Take Back the City

 

Freire Charter School Hosts Annual Take Back the City Event

Two-day symposium on persistence, empathy, teamwork, and conflict-resolution skills

 

Once each year, students at Freire Charter School’s high school campus at 2027 Chestnut Street take a break from their regular class schedule to come together as a community to address important issues facing our students. Take Back the City is a two-day character-building workshop for our students and staff. One of the character traits the staff at Freire would like to highlight this year is persistence. We want to illustrate that the most successful people work through their difficulties to achieve their goals

Through small-group conversations, panel discussions and illustrated lesson plans, students will interact with each other outside of their normal grade-level groupings to work together to tackle such questions as how to define success, how to persevere in the face of hardship and how to navigate relationships with those with whom you may never see eye-to-eye.

Ultimately, the goal of Freire Charter School’s annual Take Back the City event is to build a stronger sense of community. School culture is one of the most highly-valued assets at Freire Charter School, and administrators agree that taking these two days away from regularly-scheduled classes brings the community together in ways and over topics not usually covered under the day-to-day curriculum.

“Take Back the City is a chance for our school community to take a step back from our rigorous academic program and examine the culture of our school,” says Dave Shahriari, Head of Academic Supports at the high school campus. Shahriari has been the primary planner and organizer for this year’s event. “In an environment where test scores are often viewed as the be-all and end-all, it is easy to lose sight of the fact that every school is a community of human beings that is built on relationships. This event allows us to examine those relationships, identify where we are doing well and where we can do better, and then make the needed changes to strengthen our entire community and attain new levels of success.”

Take Back the City provides reinforcement to the charter school’s mission, which is to “provide a college-preparatory learning experience with a focus on individual freedom, critical thinking and problem solving in an environment that emphasizes the values of community, teamwork and nonviolence.”

The final session of this symposium is an open forum to summarize the activities and students’ own experiences of the two-day event. Members of the media are welcome to attend. Please join us at 10:00am on Friday, April 26 at First Unitarian Church, 2125 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia.

For additional information, please contact Jessica St. Jacobs, Assistant to the Head of School, at 215-592-4252, x1367 or jessica.st.jacobs@freirecharterschool.org.

Freire Charter School and the Culture of Nonviolence

High School Campus: 2027 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103 215-557-8555
Middle School Campus: 1026 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107 267-670-7499
www.freirecharterschool.org

 

With so much public focus recently on issues of bullying, school violence and gun control, it is interesting to consider the unique culture of nonviolence cultivated at Freire Charter School. Without security guards or metal detectors, Freire Charter School has established a community where violence in any form is not the answer. We invite you to join us for a tour to witness our culture in action.
For more information, please call or email Ann Hedges Pagano, Director of Development. 215-592-4252, ext. 1493 or ann.pagano@freirecharterschool.org.

Freire Charter School and the Culture of Nonviolence

When Freire Charter School was founded in 1999, its students were asked to consider what they wanted from their new school. By an overwhelming majority, the words most often used by those students were that they wanted their school to be SAFE and that they wanted their school to be REAL. By safe, those first Freire students meant that they wanted to come to school each day without a fear of being jumped by another student, without witnessing students jumping teachers or worse, teachers jumping students. These are all things that they had seen in their previous school environments. By real, students meant that they wanted to actually learn something, and not feel like they were merely to filling a seat-time requirement, or to advance from grade to grade without earning that advancement.

Head of School Kelly Davenport took those two initial mandates very seriously and considered how to create a culture of nonviolence from students who had come from different neighborhoods, different schools, and different backgrounds, but who wanted the same thing. Dr. Davenport’s strong conviction was that until students felt physically safe from harm, they couldn’t possibly feel safe enough to take academic risks in the classroom. The first year was spent creating an environment in which weapons of any kind would not be allowed, a Code of Conduct agreed upon by all constituents in the Freire community, including students, teachers, administration and families, and an expectation of accountability for one’s actions and for one’s decisions. Finally, within that Code of Conduct, the expectation was set that a commitment to nonviolence extended far beyond the school’s front door. All of these points, administrators hoped, would create the safe environment students requested. Freire students are held to an expectation that they will actively avoid all forms of violence at all times and in all places – within the school walls, en route to and from school, at home and in their neighborhoods.

To bolster students’ ability to uphold this commitment, Freire Charter School has also engaged students and staff in dialogue regarding such topics as bullying and gun violence. A peer mediation program enables students to resolve conflict in a constructive manner, acknowledging that while conflict cannot be avoided, it certainly can be managed, mediated and worked through to a nonviolent resolution. The school employs a certified family therapist who oversees a team of 14 interns drawn from the University of Pennsylvania and Drexel and Temple Universities who provide individual and family therapy to any member of the Freire community who needs it. Upon enrollment, new students are provided with orientation to the school culture that includes training in conflict resolution and anger management, not just testing for math and reading placement. Freire Charter School has proven that by creating such a culture, it is possible for urban students to obtain the education we all deserve within a safe, nonviolent environment. Our students appreciate the life skills they learn from our school culture, and as a result, our students are truly free to take academic risks. Our students learn individual freedom and critical thinking, leading to a very real education, which was their second request. Not only do over 90% of Freire graduates go on to attend college, but between 2005 and 2010, 85% of Freire graduates who enrolled as first-year college students returned for their sophomore year.* In a City where only 60% of neighborhood public school students are expected even to graduate, the freshman-to-sophomore persistence of Freire graduates is a testament to the school’s unique culture of nonviolence and individual accountability.

*National Student Clearinghouse, Freshman to Sophomore persistence, effective November 15, 2012.