Media: Chicago Teacher Critiques "This American Life"

I was somewhat surprised at the lack of pushback against the big This American Life episodes about school violence earlier this year, so you can imagine my interest in coming across this letter written by a disappointed Chicago high school teacher named DJ Cashmere (@cashmeredaniel) to This American Life's Ira Glass about the coverage of Harper High School in two recent shows:

"While I understand that you were interested in investigating the impact of violence on Harper, I was still stunned that education and learning were completely absent from a two-hour broadcast about a school. In the end, I believe that your coverage served to excuse many of the most harmful practices in our schools today and perpetuate some of the most harmful myths about urban education."

Read the letter and let us know if you think it's a fair critique. Did the show convey an imbalance of compassion over a critical eye?  Did the show convey the belief that gangs were inevitable?  

Image CCFlickr

Comments

[Tiffany]

This teachers critique is powerful to say the least. I understand what gets the ratings however what are we doing to our youth? If all you see is negative how you can expect positive results. I agree that there is too much focus on sending the wrong message. If we support and encourage our youth and expose them to great things this will set their moral higher and they will surely strive for greatness but if we feed them with violence and negatively they will fail.

[O]

I don't understand what is the reason behind this. Negative leads to negative

[rene]

I did not see this issue. I do believe that that should talk more about important thing that happends around the world. Not just the article by even news episoes.