Community Control in Perspective. IRCD Bulletin, Volume 8, Number 5, November 1972 / Nicolaus C. Mills.

A lunch program on the Lower East Side with kosher meals for Jewish children and Italian meals for Italian children and a health program in which visits to students' homes are a regular service are a small part of the efforts made 50 and 100 years ago to meet the needs of New York City's immigrant school children. The implications of such a picture are very relevant to the present. They suggest a far different perspective on community control than we generally assume: a perspective in which current demands for community control, especially on the part of black and Puerto Rican parents, may be seen as an extension of, rather than an exception to, those voiced by urban minorities in the past. The scope and variety of past demands for community-controlled schools in New York City are especially visible in the actions of three groups: Irish Catholics in the 1840's; Jews in the period surrounding the turn of the century; and, Italians in the middle 1930's and early 1940's. In the Irish, Jewish, and Italian communities in which such community and educational leaders as Bishop John Hughes, Julia Richman and Leonard Covello worked, the idea of a community-oriented school struck a vital nerve. When we look at these communities in perspective, we find interest in virtually every community-control issue--from food to curriculum--which we now debate. (Author/JM)

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