feature stories

Hope grows in Brooklyn

May 10, 2007 1:49 PM

Sixty-four years ago, novelist Betty Smith, born to German immigrant parents, wrote a best-selling book called “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.” Among its many charms, the tome was unabashedly pro-union and told the story of a young girl, Francie Nolan, raised in poverty on Lorimer Street in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn.

It is less than two miles from Lorimer Street to Hart Street in Bedford- Stuyvesant, but the spirit of Smith’s writing was in full flower at PS 304 as parents, teachers and students tended a community garden — a bucolic oasis started by a teacher nine years ago.

While not exactly a place where, like Yeats, you would arise and go to Innisfree, or build a cabin there or “have nine bean rows, a hive for the honey bee,” or “live alone in the bee-loud glade,” it certainly is a place to sit on a freshly painted wooden bench and perhaps write poetry and dream about the world beyond Brooklyn, which Smith described as a small town “that New Yorkers were trying to reject.”

Earth Day 2007 was celebrated on April 20 at the school with the help of the UFTers in the building, as well as District Representative Ron Mailman, School Safety Department staffers Catherine Henihan and Lisa Lau, and UFT Vice President Michelle Bodden.

The students had a special treat waiting for them as they filed into the classroom. 

Bodden was there to read “The Lorax” by Dr. Seuss. After telling the class who she was and what the UFT was, Bodden captivated her listeners. She said the point of the book was: “If you take care of the Earth, we will have a greener place.” After the reading, she handed out crayons for the students to draw an image of how they think the Earth will look. She then walked desk to desk, working with paraprofessionals Nichole Durand and Patrick Williams to offer encouragement.

How cool was that? “She is great,” said one 5th-grader, who added how much fun it was to see “a really important person” in her school. The only way Bodden acted “important” was to hold the rapt attention of her readers as she read, slowly and deliberately, and then showed each page to the students before going on to the next section. She would pause and explain some of the nuances of the book.

After she finished reading, Bodden led a discussion about what it all meant, encouraging her listeners to share their thoughts. “I love this book,” Bodden said later. “I used to read it to my children at home.”

Down the hall, Henihan and Lau led a discussion of how New York City gets its tap water and the effects of water pollution. They also had the students interact with each other, first by spreading “fake germs” on their hands, washing them off and talking about how to avoid germs that can make a person sick. “Wash your hands after using a rest room and before eating and cover your cough” were two of her recommendations.

Henihan asked where the students thought their water came from and, after answering questions, told the students about rainwater, the reservoir and aqueduct system, and how the water is not pumped down to the five boroughs but arrives by force of gravity. She also discussed fluoride and mentioned how it helps keep teeth healthy.

Lau presented a slide show on how bad water can lead to serious diseases like cholera, polio and hepatitis A. She told the students how we take clean water for granted but reminded them that in other parts of the world people are not so lucky. Teachers Dolores Pantoja and Marti Jentis distributed samples of a popular hand sanitizer.  

Third-grade teacher Leonarda Huertas said she was thrilled about celebrating Earth Day. “It gives me incentive to start a recycling program here,” she said. “We waste so much paper and cans. We could get the staff, students and even parents involved.” She said her students made “Earth Awareness” posters.

Mailman spent time popping in and out of classrooms and talking to the staff on their lunch breaks. “Kudos is due to the dynamic Chapter Leader Carmen Applewhite and the staff here at the school,” Mailman said. “They put a tremendous amount of effort into this and it’s all for the kids.”

Teacher Lisa Emerson said the school community was “excited” about Earth Day. Posters are hung in the library portraying successful role models. Every day, students in that room see the faces of Maya Angelou, Langston Hughes, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald and Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, who was the great-grandson of a slave. His father toiled as a Pullman-car waiter and his mother was a teacher.

As one of the lawyers for the NAACP, Marshall argued the Brown vs. Board of Education case before the Supreme Court in 1954. His client was Linda Brown from Topeka, Kan. The court ruled that “separate but equal” education was unconstitutional.

When educators have to use their own money to spruce up a green spot for students, it’s no wonder that citizens of New York are still debating why children of our city don’t get an education that is “equal” to their counterparts, in the suburbs.

Art teacher Al Lewis was beaming as he saw the crowd gather for a photo opportunity in the garden, which sits just outside the school’s entrance. If you turn a bench around at a certain angle, you can see nothing but grass and flower beds, tulips and a crocus fighting to push up through the soil hardened by winter’s grasp and join the celebrating Brooklynites. You can look at the blackberry bush and the blue sky. The busy traffic on the street, even a truck idling for 30 minutes on Earth Day right under classroom windows, are minor distractions.

Lewis said his students keep him young and remind him how to increase his humanity, “They have such potential for creativity,” he said as the students gathered around him in the garden. “They extend my ability to care for others.

“Art is therapy,” he added.

He helped with the garden, including having his classes paint the murals, because “communing with nature is missing in too many of our schools. Rejuvenating the Earth helps them forget their surroundings,” he said with a broad smile.

Applewhite said she decided to refurbish the garden because it had been neglected by the Department of Education.

“There was garbage and bottles all over the place,” she said. “It was run-down.” She decided to take advantage of a clause in the UFT contract that gives teachers the choice between an observation or a project that will benefit the school community. She was given the go-ahead on March 29, so had only three weeks to spruce up the place in time for the Earth Day event.

“I spent my own money on paint, flowers and supplies for the teachers. I even bought a tree,” she said. (The Parks Department had promised one, she said, but never delivered.)

“We were out there in the mud and the rain, at night and at 6 a.m. painting the benches,” she added.

Applewhite had high praise for her colleagues, especially the woman who started the garden nine years ago, UFT delegate Cynthia Astacio, as well as Lewis, teacher Marie Angenor and the UFT Paraprofessional Representative Cheryl Smith. 

Area merchants also contributed to the garden, as did the Sanitation Department, Con Edison and city and state agencies.  Rosa Baxter, president of the Parents Association, said she and her members planned to spend the next several months visiting business owners and urging them to contribute to the garden.

“This is a great day for our children,” Baxter said.

Thanks to the UFT members, parents and their students, this is the place to dream, to think, to write, to sing the song of Brooklyn and to cherish the planet.

“There are so many good things happening in our schools,” Bodden said on her way back to Manhattan. “Sometimes, we think too much about the negatives, but visiting schools that work is exhilarating. There are many of them in our city.”

The seeds of hope planted by the union members and parents at the school will bloom on the day — maybe next week, maybe a year from now — when an elementary school student is inspired to write music, start writing a book or even, like Michelangelo, paint the Sistine Chapel.

Why not?