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ChatChat - Claudia Cragg


Jul 2, 2018

Linda Nathan, Ed.D. is the first executive director of Harvard's Center for Artistry and Scholarship, which fosters and mobilizes creative, arts-immersed schools.

Dr Nathan, speaking here for @KGNU with Claudia Cragg (@KGNUClaudia) tackles on #ItsTheEconomy what she believes are the five myths that we tell many of our students in K-12 schools.

The book’s title refers to one of these myths, that if you, the students, can just apply more grit, you will succeed in high school and go to college. Of course the trouble with this is that many of our students find themselves at-risk for succeeding no matter how much grit they apply to the situation.

No one is underestimating the power of grit, but the structural blockade that many students face, such as the very way that standardized testing does not make sense to them, the grinding poverty of urban environments, the nuance of languages they are not brought up with, the lack of support for academic achievement and the lack of safety in their schools and neighborhoods, stand as unyielding roadblocks to their success. 

She is the founding headmaster of the Boston Arts Academy, Boston’s first public high school for the visual and performing arts, and the co-director of Fenway High School, one of the first pilot schools in the Boston Public Schools. She began her teaching career in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and then came to Boston to work as a bilingual middle school teacher.