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Voices From The WWNO Listening Post: Back To School

Kate Richardson
/
WWNO
A student sits down at our Listening Post to talk about education.

WWNO's new community media project, the Listening Post, has spent the last few weeks collecting commentaries from around the city on the subject of education.

Listening Post recording devices have been present at the Norman Mayer Library in Gentilly and the HeadQuarters Barbershop on Broad Street. And the mobile Listening Post went to the Bard Early College New Orleans program for high schoolers, and our very own Culture Collision event.

Here’s what participants shared as they talked about the new school year, school policy in New Orleans, and what makes a good school and a good student.

A few highlights:

Our first voice is Jamal, the owner of the Headquarters Barbershop on Broad Street. His major concerns are that all schools do not offer equal resources, and that schools can expose students to violence.

Viola from Gentilly thinks there are too many school districts and charters, and parents don't know where to apply for schools.

Seventeen year-old Shanise says she hasn't been well-educated since she attended Lusher when she was younger. "They taught me at higher levels," she said. "Like when I was in sixth grade, I was reading at an eight grade level." She misses it. "I haven't learned since I left that school, honestly."

Betsy's ten year-old daughter is at a Spanish-language immersion school. She likes the school, but says choosing one is nerve-wracking. "You don't have that many choices if you're on a limited budget," she says.

Heidi from Metairie raised two kids as a single mom. She found private schools stressful, for all the attention on getting students into prestigious colleges. "Not everyone fits in a traditional high school setting," she says. But alternative schools are hard to find.

Tamiera, age 17, says what makes a good student is the willingness to learn. She says a good school must be willing to "strive with the students, and push them to continue to grow," instead of letting them "slip by the wayside."

Those are your voices, as recorded by WWNO's community media project, the Listening Post.

We are launching our next community question starting today. We’re interested in getting your thoughts and opinions on the topic of health care.

If you’d like to participate, and share your voice, stop by our permanent Listening Post locations at the Norman Mayer library in Gentilly, or the Headquarters Barbershop on Broad Street. If you’d like to host a Listening Post at a community event, send us an email at listeningpostnola@gmail.com.

The Listening Post is a collaboration between WWNO and the international media development nonprofit Internews.

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