Illustration by Sarah Barton
In June, our daughter completed her sixth and final year attending John B. Cary Elementary School. As over-proud parents in this digital age, we have documented her every step with photos and social media posts. Those pictures show physical growth, class field trips and field days, and personal milestones. (Our favorite: the first time she came home, plopped on the chair, and dug right into a big book from the Harry Potter series fully of her own volition.) We cherish the pictures, but sometimes pictures don’t tell the whole story.
This article can’t possibly tell the “whole story” either. As parents, we feel grateful to Richmond Public Schools for encouraging and facilitating our daughter’s growth into a well-adjusted preteen and a truly voracious reader. The process started on the very first day of prekindergarten at RPS’ Maymont preschool center. Sahara’s teacher, the fabulous Marion Watts, provided each set of parents “self-care” packets (including tea bags!) in recognition of the emotions we would be feeling at having our kids start school. That act signaled right away that she understood the responsibility she had taken on as a teacher — and it established a bond with us as parents. We felt that bond deeply with Ms. Watts, and we have had it each subsequent year with teachers at Cary. We feel that each of Sahara’s teachers has been invested in her development, and has appreciated her as the unique child she is. That culture of caring was present in the school community day in and day out.
Sahara is better prepared for life and citizenship in the 21st century because of her experiences at John B. Cary.
That said, there also were significant challenges every year. There have been multiple threats to close the school. There was the reversal of a plan to make Cary a model K-8 school. There was a misguided 2013 rezoning that removed much of the Museum District from the school, leading to a reduction in diversity. (In 2018, Cary was 81 percent African-American compared to 70 percent in 2013.)
There were four principals over the past six years. There were years where “resource” teachers (for foreign languages and other enrichment activities) were missing for some or even most of the year. There was the year our daughter’s third-grade teacher was removed in October as a cost-saving measure (it was a year, we later learned, when RPS ran a substantial surplus), and the remarkable Monday when Adria showed up at school and no one knew who the new third-grade teacher would be.
There have been facility issues with a strange smell no one could explain for months, the “gymnatorium” being unusable for a long stretch due to a damaged floor and the air-conditioner periodically not working. Challenges like these can sink a school, and certainly there were painful side effects. But Cary has proven resilient and achieved full accreditation in 2017-18.
Here’s how we look at it: If a school like J.B. Cary — where there is a measure of racial and socioeconomic integration — can’t succeed, then RPS as a whole won’t succeed, and the city as a whole won’t succeed. At Cary, we credit primarily the staff, along with dedicated parents and volunteers. At other schools, there is an even greater need for the community to wrap their arms around kids and families. It’s a lot to ask, but it can be done, and it must be done if we are to become anything like “One Richmond” in the next generation.
We are grateful for the lessons Sahara has taken from all this. Yes, she was a kid from an educationally privileged and economically secure household attending a school with a majority of children classified as economically disadvantaged. Yet, she has had ample opportunities to develop not only her academic skills, but her gifts and talents in art, music and other areas.
More importantly, she has gained a diverse network of friends, she has seen America through the eyes of other groups, and she has learned to hate racism with all her little heart. She has learned that life is unfair, but also that there are things you can and should do about that.
This makes us happy beyond words, because when Sahara was conceived, our only prayer to God was that the child would have a good heart. She does, and Cary did so much to shape and nurture that.
Our experience also gives us both hope for our public schools and renewed faith in democracy. Because what is democracy anyway, other than a group of people thrown together in a situation, trying to make it work as well as possible, in a spirit of mutual respect and equal concern?
The promise of public education in a diverse society is that it creates situations where children can develop the skills and habits needed to make democracy work.
That’s why we are grateful to everyone who has been part of keeping that promise at John B. Cary over the last six years.
It’s also why we hope the Richmond School Board and city leadership as a whole will embrace racial and economic diversity within school environments as a primary value and a key strategic goal. The reality is, even at the elementary level, there are almost no Richmond schools that truly reflect the demographics of our city.
Sahara is better prepared for life and citizenship in the 21st century because of her experiences at John B. Cary, including being a racial minority. We need to provide and support diverse learning environments for all our children in Richmond. Our future as a city and as a democracy depends on it.
Adria Scharf is executive director of the Richmond Peace Education Center. Thad Williamson is associate professor of leadership studies at the University of Richmond, and formerly a senior policy adviser in Mayor Levar M. Stoney’s office, where he played a leading role in developing the RVA Education Compact. Sahara is a rising sixth-grader at Albert Hill Middle School.
