Episode 5: Brady
Photo by Dulce Michelle Marquez
“I mean clearly I was a screw up. I got the degree, but if I hadn’t fallen in love and had a kid I might still be playing music and pounding nails.”
Miriam is a 2019 graduate of Bard High School Early College Queens.
By Miriam Entin-Bell
The day I first visited The James Baldwin School, I met Nia, a confident young woman whose path to a high school diploma was not what we might call traditional. Like so many other Baldwin alums, Nia found a home at this small transfer high school, which is built on the principles of project-based learning, restorative justice, and student-teacher trust. In fact, her attachment is so strong that she still drops by all the time, even though she graduated a few years ago. Where does Nia’s fierce devotion to the school come from? When I peeled back the layers, all signs pointed to the principal’s office.
Brady Smith, Baldwin’s principal co-director, grew up in Seattle and spent his early adulthood “playing music and pounding nails” — not exactly the one you’d have imagined in the leadership role of a second-chance high school for New York City youth. However, it turns out that Brady's own story helps him empathize with the students he now serves.
Miseducation podcast’s season three helps us understand how the principles of Baldwin impact students like Nia even after graduation day. In this final episode, we reflect on the unjust New York City school system and return to important questions we have been asking throughout this season. Do transfer schools like James Baldwin help students succeed? And how do they define success?
This podcast season about transfer high schools is produced in partnership with The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education.
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The music for this season includes original tracks from Elijah Goodman, a.k.a. Ejcali, born in Santa Clarita, California, and now living in Brooklyn. He is an upcoming music producer self-taught in piano, inspired by creating various genres of music. In addition to working with Building Beats, Elijah is a member of S.I.M.B.A., a youth empowerment program in Brooklyn.