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January 21, 2011
Opinion: The People, Divided
The Local [Fort Greene/Clinton Hill
by Michael Galinsky
Another thoughtful essay on education issues from Atlantic Yards documentarian Mike Galinsky.
Michael Galinsky is the father of two girls in a local elementary school and the co-director of a documentary about the Atlantic Yards development, “Battle of Brooklyn.”
If you have been to a protest in the last 10 years, you’ve likely heard the chant, “The people, united, will never be defeated.” The corollary is true as well. When the government pits community against community, as it is now doing by promoting charter schools designed to compete with community schools, the people, divided, will always lose.
For the past seven years, my partner and I have worked on a film about the Atlantic Yards project. As we finish the editing of this film, we are starkly aware of the painful parallels between that story and the way that the battle over our schools is playing out. Top-down decision-making fails to take into account the situation on the ground, which leaves those most affected by the arrangements feeling powerless, divided and battling their neighbors for resources.
Posted by eric at January 21, 2011 11:49 PM