Both my children have favorable memories of CAT. They felt safe; physical confrontations &…read morerivalries at other public schools seem non-existent at CAT. Talented teachers have a passion for their work. The administration staff is professional & approachable.
Day One for Freshmen is closed to other returning students, a considerate way to help these kids transition to high school.
In 2008, when my older son first attended, the school had an 'alternative' vibe, emphasizing project collaboration & individual presentation skills.
Now in college, my son, compared to students from other schools, has a more developed ability to present ideas to a group of people. He attributes it to CAT nurturing and exercising those skills.
Internships give junior & senior classes work experience in retail, government & non-profits. Students are responsible for locating & accessing these opportunities. My children took pride in their accomplishments as interns. Being treated as peers in an adult world contributed to their growth as young adults.
My younger son feels that the school's cutting edge diminished over time, as CAT became more like a traditional high school.
For eight years, I was happy with the school. Our last day, my younger son's graduation day, was a disappointment because of one teacher who had been fired. The reason behind his dismissal was the bizarre behavior exhibited in his classroom. According to one student who provided evidence:
-In class he advocated separation of races, teaching that interracial marriage was wrong.
-He taught that gays hire African American males in order to emasculate them.
-In a Facebook post, he endorsed violence against women, claiming that Ray Rice "did nothing wrong" in beating his girlfriend, an incident captured on video.
-He used class time to present positive views of violence against children as a teaching method, recounting, in class, an incident in which he physically struck his own son because his son sang a song that the teacher considered "too white".
The school, to their credit, got rid of him immediately after discovering the situation. Members of CAT's 2016 graduating class, however, when challenged by this seduction of racism, misogyny, & homophobia, failed that challenge.
Students embraced the intolerance. Two students gave speeches at the graduation ceremony. Both those students paid tribute to this teacher, accompanied by the approving applause of their classmates.
The school did go to great lengths, in curriculum, to expose the historical damage done by racism, misogyny & homophobia. I don't fault the school for students' failure to absorb the importance & complexity of the lessons. Does fault lie at the feet of their parents? With the students themselves?
I'm torn. The students are good kids. Why would they honor a man who spewed hatred & bragged about cruelly beating his own son because that child did not share the teacher's hatred of other races? His obsessive vilification recalls the Iranian religious clerics' crackdown on Pharrell's song 'Happy' in 2014. I wonder how many of these students will go on to emulate their chosen role model, and beat their own children while feeling justified in doing so, despite the documented psychological damage those beatings cause in children.
Years ago, a news report on Egypt included 6-year olds at an anti-Mubarek demonstration. The children shouted and waved signs, wholeheartedly chanting "Mubarak must go". But realistically, the children were too young to understand the meaning behind their actions. Obviously, adults had fed opinions to the children, who exhibited heartfelt enthusiasm geared more toward pleasing the adults who prepped them, rather than any intellectual objection those 6-year olds had with Mubarak's policies. Does it take more than 18 years for children to begin to think critically, rather than parroting the opinions of manipulative adults?
Recently, observing an interracial couple on the street, I couldn't help but notice the loving manner in which they regarded each other. I thought about the arrogance of CAT's teacher, a man who had burned through two failed marriages, yet considered himself fit to judge the marriages of interracial couples as wrong, and taught this nonsense in class. I thought about students in his class who happened to be children of interracial marriages, and the message the teacher thoughtlessly delivered to them, that their lives were the result of disparaged unions. Yet members of CAT's class of 2016 held the teacher in great regard, spoke highly of him at graduation and referred to him as a role model. They gave little, if any, thought to fellow students who were children of interracial parents.
I'm reminded of what Philip Zimbardo said in 1971: "We all want to believe in our inner power, our sense of personal agency to resist powerful situational forces. For many, that belief is little more than a reassuring illusion of invulnerability."
