US Airways - December 2013 - (Page 98)

Must Read The usual inquiries. It was a pied piper-like scene as we moved through the building. We took our notes, talked to the principal, and left. Then we drove fifteen minutes to Overbrook High School in West Philadelphia. It is a towering, imposing building. Inside, it's all fluorescent lights and metal detectors. The classrooms had bars on their doors and windows, and each one had to be unlocked before we could see them. Something you should know about me is that I'm a pretty selfish guy. Not producers. To Masterman's students, though, while a visit from a film crew wasn't an everyday event, it was exactly the sort of thing they expected to happen. Their entire lives had taught them that things like that were possible. That anything was possible. Overbrook's students didn't even believe we were there. If the kids at Masterman had spent their lives being taught that anything was possible, Overbrook's student body had learned the opposite. That's one reason that the achievement gap that separates inner-city my mind is hardwired to see possibilities everywhere. i look up in the night sky and expect to see a ufo. a great citizen of the world. I care about my family and films. That's it. Someone needs saving, countries need assistance, I'm sympathetic, but it doesn't penetrate me. But when they showed me the floor of the school that was closed because of too much drug use and sexual activity, something dark wrapped in outrage started growing in my stomach. It kept growing as they showed me the school theater that was being renovated because of a suspiciously set fire. Something happened to me standing in the hallway in Overbrook High School. My arms became tight. My jaw set. It's exactly what happens when someone elbows me in a basketball game. It gets my attention. Which is more than we got at Overbrook. When we walked down the halls, only one boy even looked at us. Something akin to recognition flickered in his eyes and then vanished. He looked back down and kept walking. That was the only moment of acknowledgment that a film-location crew was in the building. I'm certain that the students of Overbrook watch just as many movies as the kids at Masterman. Just as many of them want to be actors or directors or 98 DECEmbEr 2013 usairwaysmag.com schools from suburban ones doesn't exist at Masterman. Which meant they had opened up a cavernous gap between themselves and Overbrook. In 2010, Masterman was one of only two high schools in the state of Pennsylvania to be awarded a National Blue Ribbon, which means just what it sounds like. Masterman students take enriched math and foreign language programs, participate in half a dozen different music ensembles, and can try out for nationally ranked chess and National Academic League teams. The school has a 100 percent graduation rate, and nine out of ten Masterman graduates are headed to a four-year college. Overbrook? Only 54 percent of Overbrook's students get a diploma. At Masterman, nearly one student in four takes the Advanced Placement test in English, and 90 percent receive a score of 3, 4, or 5: enough for college credit. At Overbrook, only one student in fifty takes it and, the last time anyone checked, none got as high as a 3. It's not apples to apples. Masterman is a magnet school, and a very selective one. Even to apply to Masterman, a fourth-grader - almost every student starts in the fifth grade, and continues to graduation - needs to test in the top 12 percent of all students in the city of Philadelphia. But neither school has an especially affluent student body; the percentage of poor kids at Masterman is around 40 percent; at Overbrook a little more than 60 percent. The teachers at Overbrook work just as hard as their colleagues at Masterman, and care just as much. The schools use the same standards for language arts and mathematics. Only about four miles separates them. And a sense of possibility. Here's another thing about me: My mind is hardwired to see possibilities everywhere. I look up in the night sky and expect to see a UFO. I was the kid who stared at the paper cup for hours convinced I'd move it with my mind. (Never happened.) I'm also the guy who saw my wife for the first time and knew she was the one. (Married twenty years.) I went to my first dance at a girls' school when I was twelve and knew my kids would go there one day. (All three do today.) I'm that guy. The eternal optimist on steroids. The visit to the two schools made something crystal clear to me: I was now invested in the struggles of education, and I was going to figure out what Masterman's kids were getting that Overbrook's weren't. I wasn't sure how to do it. But I had a notion of where to start. ***** Six years before visiting the two schools, in October of 2001, my wife, Bhavna (who is a great citizen of the world), and I had signed the various documents - and written the check - that launched the M. Night Shyamalan Foundation (MNS Foundation). Its mission is "to support remarkable leaders working to remove the barriers created by poverty and inequality, which prevent individuals and communities from unleashing their full potential." Bhavna and I believe that every person on the planet is born with an unknowably great potential for knowledge, http://www.usairwaysmag.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of US Airways - December 2013

Table of Contents
CEO Letter
From the Editor
Did You Know?
Making It Happen
Hot Spots: Vacation Memories
Hub Crawl: Miami International Airport
Wine & Dine: Holiday Fizz
Diversions: Going Whole Hog
Diversions: Time Travel
Style Spotlight: Holiday Bling
Adventure: North Carolina's High Country
Adventure: Arizona Story
Adventure: Sled Dog Racing
Gear Up: Stocking Stuffers
Great Escapes: Charleston Place Hotel
Great Escapes: Hotel Palomar in Washington, DC
Travel Feature: Costa Rica
US Airways: Tower Talk
Celebrate Tucson, AZ
Health Matters: Miami Foot and Ankle Surgery
Charlotte, USA
Must Read: I Got Schooled
Puzzles
Readers Resource Index
Your US Airways Guide
Video Entertainment
Audio Entertainment
U.S. and Caribbean Service Map
International Service Map
Airport Terminal Maps
US Airways Fleet/Customs & Immigration
Passenger Info/Contact US Airways
US Airways MarketPlace®
Window or Aisle?

US Airways - December 2013