Experience Changes Big City Perceptions
Brody Tarter '10 - I have been in Chicago for 5 days now and I have adjusted well to city life. Coming from a small town of no more than 5,000 people and having never visited the city before, I can say that I have experienced and learned a lot already. I have been able to visit the Maxwell St. Market, Chinatown, and a Polish neighborhood. We also meet up with alumni Art Howe, who is a lawyer in the city. He gave us a tour of Millenium Park, which is a huge tourist attraction full of many different art exhibits. My time in Chicago has already been filled with many great experiences. However, most my time has been spent teaching and observing at my host school – Prosser Academy.
Every day I have to walk about 4 blocks to board a train to get to Prosser. I ride the train about 20-25 minutes. After my train ride, I walk another block and board a bus. My bus ride is another 30-35 minutes. To say the least, it can be an adventure just trying to arrive to my school everyday. But, I have learned that city transportation is reliable and efficient. Either a train or bus can get you to about any place in the town.
The city of Chicago is home to many different people from all around the world. The Chicago Public School system represents this. There are 125 different languages spoken in the Chicago Public School system. At Prosser Academy, the student population consists of 60 percent African-Americans students, 20 percent Latino students, and about 10 percent Polish students. Being exposed to such diversity in schools is something that we are not accustom to while observing and teaching in Montgomery County.
To be honest, I came to Chicago with some negative assumptions about the city and the way in which inner city public schools operated. Just in the 5 days that I have been in Chicago, I have learned that my assumptions about the city and schools were wrong. Even though CPS has a bad reputation, Prosser Academy has allowed me to see that inner city schools in Chicago are really just like any other school that I have been too.
Through my experiences at Prosser Academy over the past days I have learned that working in an inner city public school can be challenging. But, teaching in any environment can be challenging. However, the most important thing I have learned from this experience is that I believe I am capable of teaching in a large city public school.