Meaghan Winnans

EDU 211
Learner Exercise Assignment 5
1 March 2020

Article Summary- District 75: “The Toughest Job You’ll Ever Have”

The article “District 75: ‘The Toughest Job You’ll Ever Have’” is written by Laura
McKenna who was a teacher in District 75 in the South Bronx almost 30 years ago. McKenna
started her article talking about her class of 12 teenagers with acute disabilities, and on top of
their disabilities which included sever neurological, cognitive, and physical disabilities she
touched upon their challenges that they faced living in a high-poverty urban community.
McKenna talked about the lack of classroom books and supplies that she was only given to use
for her students which is absolutely awful because these students deserved more. A few years
after working in District 75, Laura McKenna decided to go back to grad school to study
education policy.
From this article I learned that District 75 is a chain of 61 schools that serve children with
special need in New York City. New York City has about 223,000 students with disabilities that
are able to attend their neighborhood school but 24,000 of them must be educated in schools with
similar disabilities like them. The students in District 75 have about 6,050 teachers and 8,700
paraprofessionals who have committed to helping these students strive for excellence.
Three decades later when McKenna returned, she visited Katie Papaccioli’s class in
P186X called Walter J. Damrosch School in District 75. The school now had significant
differences in which McKenna had taught in. The classes were now supplied with technology
and new books, and they created challenging academic goals for their students. Also, thanks to
Principal Ava Kaplan in P 186X, 90% of the students there are on free-and-reduced-price lunch
compared to when McKenna was teaching where they brought cereal from home to feed their
hungry students. Kaplan states that her workers need to be top-quality and be able to handle
students with such significant needs. Kaplan’s workers need to have “Teflon skin” when
teaching, meaning they need to be able to avoid criticism when a student says something because
it’s not always intentional. Lastly, she says her workers need to be able to catch early warning
signs of a meltdown or a problem before it gets out of hand because it is very crucial.
In the past District 75’s expectations for children with severe disabilities was very just
care based days but now the children are set to higher academic goals for their life. Kaplan
doesn’t focus on their disabilities; she focuses on them learning and growing because she
believes every single one of them is capable of more than what people think. All the teachers in
District 75 work on academic lessons with their children that are geared to what their needs are,
and their days are filled with activities to help better the kids’ lives in learning and functioning.
Due to these teachers learning they have children who have make huge progress and some have
even been able to return back to general education.
Schools like P186X are even more special due to the quality of people who help run the
building. Yes, their innovative curricula and high-end technology are great but without the
teachers and interactions with them they wouldn’t have near the success that they do. Just like
any place there is always errors and accidents but that is due to the lack of funding. Kaplans
school has only gotten where they are because she has privately raised money for her school but
that is not the case everywhere. District 75 gives students a chance to have a better future.
What I learned the most from this article is that, having disabilities shouldn’t be a label
set on someone. One who needs extra help is able to achieve just as much as the person next to
them, it is just how they achieve it that is different. I though this article was very interesting and
gave a look on an area that isn’t always talked about. Before McKenna’s article, I had no idea
District 75 was a thing but with her knowledge, I am even more interested in teaching special
education in the future then I was before. I think the world needs to be educated more on
children with special needs instead of it just being a train of thought. They deserve more
opportunities for life because they didn’t choose to have a disability, but it is something they
have to live with. The people around them are the ones who need to make a change, and start
opening our eyes instead of just focusing on ourselves.