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Summary
Summary
When a 13 year old told photographer Brandon Stanton that his principal, Ms. Lopez, was the person who most influenced his life, it started a lucky landslide for Nadia Lopez and her small, public school in one of Brooklyn's most wretched communities. The posting on Stanton's wildly popular site Humans of New York went viral. Lopez found herself in the national spotlight and headed for a meeting with Obama, as well as the beneficiary of a million-dollar IndieGoGo campaign for the school. Here is her first-person account of what it took to get to that moment.
Author Notes
Nadia Lopez is the founding principal of Mott Hall Bridges Academy, a model for quality education that includes a safe, nurturing, and innovative learning environment. Since being featured on Humans of New York in February of 2015, she has been profiled in countless national media outlets, has been invited to speak at Harvard, and was invited to the White House, and delivered a TED Talk on the "Revolution of Education." She is the recipient of the 2015 Black Girls Rock Change Agent Award and the 2015 Barnard College Medal of Distinction Awardee.
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Lopez details her struggles and triumphs as the principal of Mott Hall Bridges Academy, the middle school she founded in the poverty-ridden Brownsville section of Brooklyn. In her role of principal, Lopez faces challenging students, exhausted parents, overwhelmed teachers, and low test scores, and the stress of her job takes a toll on her physical and mental health. But when one of her students is interviewed on the popular blog Humans of New York and describes Lopez as the person who has most influenced him, Lopez is flooded with opportunities: she arranges for her students to take trips to Harvard, meets President Obama, and raises over a million dollars for her school. Despite these accomplishments, Lopez makes it clear that the lives of low-income students are still marked by violence. She uses the tragic story of a former student, Newshawn Plummer, who was shot and killed in 2015, as a reminder of these ongoing challenges. Lopez offers many strategies for improving education (mentorship programs, greater parental involvement, strong guidance counseling, and field trips that provide exposure to different cultures and ideas), each of which merits its own book. Lopez's clear-eyed approach to education is the book's most valuable lesson: educators should listen to the students, parents, and teachers who live and work in these communities; they understand their needs best. (Aug.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* When Lopez opened the Mott Hall Bridges Academy in Brooklyn, her plan was to create a school in which expectations were high, and scholars, as she calls her students, succeed. Curriculum follows the STEM model (science, technology, engineering, mathematics), but Lopez takes the time to listen to students and their parents and to add electives based on their interests. She also demands excellence from her staff, asking them to plan lessons filled with attainable steps and help the children to respect themselves and others. Nothing is easy. Most of the students live in poverty in high-crime areas with little family support. The teachers struggle to control their classrooms; the parents are uninvolved, preoccupied with fighting their own demons. But gradually, Mott Hall became a place where scholars excel, parents reinforce life lessons, and teachers are supported. The principal, who also demands excellence from herself, is brutally honest about the school's failures and successes. Not afraid to confront unruly students or struggling teachers, Lopez, with coauthor Paley, presents clear lessons on leadership and respect. Her methods, ideal for schools, would also be useful at home and in the corporate world. Watch for award-winning Lopez in the media, discussing this profoundly inspiring chronicle of life-changing educational reform.--Smith, Candace Copyright 2016 Booklist
New York Review of Books Review
A BOOK OF AMERICAN MARTYRS, by Joyce Carol Oates. (Ecco/HarperCollins, $19.99.) Early in Oates's novel, Luther Dunphy, an evangelical, invokes the Lord just before shooting dead an abortion provider, Augustus Voorhees. The story chronicles the fallout of the killing for the Dunphy and Voorhees families, and even if it's soon clear whom Oates considers the martyrs to be, she examines the moral complexities of abortion from several sides. HIS FINAL BATTLE: The Last Months of Franklin Roosevelt, by Joseph Lelyveld. (Vintage, $18.) Seeking an unprecedented fourth term as president, Roosevelt was far sicker than he let on, and perhaps knew he would not live long. Lelyveld, the former executive editor of The New York Times, reviews Roosevelt's last 16 months in office, including the Manhattan Project and the culmination of World War II. DIFFICULT WOMEN, by Roxane Gay. (Grove, $16.) For many of the characters across this collection, Gay's first book of short stories, love, sex, intimacy and violence are intertwined; in the opening tale, two sisters have forged an unbreakable bond in the hands of a predator. Our reviewer, Gemma Sieff, praised "the cryptic, claustrophobic relationships described in these pages and the strange detours that riddle Gay's imaginary landscapes." LOVE FOR SALE: Pop Music in America, by David Hajdú. (Picador, $17.) From vaudeville singers and the jazz clubs of 1920s Harlem to present-day streaming services, Hajdú, a music critic for The Nation, traces the evolution of popular music over roughly the past hundred years. Weaving together his personal and critical reflections, Hajdú tries to answer a vexing set of questions: When we talk about pop music, what precisely do we mean? And does it still matter to American culture? VICTORIA, by Daisy Goodwin. (St. Martin's Griffin, $16.99) Soon after her 18th birthday, Victoria ascended to the throne. Goodwin, who adapted Victoria's biography for a PBS Masterpiece drama, focuses on the young queen's life before her marriage to Albert, as she reckons with her independence and power. As our reviewer, Priya Parmar, said, this depiction of Victoria sought out "the woman she actually was." THE BRIDGE TO BRILLIANCE: How One Woman and One Community Are Inspiring the World, by Nadia Lopez with Rebecca Paley. (Penguin, $17.) Lopez runs the Mott Hall Bridges Academy in Brooklyn's Brownsville neighborhood, and rose to prominence when the Humans of New York photographer Brandon Stanton visited her. She looks at the challenges educators face in reaching the nation's poorest children.
Library Journal Review
Whatever Lopez, the principal of Mott Hall Bridges Academy in Brownsville, -Brooklyn, sets her mind to, she accomplishes. When given the chance to create her own school, the author was determined it would be a place where children could succeed in their studies and in life, despite its location in one of the borough's poorest and most dangerous neighborhoods. Lopez inspires her pupils (or scholars, as she calls them) to achieve their full potential. Her instructors are held accountable for their scholars' learning. Some may feel her methods are unconventional, but they work. Talking in the hallway is allowed; who knows what great ideas it will generate? Asking questions, even those teachers at other schools might dismiss or consider silly or rude, is encouraged; how can you learn when you don't understand the material? Getting out of the building occasionally is advised; children risk leaving their comfort zones but expand their horizons. VERDICT Filled with narratives about overcoming adversity and of seeing the good where others see only trouble, and success where others see failure, this feel-good story will resonate with just about any reader. And it may be an inspiration for other educators to emulate Lopez's methods.-Terry Christner, Hutchinson P.L., KS © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Excerpts
Excerpts
Sitting at my desk, I contemplated all the paperwork that had piled up since my school, Mott Hall Bridges Academy, was thrust into the spotlight a few months before. A small public middle school in one of the poorest and most underserved neighborhoods of Brooklyn was an unlikely candidate for an international press sensation. But ever since one of my boys brought attention to Mott Hall through a comment he made on the popular blog Humans of New York, ordinary people around the world had been captivated by what I was trying to do-- which was simply to take care of kids everyone else seemed to want to forget. I had barely started on the stack of performance reviews awaiting my attention when Malik walked in and sat down in one of the chairs across from my desk. The kids in this building know my door is open to them anytime. "I need to have a talk," the sixth grader said in such a soft voice I could hardly hear him. "Talk about what?" I asked. "About me." "What about you?" "My work." "What about it?" "It's hard." "Okay, which classes are hard for you?" "Every class. Except PE. It's too hard. I'm failing. I always fail." His problems had begun back in his elementary school when his fourth- grade teachers, who couldn't tolerate his angry demeanor, let him fall behind. Malik, with chubby cheeks from baby fat he'd soon lose and sad eyes that he kept downcast, was typical of a kid from a failing elementary school; he was two years older than most of the children in his grade because he'd been held back a couple of times. The first thing people notice about him is that he looks like he's angry-- all the time. His expression makes it seem like he can't be bothered, like he doesn't want to hear what you have to say. That couldn't be further from the truth, but you would never know it unless you speak to him, which his expression keeps people from doing. I always tell my kids, "You need to understand there are teachers in this world who, if they don't like you, have that power to derail you. Even if you don't feel like they're invested, you can't stop doing your work. Because they will be fine with you failing and repeating the grade." I understood how Malik's demeanor could deflate a whole room and how frustrating that might be for a teacher just trying to get through a curriculum that was necessary to prepare a class to take state exams. But it wasn't that he didn't care; he acted like he didn't care. Some teachers in his elementary school, however, took his negative behavior personally. Instead of supporting him and working with him until he understood the material, they just held him over. That started a trajectory from which it would be very hard for Malik to deviate. Making kids repeat grades unfortunately is rarely about remediation and more about punishment. So when Malik came to us, not only did he still lack the academic skills he should have had by sixth grade but, as a thirteen- year-old in class with mostly eleven- year- olds, he was also disconnected from his peers. He would become agitated by how loud the other children in his class, who were at a different maturity and energy level, would get. Don't mistake me, Malik was not innocent. Soon after he arrived at Mott Hall, he had to call his mother from my office because he was talking back to his teacher and arguing with his peers. He got on the phone and said, "Yeah. So I'm told I need to call you because, like, I was rude. Yeah. Uh- huh. Uh- huh. Yeah, a'ight." Then he hung up. "Who were you talking to?" I asked. "My mother." "No, no. I know I told you to call your mother. But I'm going to tell you, don't ever talk to your mother like that. You can't 'a'ight' her or dismiss her." "She ain't have a problem with it." "But I do, and I am a mother. So maybe she doesn't want to have that type of conversation with you, but I will. Don't you ever in your life, as long as I'm in your space, talk to your mother like that." "A'ight. A'ight." "Malik! What did I just say?" Malik wasn't a bad kid or even a troublemaker; he was just always in trouble. It was heavy as he sat across from my desk and admitted he "always" failed, not least of all because this wasn't the first hard conversation he and I had had that week. Two days earlier, I had let him know he wasn't going on the big Harvard trip with the rest of the school. In a much- publicized event, people from all over the world had funded the trip once they learned that there was a principal who wanted her underserved students to experience what it was like at one of America's elite institutions of higher learning. Everyone at Mott Hall was excited beyond words to go, but Malik and a handful of other stu- dents wouldn't be invited to participate. He wasn't going because of his defiance toward adults, although he tried to argue, "I can act right on a trip." "First," I told him, "you have to remember that acting right starts in school. If you don't behave yourself here and respect the adults who love you, then you don't get the privilege of choosing when it will be convenient for you to do so. I don't prepare you for trips. I prepare you for life," I said. "You need to identify how we can help you become the best scholar. Because if you think the only way of surviving life is going on a Harvard trip, then your priorities are not in the right place." Now that he had come into my office to explain the source of his attitude and anger, I knew it was genuine. He wasn't trying to ingratiate himself, because Malik and all the kids at Mott Hall knew me better than that. My expectations are high and I never waver from them. He wasn't going on the trip, which hadn't been an easy decision for me. I didn't enter education to punish children. In the last few days, though, something in Malik had clicked, a nebulous connection between attitude, trust, and opportunity. He was in my office to finally talk about what was keeping him from succeeding in school. This was a moment of great achievement, at least in my school. By all accounts-- economic, social, academic-- the State of education in America for children of color living in disadvantaged communities is extremely poor, while the con- sequences for them if they don't make it in school are severe. Many issues contribute to the devastating difference between education for white children and education for those of color, including poverty, inequitable distribution of resources, and lower parental involvement and education levels. But the punitive way the system deals with children of color can't be underestimated. The so- called school- to-prison pipeline starts early. According to the latest numbers available from the U.S. Department of Education's Civil Rights Data Collection, black students, who represented 18 percent of preschoolers between 2011 and 2012, made up 48 percent of preschool students who received more than one suspension. Compare that to white students, comprising 43 percent of all preschool students, who made up only 23 percent of the suspensions-- in other words, children of color are suspended at twice the rate of white children in preschool. That's just the start. Nationwide, black students-- whose teachers on the whole have less experience and are paid less than those in majority- white schools-- are suspended or expelled at three times the rate of white ones. Integration has proven in study after study to offer the best outcomes in terms of bringing up test scores for children of color. But after the initial commitment to desegregation through court orders and thirty- five years of enforcement of the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, around 1989, schools began reverting to levels of seg- regation not seen since the sixties. There are a number of reasons that this is so, including the fact that many federal agencies no longer take an active role in enforcement of integration. The proportion of black students in schools with a majority of white students, 23.2 percent, was lower in 2011 that it was in 1968. Today's answer to the problems of students who aren't learning has been to create higher standards under the rubric Common Core, a blanket measure against which all schools nationwide-- impoverished or wealthy-- are judged. The other solution is to offer school choice, by way of charter schools, where public money goes to schools that don't have to follow public school guidelines. There are all kinds of charters, but the innovation that most of them feature focuses on high test scores as the only measure of success. In that context, Mott Hall is a different kind of place. First of all, we're not a charter school (which I'll explain in more detail later). My goal for my students, who are primarily economically disadvantaged and of color, is twofold. First, in the short time that I have them, I want them to be what they are-- children--and second, I want to give them the skills to be confident as students when they leave. I want them to play, learn, build resiliency, take risks, become compassionate-- all without worry about failure. I'm hard on the adults in this building, because there are no second chances with our children. Once they leave us, few people will ever pour into them the love and belief in their abilities that we do. Those are high stakes. Disheartening circumstances in no way reduce my expectations for excellence from my students. We have many inspirational sayings at our school, but one of my favorites is the name we've given to our kids: Brownsville Brilliance. This title turns the perceptions about them and their community on their heads. When I ask the scholars what the word brilliance makes them think of, they answer "intelligence," "radiance," and "diamonds." Yes, and what are diamonds but precious gems created when a large amount of pressure and force is exerted, just as it is on my scholars in life. In this way, we speak into existence how we find the positive in a place that has been discarded. I, and the rest of the staff at Mott Hall Bridges Academy, who have committed to working with the most challenging communities, understand that, just as it takes a long time for carbon to become a diamond, change for our students is not an event, it is a process. So when Malik, a boy who has to be defiant to survive on the streets of Brownsville, was able to make himself vulnerable enough to admit to me he was having trouble, yes, that was a big achievement. I came around my desk and sat down next to Malik. "One, I want to thank you for coming into my office and admitting you're struggling. That is half the battle," I said. "What are you doing next week for spring break?" "Nothing." "You can come to school. I'll be here anyway, and I will sit with you and go through your work. Bring your books, so I can see exactly where you are struggling. You become angry and give attitude because you don't understand. Yes or no?" "Yes." "Then you need to promise me something. Use your words and let the adults know how we can help you. Got it?" "Yes." "Okay, then we're going to get through this together." Excerpted from The Bridge to Brilliance: How One Principal in a Tough Community Is Inspiring the World by Nadia Lopez, Rebecca Paley All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
Table of Contents
Preface | p. xi |
1 The Vision | p. 1 |
2 The Teachers | p. 19 |
3 The Scholars | p. 57 |
4 The Parents | p. 93 |
5 Connected to Succeed | p. 121 |
6 Expanding Horizons | p. 153 |
7 The Struggle of Leadership | p. 187 |
8 Praise for Humans | p. 207 |
9 Never Give Up | p. 237 |
Acknowledgments | p. 265 |