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Series: Say Brother
Program: There Is Always Another Way: A Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Waste
Episode: 1009
Date: 1979-11-23
Duration: 00:01:00
Subject: African American children; African American students
People: Hart, Dr. Philip
Clip Description
Excerpt from the program exploring three schools identified by the community as viable alternative choices to Boston's public schools: Roxbury Community School, St. Joseph's Community School (supported by the Archdiocese of Boston), and Paige Academy (a private school operating via tuition). Dr. Philip Hart, professor at the University of Massachusetts and former director of the Federation for Boston Community Schools, the parent organization for Roxbury Community School, talks about the dissatisfaction with public schools on the part of Black parents in the 1960s. Parents were pulling their children out of school and educating them at newly formed freedom schools and tutoring centers. In 1966 the New School for Children and Roxbury Community College were incorporated as private non-profit educational institutions set up as an alternative to Boston public schools.
Program Description
Program explores three schools identified by the community as viable alternative choices to Boston's public schools: Roxbury Community School, St. Joseph's Community School (supported by the Archdiocese of Boston), and Paige Academy (a private school operating via tuition). Program features on-location, documentary-style interviews with Dr. Philip Hart (professor at the University of Massachusetts and former director of the Federation for Boston Community Schools, the parent organization for Roxbury Community School), Cecilia Ware (a veteran teacher at Roxbury Community School), Joyce Snowden (Educational Coordinator for Roxbury Community School), Michele Marrow (K-1 tyeacher at Roxbury Community School), Joyce King (Acting Principal for St. Joseph's Community School), Idella Hill (fourth grade teacher, St. Joseph's Community School), Angela Paige Cook (Director of Paige Academy), Kim Archung, Fauzia Ahmed, and Lauen Lee (teachers with Paige Academy), and Joe Cook, Jr. (Administrative Producer, Paige Academy), on why alternative schools are needed, how parent involvement factors into alternative schooling, how alternative schools operate, and what classroom enrichment they provide. Includes footage from a 1975 interview with Sister Sylvia Thibodeau, St. Joseph's first principal, in which she talks about the philosophy of the school. Produced by Barbara Barrow-Murray. Directed by Brian Clarke.
Series Description
Say Brother is WGBH's longest running public affairs television program by, for and about African Americans, and is now known as Basic Black. Since its inception in 1968, Say Brother has featured the voices of both locally and nationally known African American artists, athletes, performers, politicians, professionals, and writers including: Muhammad Ali, Maya Angelou, Thomas Atkins, Amiri Baraka, Doris Bunte, Julian Bond, Stokely Carmichael, Louis Farrakhan, Nikki Giovanni, Odetta Gordon, Henry Hampton, Benjamin Hooks, Jesse Jackson, Hubie Jones, Mel King, Eartha Kitt, Elma Lewis, Haki Madhubuti, Wallace D. Muhammad, Charles Ogletree, Byron Rushing, Owusu Sadaukai, and Sonia Sanchez.



