The System Was Never Built for Our Children

Let’s stop pretending.

The educational system in this country was never built for Black and Brown children. From the curriculum to the methodology, it is structured in a way that sets them up to fail while creating the illusion of success.

What is being taught in many classrooms today is not true education. It is test preparation. The curriculum is driven by strategies designed to pass state exams, not to build real understanding. Our children are not being taught how to truly read with comprehension, think critically, or master foundational math skills. Instead, they are being trained to perform on tests.

And once the test is over, the learning disappears because it was never deeply rooted to begin with.

The Illusion of Progress

I have visited and reviewed schools across Black and Brown communities throughout the borough, and what I’ve seen is deeply troubling.

Teachers are evaluated based on MOSL, Measures of Student Learning, which relies heavily on end-of-year testing. In many cases, teachers are assigned students who are not even their own, and those students are assessed by another teacher. Let’s be honest. No teacher wants to fail. So what happens?

Students are passed along even when they are not reading on grade level, not writing effectively, and not performing basic math. The data looks good on paper. The scores go up. The reports shine.

But the children? They are falling further behind. And leadership often turns a blind eye because strong data protects the image of the school.

When Leadership Becomes Performance, Not Purpose

In one school I observed, a Horizon program for students with autism was being overseen by a coach who had never taught in a classroom and had no experience working with children on the spectrum.

Yet she was giving directives to experienced teachers. Her solution was more “brain breaks.”

Structured breaks can be helpful, but excessive and unstructured downtime in classrooms where students already struggle academically is not support. It is a setback.

Teachers who had systems that worked were told to change. The result was clear.

Loss of instructional time

Increased behavioral disruptions

Difficulty transitioning students back into learning

Academic regression

When theory overrides lived classroom experience, children pay the price.

Classrooms in Crisis

In a school in District 4 in East Harlem, I witnessed conditions that no child or teacher should have to endure.

Students with severe behavioral needs were screaming through hallways, running unsupervised, throwing themselves on the floor, and leaving classrooms without intervention.

In one classroom, students were biting and physically attacking teachers and paraprofessionals. There was no crisis team, no safe room, and no real support system in place.

Educators were overwhelmed and unsupported.

One teacher told me “Administration is more concerned about hosting events and looking good than actually helping us teach.”

A parent shared, “They don’t care about our kids. I’ve had meeting after meeting asking for support, and nothing ever changes.”

The Quiet Deception of Parents One of the most troubling realities is how parents are misled. Children are being promoted from grade to grade with report cards that say they are meeting expectations, yet they cannot read, cannot write, and cannot count to 20.

Parents trust the system. They trust the report card.

But they are not being told the truth. Some educators admitted that when parents advocate too strongly, their children are quietly sidelined. They are ignored in the classroom while still being marked as progressing.

This is not just neglect. This is deception.

The Pipeline We Refuse to Acknowledge

What happens next is predictable.

A child who cannot read by middle school becomes a teenager who disengages. That teenager enters high school already behind, frustrated, and unsupported.

Eventually, they drop out. And then we ask, “How did they end up in the streets?” “How did they end up in the system?”

But the truth is we watched it happen. The pipeline from under education to incarceration is real, and it starts in classrooms where children are passed along instead of being taught.

Representation Without Responsibility
Many of these schools are staffed by individuals who do not reflect the culture, identity, or lived experiences of the communities they serve.

Representation matters. Cultural understanding matters even more. When educators and leaders lack connection to the community, they may misinterpret behavior, underestimate potential, and fail to build meaningful relationships with students and families.
This creates distance, mistrust, and ultimately disservice.

We Need Truth, Not Optics

This is not about blaming teachers. Many are doing the best they can in a broken system.

This is about accountability at every level. Curriculum must prioritize real learning, not testing. Leadership must support teachers instead of performing for appearances, Parents must be given honest information, Students with behavioral and learning needs must receive real support, and Foundational skills must be the priority. Because right now, we are not educating.
We are managing perception.

Our children are not failing. The system is failing them.
And until we stop prioritizing data over development, appearances over authenticity, and promotion over preparation, we will continue to produce generations of children who were never given a fair chance. It is time to tell the truth, and it is time to rebuild.