[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 83 (Thursday, June 14, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1122]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 TRIBUTE TO FREDERICK DOUGLASS ACADEMY

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                         HON. CHARLES B. RANGEL

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, June 14, 2001

  Mr. RANGEL. Mr. Speaker, I rise before you today to share with you 
and my colleagues here in the House, an article which appeared in the 
June 11, 2001 edition of The Washington Times about Frederick Douglass 
Academy which is located in my 15th Congressional District in central 
Harlem.
  As a graduate of Frederick Douglass Academy, I am most proud of the 
hard work and commitment of their principal, Gregory Hodge and the 
teachers who go beyond the call of duty to see that each child leaves 
there with a good education.
  Just recently, I sponsored two Congressional Pages who are students 
at Frederick Douglass, Charzetta Nixon and Leon Harris, and I am proud 
to say that they truly represented the best of the Academy and my 
Congressional District.
  I commend this article to my colleagues knowing that with students 
like those at Frederick Douglass Academy, this nation's future is in 
good hands.

               [From the Washington Times, June 11, 2001]

                       Low Budget, High Achievers


         Staff's commitment drives a school's success in Harlem

                           (By Nate Hentoff)

       Most polls indicate that education leads all other concerns 
     among Americans. Parents, whatever they themselves have 
     achieved, or not achieved, want their children to succeed in 
     school and therefore in life. Many parents become desperately 
     disappointed. Yet, in 40 years of writing about schools, I've 
     seen that depression lift as a principal reinvents the wheel 
     and shows how all children can learn.
       A current reinventor of the wheel of learning is Gregory 
     Hodge, the principal of the Frederick Douglass Academy in 
     central Harlem, a predominantly black and Hispanic area of 
     New York City.
       I was not surprised when I read a story about his school 
     earlier this year in the New York Times because I once wrote 
     a book--``Does Anybody Give a Damn: Nat Hentoff on 
     Education''--about schools in ``disadvantaged'' neighborhoods 
     that also expected all of their students to learn. And they 
     did learn.
       Of the 1,100 students at the Frederick Douglass Academy, a 
     public school, 80 percent are black and 19 percent are 
     Hispanic. Some come from homes far below the poverty line. In 
     a few of those homes, one or both parents are drug addicts. 
     Seventy-two percent of the students are eligible for free 
     lunch.
       The dropout rate is 0.3 percent. If a student doesn't show 
     up at a tutoring session, his teacher calls his mother, 
     father or other caregiver. Every student is expected to go to 
     college. As the New York Times reported, ``In June of last 
     year, 114 students graduated and 113 attended colleges, some 
     going to Ivy League or comparable schools.'' The 114th 
     student was accepted by the Naval Academy.
       During the Great Depression, I went to a similar public 
     school. All of us were expected to go to college. Most of us 
     were poor. At the Boston Latin School, as at the Frederick 
     Douglass Academy, there was firm, but not abusive, 
     discipline. And we had three hours of homework a night. There 
     were no excuses for not turning in the work. At the Frederick 
     Douglass Academy, the students have four hours of homework a 
     night.
       The students there take Japanese and Latin in middle school 
     and can switch to French or Spanish in high school. At Boston 
     Latin, we had to take Latin and Greek as well as American 
     history. The kids at Frederick Douglass can take advanced 
     placement courses not only in American history, but also in 
     calculus and physics. I flunked beginning physics.
       Moreover, the students at Frederick Douglass mentor 
     elementary-school children at the public school next door. 
     ``The idea,'' Mr. Hodge told the New York Times, ``is to show 
     students that they have responsibilities to the Harlem 
     community. And they are expected to be leaders and help 
     Harlem grow.''
       Near Boston Latin Schools, there were elementary school 
     kids who, without mentoring, didn't have much of a chance to 
     believe that they could someday go to college. But our Boston 
     Latin principal didn't send us out to be part of a larger 
     responsibility.
       So how come Frederick Douglass Academy does what a public 
     school is supposed to do--lift all boats? The principal, who 
     reads every one of the 1,100 report cards, demands that his 
     teachers expect each child to learn. The school works, he 
     says, because it has committed teachers. ``They come in early 
     and stay late. The teachers go with them to colleges. Some 
     have gone in their own pockets for supplies . . . Teachers 
     here will do everything they can to make sure kids are 
     successful.''
       A senior who had been in a high school outside New York 
     City explained the success of the school--and his own success 
     there--succinctly: ``They want you to learn here.''
       I have been in schools at which principals are seldom seen 
     because they don't want to take responsibility for problems 
     that arise. And I know teachers who have enabled kids to 
     learn in their classrooms, but worry about sending the 
     students on to teachers who are convinced that children from 
     mean streets and homes without books can learn only so much.
       And I remember a president named Bill Clinton who spent a 
     lot of time focusing on affirmative action to get minority 
     kids into college. For the most part, he ignored the students 
     who never get close to going to college because of 
     principals, teachers and school boards who do not expect all 
     kids to learn, and so do not demand that they do.
       At a New York City school board meeting years ago, I heard 
     a black parent accuse the silent officials: ``When you fail, 
     when everybody fails my child, what happens? Nothing. Nobody 
     gets fired. Nothing happens to nobody, except my child.''
       He was torn between grief and rage. So are many American 
     parents these days. At the Frederick Douglass Academy, 
     parents see their children grow in every way. And it is a 
     public school.

     

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