Be the Dream: Prep for Prep Graduates Share Their Stories

by Gary Simons (Compiler), Marian Wright Edelman (Foreword by)

Overview

Twenty-five years ago, an elementary school teacher in the Bronx had a vision: No bright, determined, spirited child should be left behind because of the circumstances of race or poverty. Out of that vision, Prep for Prep was born, to identify gifted children and provide them access to a first-rate education. Thousands of these students have graduated from America's most demanding universities and gone on to become leaders in their communities. Thirty-five of them have written about the experience - an experience that changed their lives. Their stories offer indisputable proof that education empowers people to do great things

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781565124172
Publisher:	Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill
Publication date:	07/15/2003
Pages:	400
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.06(d)
Age Range:	14 - 18 Years

About the Author

Gary Simons founded Prep for Prep in 1978 and served as executive director until June 30, 2002. During those years, he turned a 25-student program into one with over 2,600 students and alumni. Mr. Simons, now vice chairman of Prep for Prep, is currently focusing on ways that the organization can serve a larger number of deserving young people, while developing an updated curriculum that can be offered to students beyond Prep's own ranks. Mr. Simons earned a B.A., cum laude, in history from Harpur College (now SUNY Binghamton) and a masters degree in psychology from Teacher's College, Columbia University. While at Teacher's College, he was appointed a fellow in the Graduate Leadership Education Project in Gifted Education; it was as a Fellow, and under the guise of fieldwork (and the auspices of Teachers College), that he launched Prep for Prep. While at Teachers College, Mr. Simons continued to teach full-time at P.S. 140 in the South Bronx. During a 12-year period, he taught each of the elementary grades.

Table of Contents

	Foreword	viii
	An Autobiographical Vignette: "To Infinity and Beyond"	xi
	Introduction	xiii
	Prologue	1
I.	Beginnings	9
	An Open Letter to Future Generations of Stickball Players at 112 Nagle Avenue from a Trinity School Eighth-Grader	13
	The Scent of Sawdust	18
	Going Home	28
	M'Ethangatha's Gift	31
II.	The Culture of Prep	37
	"Esos Muchachos!"	41
	Prep for Prep and the Construction of Meaningful Democracy	53
	The Test	59
III.	Lessons Learned Well and Early	75
	"I'm a Bidness Man!"	79
	Doing the Right Thing	83
	"I Am the Master of My Fate; I Am the Captain of My Soul"	91
	Anomalies	95
	Fifty Bucks in Your Pocket	103
IV.	A Place to Belong	115
	Who's That Smiling Through My Face?	119
	Questions and Answers	123
	Golden Boy	140
V.	The Me Inside of Me	147
	Heroes and Saviors Need Not Apply	151
	Discoveries	158
	Staking My Claim	171
VI.	Navigating the Identity Rapids	181
	Chasing the Dream	185
	The Luckiest Guy on the Lower East Side	191
	Reflections on the Life of a Young Ambassador	198
	The Party	203
	The Inner Work of Carving a Self	209
VII.	Prep for Life	215
	"Get on the Bus with a Dog on Its Side"	219
	Telling the Truth	236
	A Moral Compass	239
VIII.	Journeys	251
	Making Pilgrimage to Myself	255
	A Long Way from St. Ann's Bay	271
	The Journey of a Thousand Miles	280
	A Life Worth Living	285
IX.	Making a Difference	295
	Julio and I	299
	Why Is It Okay to Kill Cockroaches but Not Minks?	309
	Three Moments in the Life	316
	Interventions with Power	327
	Epilogue	339
	In the Words of Young Children	353
	Speech Delivered at Commencement	354
	Speech Delivered at Commencement	358
	Submission to the Be the Dream Essay Contest: "Breaking Down a Wall"	361
	History, Mission & Philosophy of Prep for Prep	363
	Acknowledgments	373
	Prep for Prep Participating Schools	375

What People are Saying About This

Jonathan Kozol

Intensely moving.. the beautiful stories in this work remind us of the many millions who are left behind.
—author, Savage Inequalities

Robert Coles

Books come and go in our lives, but this collective testimony will earn a lasting place in our hearts.
—James Agee Professor of Social Ethics, Harvard