Peter Santello: Breaking hood mindset, Jackson, MISS

 

[VIDEO] Tommie Mabry meets with Peter Santenello as he sees the real story around Jackson, Mississippi - the state capital. Mabry went to Tougaloo College and graduated with his undergrad and graduate degrees.

The lesson here is what does it take to turn around a depressed area? Are the people in depressed areas, depressed? How do we change the depression?

Another thing to look at is if we aren't exposed to new possibilities, how can we realize them? Say if you lived in an area that seems run-down, are you still able to see yourself living in a suburban area that is well maintained.

Oh and for those of you who are college minded. When Peter and Tommie tour Tougaloo College they meet with the school's provost and they talk about college financing. If you join an honor's society Phi Theta Kappa (ΦΘΚ) you can earn a scholarship. Do your first two years at a community college - or here in Chicago the City Colleges - join ΦΘΚ and possibly get a scholarship for your last two years at a university.

That should be motivation for those of you trying to figure out how to pay for college and getting your associate's degree shouldn't be that expensive. ;)

Think about it! 

So what's the point of this place

Well for the most part I have fond memories of this place. The recesses and the friends I made and probably the education received.

I saw one day that the school wasn't listed on the CPS site although I checked later and I couldn't find any listings for any schools at all. In any case I wrote a post at the Sixth Ward blog earlier in February to make a mention since the blog is read by those in the know. Perhaps there was an oversight or perhaps there wasn't a need to list this school if it has a connection with a larger school.

Indeed if I went to say the Tribune website to look at schools for a particular neighborhood, I still couldn't find Shedd and I just know that in the past if I was looking in the papers I would see test scores for Shedd and Bennett as well.

Anyway, I can't keep talking about Shedd School for long so what I'd like to be able to do is talk about other educational issues as I come to them. Wouldn't mind talking about funding or at least how best to insure that our children will be educated. Especially if our students don't come from families who could afford to send their children to private school.

Let's see how things go.