The organization that I have chosen to make my documentary
about is William Wells Brown Elementary School. This school is located in the center
of the east end of Lexington and doubles as a community center. This is a very poor
area in Lexington, but the elementary school was built in order to raise the
value of the area, along with new housing. Since the school is the in the
center of the neighborhood, the people have a common bond and look out for each
other. This is a predominately black
community as well as many other races. However, they are less than 10% white. This
school was the lowest scoring elementary school in Kentucky in 2014 and the
area has a very high crime rate. What I would like to know is: what is going
wrong in this community? Why are the academics and crime rates not improving,
despite the amount of government funding that was given to this community only a
few years ago? I learned of this community through my Living Learning Program
here at The University of Kentucky. Throughout my time here in Lexington, I hope
to be spending a lot of time at William Wells Brown Elementary school
volunteering and helping the children with homework and other needs. Since the
school is also the community center for the surrounding neighborhood, I hope to
be able to meet some of the families living there, in order to get a better
sense of family life in the community. I’m very interested in the community
because, up until now, I would not have though that race was still directly
correlated with academics and crime rates. I’m curious to hear what the members
of this community think in regards to their part in society and the status of
their neighborhood. I also think that more light needs to be shed on this area of Lexington in a more positive way.
No comments:
Post a Comment