‘If we will not cause children to suffer while we solve our problems, we will make education work,’ he wrote 50 years ago.
Friday will mark the 100th birthday of the late Marcus Foster, Oakland’s superintendent of schools from 1970-73. Few residents today have heard of him unless they have read about his senseless assassination by members of the radical Symbionese Liberation Army after a board meeting in 1973. I never met him, but I still feel his impact on me as an educator, parent and student.
First, while much of public education had focused on sorting kids into academic tracks with stereotyping labels that followed them throughout their time in school, Foster focused on educating all children with rigorous curriculum and child-centered classrooms, making sure that we educators believed in every child’s potential and ability. He started “magnet” schools that still exist today and offered mini-grants to inspire classroom innovation.
Foster challenged educators to look beyond the assumptions and expectations of their own experience, which was often very different from those of the children in their care or their families.
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