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Nikole Hannah-Jones Regrets Sending Daughter to 'Segregated' School
Confirmed
In Short: Nikole Hannah-Jones, a writer for The New York Times Magazine, expresses regret over her decision to send her daughter to a predominantly low-income and Black school.
Nikole Hannah-Jones, a writer for The New York Times Magazine, has expressed regret over her decision to send her daughter to a predominantly low-income and Black school in Brooklyn, New York.
In a recent essay for the Times, Hannah-Jones recounts her daughter's experience at PS 307, a school she chose to enroll her daughter in as a public stand against what she perceived as educational segregation.
Hannah-Jones, who is Black and middle class, believed that placing her daughter in a higher-achieving school with more white students would perpetuate the flaws of an unequal system and be tantamount to abandoning other Black children.
However, the experience challenged Hannah-Jones's entire worldview and led her to question her parenting ability.
In her essay, Hannah-Jones describes a moment when her daughter gushed about how easy a test had been, indicating the academic struggles her daughter faced.
Hannah-Jones and her husband, Faraji, had initially believed that enrolling their daughter in a struggling school would help improve it for all the children there.
Despite the initial intentions, Hannah-Jones now feels that the school failed her daughter, who is now 16, and Najya herself said she felt her education had been sacrificed for a sociological experiment.
The New York Post reported that the Hannah-Joneses had crusaded against allowing more students from affluent backgrounds into their daughter’s school, while decrying New York’s hopelessly 'segregated' public school system.
David Goldsmith, president of the Community Education Council for District 13, told The Post that PS 307 was a standout, magnet school at the time Najya enrolled, thanks to former principal Roberta Davenport.
What's confirmed
- Nikole Hannah-Jones, a writer for The New York Times Magazine, has expressed regret over her decision to send her daughter to a predominantly low-income and Black school in Brooklyn, New York.
- In a recent essay for the Times, Hannah-Jones recounts her daughter's experience at PS 307, a school she chose to enroll her daughter in as a public stand against what she perceived as educational segregation.
- Hannah-Jones, who is Black and middle class, believed that placing her daughter in a higher-achieving school with more white students would perpetuate the flaws of an unequal system and be tantamount to abandoning other Black children.
- However, the experience challenged Hannah-Jones's entire worldview and led her to question her parenting ability.
- In her essay, Hannah-Jones describes a moment when her daughter gushed about how easy a test had been, indicating the academic struggles her daughter faced.
- Hannah-Jones and her husband, Faraji, had initially believed that enrolling their daughter in a struggling school would help improve it for all the children there.
- Despite the initial intentions, Hannah-Jones now feels that the school failed her daughter, who is now 16, and Najya herself said she felt her education had been sacrificed for a sociological experiment.
- The New York Post reported that the Hannah-Joneses had crusaded against allowing more students from affluent backgrounds into their daughter’s school, while decrying New York’s hopelessly 'segregated' public school system.
- David Goldsmith, president of the Community Education Council for District 13, told The Post that PS 307 was a standout, magnet school at the time Najya enrolled, thanks to former principal Roberta Davenport.
What's still developing
- In the piece, Hannah-Jones explains her zealous fight for “integration,” which required sending her daughter to some of the worst public schools in New York City.
- “Segregation” continues if there are disparities in educational outcomes: We live in a “system so devastatingly unequal that it puts at odds trying to be a good person with trying to be a good parent.” Even if we accept Hannah-Jones’s interpretation of “equity” as a net positive for society, this abstraction has to stop at her child.
- Hannah-Jones, to her credit, tells Najya she can apply to whichever high schools she chooses, as New York City employs a school choice framework that allows students the chance to go somewhere outside of their zoned assignment.
- “When those affluent parents come in, we do not want to alienate the parents who live across the street in the Farragut [housing project],” Hannah-Jones, himself among the affluent, noted.
- In a 2016 fight against the “yuppie invasion” of Brooklyn’s PS 307 school, as local reports dubbed it, the Hannah-Joneses stood firmly against a Department of Education rezoning initiative, which seemed poised to flood their kid’s school with local tots from wealthy backgrounds.