Reviews
Ghosts in the Schoolyard: Racism and School Closings on Chicago's South Side by Eve L. Ewing
allieuofm's review
5.0
First book for my PhD program in Curriculum and Critical Social Inquiry.
Welp this was infuriating. Well-written and researched, so 5-stars despite the rage I feel, which isn't the author's fault.
Welp this was infuriating. Well-written and researched, so 5-stars despite the rage I feel, which isn't the author's fault.
sydodo13's review
4.0
This book argues — rightly, I believe — that “chronically underperforming” and “failing” schools should not be labeled with these harsh words and closed, but should instead be upheld as pillars of the community because they give students a sense of home, stability, and belonging. I agree, but I wish the author would have provided ideas on how to keep these schools open while making sure they serve students academically and prepare them for the rest of their lives. It’s a real problem when the majority of a school’s students are unable to read, write, or solve math problems at a basic level, but the author seems reluctant to admit that these are real issues that disproportionately impact marginalized students, let alone posit solutions. She makes it very clear that school closures aren’t the answer, but what is? I was excited when the book’s conclusion finally asked, “What do we do?” Then I was sorely disappointed when the only sentence that came close to an answer was this platitude: “We must continually set our sights on what it would look like to get things right, and we must integrate those visions into our rhetoric and our strategy.”
mmingie's review
4.0
I received an ARC of this book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
"We see that this community's choice to resist a school's being characterized as 'failing' is in fact about much more than the school itself: it is about citizenship and participation, about justice and injustice, and about resisting people in power who want to transform a community at the expense of the people who live there."
This book was excellent. It is nonfiction, but it is short and the author's style moves it along very well. I devoured it in two days. That could have been one, but the situation was set out so plainly and made me so angry I had to put the book down for a moment and step back.
From the beginning, when the author gives descriptions of people and places we can see clearly her feelings toward the system. She tells about how board members and superintendent (called CEO) of the public school system are appointed by the mayor and not voted on by the community. She tells about how the first CEO in the process was replaced due to scandal. She makes it obvious that the whole system is corrupt and set for certain children and communities to have a harder time.
The book was tied together primarily by exploring the history of policies that ruin institutions in the Black parts of Chicago. It explored segregated housing, the amount of children that put in a small area, how instead of bussing these kids to other schools throughout the city new schools were built to keep the races segregated and how when the projects were torn down and fewer children were enrolled these schools were closed and the children sent to other schools that performed just as poorly. This was done well. She doesn't hide after making the accusation of racism in the title. She backs it up through the whole book.
"We see that this community's choice to resist a school's being characterized as 'failing' is in fact about much more than the school itself: it is about citizenship and participation, about justice and injustice, and about resisting people in power who want to transform a community at the expense of the people who live there."
This book was excellent. It is nonfiction, but it is short and the author's style moves it along very well. I devoured it in two days. That could have been one, but the situation was set out so plainly and made me so angry I had to put the book down for a moment and step back.
From the beginning, when the author gives descriptions of people and places we can see clearly her feelings toward the system. She tells about how board members and superintendent (called CEO) of the public school system are appointed by the mayor and not voted on by the community. She tells about how the first CEO in the process was replaced due to scandal. She makes it obvious that the whole system is corrupt and set for certain children and communities to have a harder time.
The book was tied together primarily by exploring the history of policies that ruin institutions in the Black parts of Chicago. It explored segregated housing, the amount of children that put in a small area, how instead of bussing these kids to other schools throughout the city new schools were built to keep the races segregated and how when the projects were torn down and fewer children were enrolled these schools were closed and the children sent to other schools that performed just as poorly. This was done well. She doesn't hide after making the accusation of racism in the title. She backs it up through the whole book.
cokechukwu's review
4.0
“As the people of Bronzeville understand, the death of a school and the death of a person at the barrel of a gun are not the same thing, but they also *are* the same thing.”
Eve Ewing does not disappoint. “Ghosts in the Schoolyard” tells a story of the unprecedented public school closings in Chicago under Mayor Rahm Emanuel starting in 2013. It centers the voices of the students, parents, teachers, and other community members who resist narratives about their so-called “failing” schools, and places the conversation firmly in the context of Chicago’s long history of systemic racial discrimination. It is both personal and political, and steeped in her love for this flawed, beautiful city and its black communities.
Eve Ewing does not disappoint. “Ghosts in the Schoolyard” tells a story of the unprecedented public school closings in Chicago under Mayor Rahm Emanuel starting in 2013. It centers the voices of the students, parents, teachers, and other community members who resist narratives about their so-called “failing” schools, and places the conversation firmly in the context of Chicago’s long history of systemic racial discrimination. It is both personal and political, and steeped in her love for this flawed, beautiful city and its black communities.
chrliesangel28's review against another edition
hopeful
informative
sad
medium-paced
I am not rating this book since I find it hard to rate non fiction. I definitely learned a lot about the history of the south side of Chicago and the school closings. Lots of good information if you want to learn about it.
scrow1022's review
5.0
Love how she tells this story, hugely appreciate the chapter on her methodology. Grateful for her shared learning, witness.