This article was originally published in The Notebook. In August 2020, The Notebook became Chalkbeat Philadelphia.
Mayor Kenney walked into the AP History class at Constitution High School on Monday morning, and the discussion was right up his alley.
The topic? Structural inequality in America, through a lesson on the Gilded Age, that late 19th-century period of railroad and oil barons marked by increasingly concentrated wealth.
Kenney, who has visited a Philadelphia school each week since taking office, took a seat as students responded to the discussion questions posed by teacher Aisha Madhi. “Is America today a society divided by haves and have-nots? Does America still offer opportunities to become wealthy or have a stable economic foundation?”
A few students said that anyone who wants to work can get ahead. Others cited biases and barriers against particular groups.
Kenney piped up: “What institution during that period helped make things more fair?”
“Labor?” said a timid voice.
Kenney, a champion of organized labor for most of his career, was off.
“The labor union movement is the institution that allowed the lower class to become middle class,” Kenney explained, taking on the teacher role.
“Now you’re seeing pushback,” he added, describing contemporary fights for a $15 minimum wage for service workers, including those at Philadelphia International Airport. “You have people who are working very hard, 40, 50, 60 hours a week, but they are still poor.”
“We’re still divided into the haves and have-nots,” a student interjected.
He could have stayed in the class all day, but principal Tom Davidson said it was time for his next stop during the tour of the school. “I really like this conversation,” he said as he reluctantly walked out the door.
Kenney’s famous approachability was on full display as he mingled with students while they were eating lunch. Constitution is a small, selective high school. Located a few blocks from Independence Hall, it takes students from all over the city and has partnerships with the National Constitution Center, among other organizations.
“Sorry for interrupting your lunch … Sorry for all the cameras,” he said, as he shook students’ hands or joined a brief discussion of the Super Bowl. “I thought Carolina was going to win; the halftime show was the best part of the game.”
He sat down for an interview with student journalist Jamal Goodwin, who asked him what his priorities were as a new mayor of six weeks, Kenney responded by emphasizing that the children were the most important thing on the agenda.
Kenney then spoke to Christopher Javier, an aspiring public official who wears a suit and tie to school every day, about how to engage students in politics while they are in school. Javier said he and the mayor shared similar views – that funding equity and fairness would help.
“Equality in schools allows everyone to be engaged,” Javier said after his conversation.
The inequality issue came up again as Kenney met with a selected group of students and teachers, all eager to tell him about how severe budget cuts have impacted them.
“We will continue to seek fair funding from Harrisburg,” Kenney said. But, he added, that doesn’t take away the responsibility of people and organizations in the city to do all they can to support the schools.
When he asked them what they liked about their school, several said their teachers. Philadelphia Federation of Teachers president Jerry Jordan accompanied Kenney on the visit.
“The national dialogue that teachers somehow don’t care, they are made a scapegoat for a government that doesn’t put enough into education to make it work,” Kenney said. “We have to fight that perception. It is totally wrong.”
In the small group, Kenney asked students how many were first- or second-generation immigrants. A handful raised their hands.
“It’s important that Philadelphia be an open city,” he said, making reference to his own Irish roots and comparing anti-Muslim sentiment today to anti-Catholic sentiment in Philadelphia in 1844. In that year, nativists yelling that “bloody hand of the Pope is going to ruin America” burned down three Catholic churches.
Kenney also gave a lecture to these students on what he said was “untold history” in light of the school’s participation in National History Day, telling them about 18th-century pastor Richard Allen, who founded Mother Bethel AME church, and 19th-century civil rights leader Octavius Catto, who was also a baseball pioneer. Catto, who worked with Frederick Douglass to fight for the African American vote, was assassinated on election day 1871 at Seventh and South Streets while getting groups to the polls.
“History is interesting because it tells you an interesting story, but also keeps you from repeating stupid mistakes,” Kenney advised, inspiring a few titters of doubt.
Which brought the conversation back to inequality. Social studies teacher Carl Ackerman, who runs the mock trial club, said that the school’s partnerships were crucial.
“In the years that I’ve been here, I’ve seen our staff reduced tremendously and the amount of work increased a lot, but relying on the community has really helped,” he said.
The students echoed this, citing the Constitution Center as well as Drexel Law School and the law firm Ballard Spahr, who help with the mock trial program.
“They will come over here and help us, mentor us, and if we need anything they are there,” one student said.
Further, said Ackerman, “When they talk about our students, they don’t say ‘those Constitution High students’ they say ‘our students.’”
Kenney stressed the importance of these partnerships and said he was determined to get every school on the same level, in resources and support, so students and teachers can meet their full potential. He hopes to implement this vision through universal pre-K and through “community schools,” which offer health, social, recreational and other services.
In his visits, he has been “learning there are great kids in all the schools,” from pre-K on up, he said. “We have to reject the notion from Harrisburg that our kids in Philly can’t succeed. … With a little more resources, a little more attention, they can all do better.”
Constitution High School is the fifth school he has visited since taking office. The visits are a highlight of his tenure so far, making bearable the serious fires, the police shooting, the snowstorm that have marked the first month of his tenure.
“I go to a school every week,” he said. “It keeps me sane.”
Ami Irvin is an intern at the Notebook.