why are you so opposed to the closing of Guggenheim and other public schools?

KARA CRUTCHER: I am extremely opposed to the closing of Guggenheim and other public schools because I don’t think the intended effects of the No Child Left Behind Act are coming into play. The purpose of the act was close the achievement gap amongst student’s in this country, however, I do not think that closing schools is going to achieve that goal. There are many issues that arise when a school is closed in a neighborhood such as Englewood, and I don’t think are being recognized by those who make the decisions to close certain schools. If Guggenheim were to close, those students would have to walk at least six blocks to the next public school and that is not at all safe for children at elementary school ages. That’s more time they have to face the potential affects of drugs and crime on the streets. Most importantly, I think that officials only look at the negative things they observe coming out of these public schools, the drop out rates, the crimes, etc. It is vital to remember that extremely talented and intelligent students attend these schools, and they deserve the chance to do well. We cannot lose hope for the children that come out of these schools up for closing, because that’s when they start to lose hope for the future as well. The students at these schools have the ability to be stars, and it honestly disgusts me that the Board of Education is so willing to close schools in the manner it has been for a few years now.

SUBSTANCE: Why do you think the board is targeting these schools?

KARA CRUTCHER: I think the Board is targeting these schools because they are vulnerable. Schools in African American neighborhoods are disproportionately being targeted, and it is easy because they often times have lower test scores and more student violence. Additionally, the neighborhoods of these schools are plagued with crime. However, Guggenheim and other schools in low-income neighborhoods do not receive the same kind of resources that many other schools in different areas of the city do. I’ve gone into other elementary schools, and been in awe of the things they have available that were not at all present in my elementary school. For example, my mother is a teacher at Stone Academy on the city’s north side, and one day when I visited the school, each student in her class was working on a project online using and individual laptop provided for classroom use by the school. Guggenheim, and many of the other schools intended for closure, do not have those kinds of resources.

There is no denying it. While these issues are much more complicated and deeply rooted in the history of this country, particularly African American history, I don’t think we can deny that the manner in which the Board is closing schools touches upon issues of class, race and the gentrification of particular neighborhoods in the city of Chicago. These are schools and neighborhoods that are weakened and vulnerable, and have the ability to be transformed into areas filled with new, expensive properties, and renovated magnet schools. However, what happens to the people that used to live there….?

SUBSTANCE: Is there anything you would like to tell Mayor Daley and the Board of Education?

KARA CRUTCHER: There is one thing I’d like to say to the Mayor, the Board of Education, and particularly Arne Duncan, as he was the President of the Board when I first became involved with this issue. When I was a student at Francis W. Parker, I met some students from Julian High School who were fighting against the same issue. They were the ones to inspire me, as well as a few of my classmates at Parker to become involved in stopping schools closings. Three days a week at Parker, an assembly called Morning Ex takes places, in which students, faculty members, and guest present some kind of presentation or act with the purpose of creating cultured and actively engaged citizens out of the student body. One day, some of my classmates and I did a presentation on the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, and the effects it has on Chicago Public Schools, particularly the school closings. After the presentation, we stood outside of the auditorium with petitions for students to sign. They were written specifically for Parker students to sign, because we wanted to show Arne Duncan that even though we are not a public school, we stand behind our fellow youth in Chicago suffering from school closings. The one thing I will not ever forget about that day is the conversation I had with one of my fellow classmates when I asked if he would be willing to sign the petition. After I explain its purpose, he still refused to sign. I expressed that I believe Duncan was being unfair to the youth of this city, and he replied, “I think your stupid. Arne Duncan is a great guy. I played basketball with him last week”.

I was literally in tears after this conversation, because I could not rationalize how someone could honestly think that way. I remember this conversation most because that was the first time that I realized the distance between those in power, and those who are merely affected by it. Most of my classmates at Parker were middle, upper class Caucasian students, who had never set foot into a public school such as Guggenheim in their lives. It was easy for my classmate to say that to me, because he is ignorant of what he doesn’t see. That is what I would like to stress to those on the Board of Education. Don’t just “know” theoretically who you are affecting when a school closes, meet them. See their faces and hear their stories. There are beautiful souls and immensely talented students that are affected with the mere swipe of your pen. How would you feel if that were the school of your child or job of your family member? Make it a personal decision when you decide to close a school, not just a job. 

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