Jay GillenEducating for Insurgency
The Roles of Young People in Schools of Poverty
After receiving a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from The Johns Hopkins University in 1987, Jay Gillen taught for five years in a Baltimore comprehensive high school. In 1994, he became the founding teacher-director of the first community-run public school in Baltimore. From 1995 to the present, Gillen has been immersed in the educational and political work of the Algebra Project. From 2001 to 2009, he worked as the Baltimore City Schools Facilitator for the Algebra Project. Most of his teaching in this period was in after-school programs, evenings and weekends, developing a democratic youth/math culture. From 2009-2013, Gillen worked with a team of experienced Algebra Project youth to co-teach one cohort of 20 students in a "failing” high school. The cohort graduated at a rate of 71% compared to 17% for the school as a whole. He has published articles in a number of newspapers and journals. Gillen currently teaches English in another Baltimore City public school.
Table of Contents
1. Preface
2. The Political Role of Young People in Schools of Poverty
3. A Representative Anecdote: Brown vs. Board Taught in a Segregated
Classroom
4. The Idealized Algebra Project Classroom and the Practice of Dramatism
5. Courtship and Pastoral
Conclusion
