The High School That Beat Katrina

Franklin Fan

I am an African American Franklin graduate class of 1986. Any comments relative to Franklin being opposed to Black social workers is absurd!

no environment could have been more nurturing and accepting than Franklin! We have to stop demonizing achievement. Our real challenge is developing more high performing schools!

RE:

"But any way shouldn't the other students that aren't so academically astute get the opportunity to learn as well."

Who says the kids that don't get in don't get to go to school? Are you saying Franklin is the only school in the metro area where students get the opportunity to learn? Hmmm

get ready

Regardless of who was the first to open, Franklin students, parents, and administrators strove to open as a charter school so that they could get the students back in classes as soon as possible without having to wait for the school board to get it together-don't even try to say McMain had more damage than Franklin- and that should not be frowned upon, so how dare you say that the only reason they brought their school back was to keep the underachievers out, you live in New Orleans and obviously know that anyone wanting to rebuild would not do so solely because of that. It was to get the kids back in their classes and the class of 2006 graduated.

McMain easily could've done just as Franklin and Lusher did and apply to be a charter so that it would stay magnet, and they obviously didn't. Does it make any sense for "the cream of the crop" to allow anyone to attend? No.

People should just be happy BF don't admit students based on their IQs like the old days!

re: Ms Campbell's remark on social workers

The current Ben Franklin High School social worker Ms. Tanya Jones is African-American.

Keeping Franklin Academically Strong

I taught at Ben Franklin for twenty years. The remarks I read by the person who is a social worker is troubling to me.

First: There is the (assumption?..fact?) that Franklin "didn't want Black social workers." I don't beleive this is true.

Second: Yes, everyone deserves an opportunity to learn. The problem is that once enough students who are below grade level are in a "high achieving" school, it's no longer a high achieving school. What usually happens in these environments is that the school is transformed into a school within a school; I saw this firsthand in Pittsburgh,PA.

The real problem in Orleans Parish has always been that mamy students who were "ready" to attend high school were not at grade level.Putting these children in a highly competitive environment with students who are well ahead academically is destructive to the child's self image. And should we populate the school with mostly children who are below grade level...well, the point of attending the "New" Franklin would be...?

Forever a Falcon

I graduated from Ben Franklin in 2006, the first class to graduate from Franklin after the hurricane. This article rings true to me because I had the drive and desire to get back to my high school - not to graduate from some huge public school in Texas - to get my Franklin diploma. I would not have accepted anything else. I went back for the academics, the teachers, my friends, and my city. We may have griped about all the work we have to do and the weight of our bookbags, but Franklin was our home. There is something truly special about Franklin and it will always hold a special place in my heart. The teachers truly care about their students and the students (generally) want to be at Franklin. The diversity is amazing and unlike any other school I have been to. Franklin is the best public high school in the country in my book.

Yay Falcons!

I spent twenty years in New Orleans, most of the time as an Orleans Parish School Social Worker. I didn't work at the cream of the crop schools, frankly because they didn't want Black social workers. But any way shouldn't the other students that aren't so academically astute get the opportunity to learn as well.

Article is nice, but inaccurate

This article insinuated that many high schools were knocked to the ground by Hurricane Katrina and that Ben Franklin was one of few left standing. In fact all of our high schools were still standing and many of them had less flooding than Ben Franklin.

The Herculean efforts made by parents and staff occured precisely because they did not want Ben Franklin to become an open admissions public school. The reason Ben Franklin is number 16 on your list is because it takes only the cream of the crop of New Orleans high school students. In fact, the school where I teach, Eleanor McMain Senior High School became the school that Franklin parents feared it would become. We were a selective admissions magnet school before the storm and were, by necessity, forced to take in all of the students who were previously enrolled at the other 14 middle and high schools closed because of the storm. The real story is how we went from being a selective admissions magnet school to an open admissions school. And, by the way, we were the FIRST school open post Katrina.

Ben Franklin spirit continues after graduation

I'm a Franklin grad who sadly no longer lives in New Orleans, but who has family and friends there. The best source of information I had on what was actually happening in the city after the storm was the Franklin alumni group another grad had set up on-line. Classmates who had not had contact with each other in years came together on-line to get information and help to each other. The spirit you correctly identified at the school has a long history at Franklin. I am so glad to see it continuing and expanding.