Cover To Cover…‘A Light Shines in Harlem’

Much like a public school, charter schools are “tax-funded, tuition-free, and open to all public school children…” The difference is in who operates the school, and that parents decide on enrollment. It was education reform in its truest sense, and it was a relatively new concept then.
When he met Steven Klinsky in 1999, Walker hoped the solution was at hand. For years, Klinsky had been thinking about his brother.
When Klinsky was a kindergartener, his brother Gary tutored him every day after school. Thanks to Gary, who died young, Klinsky was a success, and he’d been thinking about a way to honor Gary’s legacy. In the beginning, Klinsky created an academic after-school program that offered kids a fun way to learn— much like the fun he’d had with Gary—but when he learned about charter schools, he became truly excited. Harlem seemed to be the likeliest place for a charter school, if the right building could be found.
And then someone introduced Klinsky, who had the finances, to Walker, whose church owned a magnificent and nearly-empty structure…
There’s been a lot on the news lately about the “crisis” in education, both from the teacher point-of-view and from parents. People worry about their children’s success and “A Light Shines in Harlem” sheds some good news on this issue.
Be aware of one thing: this book contains a lot of names, and that quickly becomes overwhelming. Look beyond it, if you struggle, and persevere. In the end, you’ll find that “A Light Shines in Harlem” has plenty of class.
(“A Light Shines in Harlem: New York’s First Charter School and the Movement it Led” by Mary C. Bounds, foreword by Dr. Wyatt Tee Walker, c.2014, Lawrence Hill Books, $24.95/$29.95 Canada, 220 pages.)