“It would be something fine if we could learn how to bless the lives of children,” wrote June Jordan in the afterword to the 1970 publication The Voice of The Children. “They are the people of new life… They are the only ones always willing to make a start; they have no choice. But in general, our children have no voice –- that we will listen to,” she continues. “We force, we blank them into the bugle/bell regulated lineup of the Army/school, and we insist on silence.”
One of America’s most prolific and influential poets of the latter 20th century, June Jordan’s writing produced 28 published books of poetry, essays, children’s fiction and memoir, as well as the librettos for two operas. Born in Harlem in 1936, and raised in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, this poet, activist and teacher was a passionate and influential voice for liberation. She lived on the frontlines of American poetry, political vision and moral witness. Throughout her life, Jordan committed herself to providing young people with the space, encouragement, respect and craft to find their own voices and to speak their own truths through poetry. “The Voice of the Children,” co-founded in 1968 with Terry Bush, and “June Jordan’s Poetry for the People” program at UC Berkeley, flourishing since 1991, form the bookends to a lifetime of encouraging young people to write poetry that carried their voices into the world.
Thirty years after the “Voice of the Children” program, four young teachers in a large San Francisco public high school realized that many of their students were being silenced. An alarming number of them would not make it to graduation. These students had the curiosity, desire and capability to learn, but the “education” offered them was, in fact, contributing to high drop-out rates and low scores on reading tests relative to students in more affluent public high schools. It was clear that students who lived in the lower income neighborhoods of San Francisco –- in particular African-American, Latino and English language learner students –- were bearing the brunt of this inequity.
In 2000, these young teachers (Kate Goka, Matt Alexander, Emmanuel Medina and Shane Safir –- herself an alumna of “Poetry for the People”) started Small Schools for Equity (SSE) to advocate new educational models for San Francisco youth. Teachers, parents, students and community organizations worked together for two years to study successful small urban schools across the country. These model schools have created high academic results for urban youth, yet there were no schools like them in San Francisco.
In 2003, SSE won a competitive proposal process in the San Francisco Unified School District. As a result, in August 2003, SSE opened a new model small high school with 100 9th-grade students. The school’s mission is “to prepare a diverse group of San Francisco youth to achieve the highest academic standards so that they give voice to their dreams and grow into healthy, productive adults.” It nurtures this mission by helping the students to discover and explore their passions, to grow into independent, reflective thinkers, and to build connected, socially just communities.
A first-year goal of this new learning community was to have the first class of students choose a name that would signify what their school was about. Students and teachers researched the lives of people who had dedicated themselves to creating social and economic equity, inspiring hope, empowering and listening to young people. They had a town hall meeting, wrote papers and personal statements. And then they voted....
