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Essay
Compelling Impact
A school really can help inspire a sense of community.
I
n the shadows of Detroit's
municipal bankruptcy
proceedings lies the
Detroit Public Schools (DPS)
attempt to recapture eco-
nomic stability and a renewed
passion for student success
against steep odds. News that
the state is moving DPS from
"high risk" status, which, in
turn, provides more financial
flexibility, stirs the cobwebs
on a less complicated, more
prosperous time in the annals
of the now-beleaguered district.
I attended Vernor Elementary School
in northwest Detroit from kindergar-
ten through the ninth
grade, spanning the
mid-1950s to the mid-
1960s. For those of us
who learned together
over those uplifting 10
years, and cherish being
called Vernorites, the
yellow brick school-
James Vernor
house on Pembroke,
near Schaefer, was like
a second home. It was where we got a
good education from good teachers and
administrators, alongside good friends
and with the support of educationally
engaged parents.
It's stunning to think how many of
my current friendships have roots in
the heyday of a school named for James
Vernor, the Detroit florist and pharma-
cist who created Vernor's Ginger Ale in
1866 from the fountain at his Woodward
Avenue drugstore.
It has been 47 years since I gradu-
ated from Vernor in 1966 and headed to
Henry Ford High School. But I vividly
recall growing up in Detroit, pre-riots,
when the neighborhoods were definitely
safer, the streetlights worked, the Jewish
community thrived before the Southfield
migration and the school system ranked
among America's urban best.
Part Of Our Being
furniture would never have
seen or been touched by me."
But his friends from Vernor,
he recalled, still "know me."
"So much of me is Vernor,"
he wrote, "and you all are the
living embodiment of that."
Building on that heartfelt
expression, Carol Karbel
Blender, who lived on
Littlefield, wondered if such
affection for Vernor and other
Detroit elementaries has man-
ifested "in all of us who grew
up in Detroit schools at that time."
She added, "We grew up not only in
school together, but also in each other's
homes. Our memories
of each other's parents
continue to draw laugh-
ter and smiles when we
recall them."
Longtime friends tell
fun stories about their
Detroit elementary
school days navigat-
Carol Karbel
ing the corridors of
Blender
Vernor, Vandenberg,
McDowell, Winship, Hampton, Bagley,
Schultz and others. Therein lies the
wonder of Detroit schools circa 1963.
Jews and Christians, whites and blacks,
literally joined hands to experience the
enrichment and fulfillment their schools,
flushed with dollars and support, could
offer.
Henry Traurig grew up on Stansbury.
He reminisced how Vernor reunions
exude "love and
warmth and the pure
bliss of friendship
requited:' That's pow-
erful imagery when
framing friendships
groomed before white
flight intensified to
Henry Traurig
the northern suburbs,
uprooting entire neigh-
borhoods and decimating Detroit's racial
balance. The Motor City soon became
America's most-segregated big city.
I missed the third Vernor reunion, held
in October, but relished
the post-event senti-
ments shared via email.
Stuart Karden wrote
about driving by his old
house on Tracey and
recalling how it "can't
talk to me" — "how the
current residents and
Stuart Karden
The feeling of community that we devel-
oped and nurtured on a much-smaller
scale decades ago at Vernor certainly
remains with many Vernorites in their
personal, professional and communal
lives. It's a reason so many suburban-
ites support Wayne State University in
Midtown Detroit, one of Michigan's edu-
24
December 19 • 2013
JPI
Lessons In Community
Yes, they are rare,
but schools with a
soul have been able
to stand the rigors of
time and still reso-
nate in the hearts of
students years later.
Vernor is near Eight
Mile and Schaefer in
northwest Detroit.
cational treasures.
Detroit neighborhoods, though, have
little time to inspire character nowadays.
Municipal challenges abound: blight,
crime, drugs, retail flight, lack of public
transit, inflated expenses, a dwindling
tax base, a punishing loss of industry,
lingering effects of past corruption.
Vernor and other public schools
struggle as an emergency manager tries
to right a district with a deficit of $80
million and stricken with annual enroll-
ment losses that topped 10 percent some
years although this year the falloff is less
than 2 percent. The high-school dropout
rate has been an obstacle, but thankfully
it's slowing.
A model for scholastic excellence, one
bridging the Jewish and black communi-
ties, is Glazer Elementary, near Oakman
and Rosa Parks boulevards. It's named
for Rabbi B. Benedict Glazer, Temple
Beth El rabbi from 1941 to 1952. Its
close-knit neighborhood, which I have
visited, is reminiscent
of the camaraderie
that radiated from the
Vernor community
when I was a part of it.
We didn't realize it
at the time, but our
Rabbi Glazer
parents hit a collective
homerun in choosing
the modest, new neigh-
borhood springing up around Vernor in
the 1950s.
As Henry Traurig so aptly put it: "So
many nice young adults who chose that
corner of northwest Detroit to raise
families does leave us, the children, with
many blessings."
It's no blessing, however, that too
many kids attending Detroit Public
Schools today lack the competitive edge,
imbued by parents, to excel. Test scores
are improving, so let's hope the district's
five-year strategic plan bears sustainable
educational and operational fruit. ❑
Greenberg's View
gleve@greenberg-arteom
The Moses of his nation