A roomful of city planners, part 2

"I wanted to split the two worlds up. I wanted the black things to be [together], such as the haircut places and the low rent apartments." - AM, 10th grade

This statement comes from one of the written reflections submitted by Art I students at the end of the Urban Planner/Cityscape project, and it speaks to the kind of choices made by students in the process of arranging a city with civic, social and economic conflicts. In addition to the compositional choices illustrated by these reflections, I became aware that students were making assumptions about the required content of the drawings. These assumptions would underscore my student's situational context more than than the self-reflection and analysis in their own words could. Though I shouldn't be, I am surprised to find that I learned more about my students from their process than the end product, especially this role of situation as compositional tool.

The 10 criteria for the cityscape had the potential to raise several issues in student thinking, and my goal was to present the criteria without comment to allow the students to establish their own hierarchy of concerns. To recap, the 10 entities that students needed to include in their drawings are as follows:
1. Bank
2. Hospital
3. Apartments (low rent)
4. Condos (upscale)
5. Institution of Higher Learning
6. Sewage Treatment Plant
7. Mom & Pop Restaurant - African-American-owned
8. Chain Restaurant - White-owned
9. Barber Shop - African-American-owned
10. Clothing Store (inexpensive) - White-owned
In reflection of our city's real-life context, these entities could potentially highlight the conflicts that keep the city from progressing as quickly as our more cosmopolitan immediate neighbors. In particular, there are deep-seated racial issues that continue to exist: the city is roughly split down the middle between black and white with a burgeoning Hispanic population. There is a wide class division, emphasized by the elite private university and its largely affluent, out-of-town student body. This class division exists due to the economic disparity of the city, with little common ground between rich and poor. There are naturally social issues that arise from these other conflicts, including racial prejudice, gang activity and a rising crime rate, which inspires further bias in the residents of the neighboring cities. Other civic issues could be brought up, including urban redevelopment and gentrification. And would students make any mention of the flourishing arts community or high-tech, research-based industries?

In observing student group discussions, conferencing with them one on one, and reading written responses, I determined that students made important assumptions that would persuade the content of their cityscape drawings, and these assumptions were based on their own situation. Because of the lack of diversity in my school, the situation is common to most students: the school is predominantly African-American (greater than 90%), with a large portion of the school from middle- and lower-income households. To say the school is struggling academically would be overly polite - it is at the bottom of the district's test scores, and a state consortium has threatened to close the school if scores do not improve. At the same time, the school is a long-standing point of pride in its community, with a national alumni organization and strong sense of tradition. The performing arts department has been successful for years and continues to attract positive attention.

With the commonality of racial and economic backgrounds in the school, I expected race and class to play the biggest role in compositional choices. I also expected to be confronted about these issues as a white teacher. With the class disparity in this city divided along racial lines, I expected to be held as a symbol of affluence as well. This did not happen. My students are savvy enough to know that a person from affluence would not find a public school teacher's salary acceptable.

In the next post, I will identify the assumptions my students made, and will list the choices that resulted from these assumptions.

[To those of you - both of you! - who read this blog, I apologize for the infrequent posts lately. I've been swamped with the spring musical, and hope to get my act back together...]