My Harlem Prep Journey by Sandy Campbell

“ Night hath succeeded day, and day hath succeeded night, and the hours and moments of your lives have come and gone, and yet none of you hath, for an instant, consented to detach himself from that which perisheth. Bestir yourselves, that the brief moments that are still yours may not be dissipated and lost.”

- Baha’u’llah

Writing about Harlem Prep at this point in my life is like recalling the first time one recognizes that life is really something special. Having the opportunity to relive each precious moment in explicit detail would be a wonderful blessing. The experience was a life altering blessing. It was an unparalleled beginning to a lifetime of learning, to wonderful adventures and to building lifelong companion-ships. However, with so many memories, it is not easy to highlight the nascent characteristics of a life sculpturing journey without overwhelming the reader; without over-whelming one’s self. In fact, to recount any single event of the Harlem Prep experience without touching upon all other events would not seem complete. Everything was intricately woven together as a whole. We all came there, initially, from our diverse backgrounds for different reasons. Some came as students, some as teachers, some as administrators only to become unified around the same purpose – to become a community of learners and change agents in an environment that could not meet the demands of our awakening spirits.

We started out with different visions of humanity and reactionary attitudes of how to respond to what was present in our society: our dysfunctional homes, our inequitable learning environments, the abrasive living on the streets of our city, the racist and divisive politics of our country and the persistent inhumane treatment of people throughout the world. Out of this negativity, came a family who understood that what burdened my brother burdened me. Most of us came away wanting to make change that would ultimately impact on the potential growth of our own lives and successive generations. We were one!

Harlem Prep was the beginning of that journey and we are all the better for it. We embarked upon the journey, we recognized our mission and each of us, in our own way, continues to contribute to making life better for ourselves, for our families, for humankind. Shortly after making the decision not to enter seminary, my journey to self- awareness and spiritual growth began. It was September 1969, almost 40 years ago.

From the very first day, worlds previously unknown opened in ways that were unimaginable. Thinking that the job ahead was to teach in an open space with eyes observing me seemed pretty scary. And it was at first! That first year, teaching English language arts and literature was the task. The students were waiting to be served and the curriculum was in place – teach what you know; teach what life has given you in terms of writers who have poured their hearts out in existential query; teach about the nature of search, learning, loving, losing and the lifting of the human spirit. Teach as you learn. And it happened! The learning environment as it should be, evolved. All were students. All were facilitators in a teaching/learning realm that, at times, was impenetrable. We were on a roll without the kind of interference that dominated the learning environ-ments that we had come to know as public schools.

For the first time, for most of us, we became a family of learners giving and taking each other’s worth as essential to our own growth. We grew out of our learning from each other whether we agreed or not. We hung onto the words of each speaker, teacher or student. We questioned. We tested. We challenged. We questioned some more. We were building our capacity to be teachers and learners. We brought to the table what we had come to know, what our experiences and circumstances had taught us. We brought our suspicions and our prejudices. We brought our single mindedness. And gradually, we brought faith, hope and trust. We were Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Baha’i. We were atheist, True Believers or not. We were Five Percenters. We were black, white, brown and tan. We were Harlemites. We were African, African-American, European, Caribbean, Iranian, Puerto Rican and we were Dominican. We were protective and supportive of each other. We were family, and, together, we spoke success.

For several arduous years of striving to be the best while struggling for support, Harlem Prep attracted many of New York’s finest learners and teachers to a mecca of outstanding academic performance. Each year students were accepted into some of the finest institutions of higher learning both in the US and abroad. After its somewhat tenuous start sponsored by the Urban League and Marymount College, Harlem Prep attracted the attention and support from such corporations as the Ford Foundation, Standard Oil, Carnegie Mellon, to name a few. In addition, to Marymount College, students won scholarships to Columbia, Cornell, Howard, Bryn Mawr, Spellman, Brown, The London School of Economics and many more.

By 1975, after almost 7 years of success, the funding sources began to lessen. The acclaim of the achievements of Harlem Prep was a well known story throughout the country with several attempts to create similar schools based on the Harlem Prep model. They were not nearly as successful. Finally, with little funds to maintain its existence, Harlem Prep succumbed to the empty promises and pressures of the New York City Board of Education. It became part of the tradition of inner-city failure in an effort to survive with the hopes that it would be able to continue to deliver the appropriate services to an all too often underserved population. The open school was moved to a prison-like structure without windows – without the character for which it had come to be known as embracing. Harlem Prep soon took on a different kind of teaching staff and a far different body of learners.

Within a very short period of time, the journey had ended and once again the dreams deferred. But for those of us who were touched by the Harlem Prep experience and continue to survive, we are saying “thank you” and we go on giving what gifts we have received.

My Harlem Prep Journey

My Harlem Prep Journey commenced as my confinement in Dante's Inferno ended. You see, for eleven years I attended Roman Catholic elementary and high school. At the end of my junior year I decided that I had enough of the Roman Catholic ethos and I needed a changed.

It was the early seventies and the world was in upheaval. Civil Rights was still the agenda of the day along with the struggle for equality for women. Rockefeller sent the National Guard to quell the riot at Attica, Vietnam was raging and Nixon had started bombing Cambodia:

"Tin soldiers and Nixon coming

We're finally on our own

This Summer I hear the drumming

Four dead in Ohio."

- Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young

Although I was a good student academically I ran into problems with the school administration because of my political leanings. I was a member of High School Youth Against War and Fascism and the Prisoners Solidarity Committee, an organization that hired buses to transport family members to the Attica Correctional Facility in upstate New York. I was very political and fiery. I also had an inquisitive nature and I did not hesitate to question authority. This was too much for my teachers at Cardinal Hayes High School, most of whom were priests.

I decided I needed a new direction and I registered for the 1972 fall semester at the Harlem Preparatory School.

Harlem Prep was a "school without walls" both physical and mental. At the Prep I found that I flourished to an amazing degree. As students we were allowed to pursue thoughts and ideas unencumbered. My most memorable class was Being and Non-Being an existentialist literature class. We read Sartre, Camus, Kafka, Hesse and Martin Buber. Things we would never be allowed to read in Catholic school. I embraced the existentialists with a passion and they returned the embrace by providing me with the key to my own liberation. The class was taught by George "Sandy" Campbell who remains my dear friend to this day. Through Sandy's class I learned the importance of personal responsibility: whatever I am whatever I am to be - was totally in my hands, especially since, at that time, I believed that there was no God to determine our collective fates.

My personal philosophy would evolve over the years as I constantly reinvented myself. Harlem Prep taught me that I could be whatever I wanted to be: the human spirit unfolds and flowers again and again over a lifetime. I found this to be true when Harlem Prep provided with another opportunity flourish.

In the spring of 1973 I entered and won an essay contest sponsored by CBS and The World Youth Forum. Dawn Mitchell, another Harlem Prep student, and I along with seven other students spent two months traveling throughout Europe: England, France, Belgium, Switzerland and Italy. My world was turned upside down. In Europe I was accepted as a person, a human being my ethnicity and country of origin were insignificant. I had never, ever had such a feeling nor did I think such a thing was possible. It's now thirty six years later and I'm still under the influence of that trip. My ethos - my world view - was forever changed and I am all the better for it.

When I returned from Europe, I was scarcely home for a week before I left to study at Brown University. I studied Anthropology, Portuguese and Film with heavy doses of philosophy, music and art. All of which I still pursue to this day.

I have many more stories to tell, and I hope to share them with you soon.

Clifford Jacobs

Cliff Jacobs, Sandy Campbell, 2008

Step By Step

Step by Step:
The Story of Harlem Preparatory School

“Step by Step
You’re in the race at Harlem Prep.
For the race has just begun,
There’s a goal for everyone.
Open the gates,
And open them wide.
For those who hunger
And thirst inside.
For the creative free,
Who once were denied.
Keep on marching…
Until you reach the other side.

Through the halls of opportunity,
To the stairway of success!
Work your show,
You’re on the go,
Just keep those students coming through.
For there’s so much work for us to do
With the help of God and the hand of faith,
We’ll make our dream come alive, hey, hey, hey
No matter what it takes.”

-Shirley Jones & Milton Hamilton

The words of the song state, “no matter what it takes.” Determination, never quitting, talent, brilliance, and unstoppable energy are some of the words that come to mind when I think about Harlem Prep.

I’m inspired to start this blog to capture and memorialize the work that my parents, Drs. Ed and Ann Carpenter, did back in the 1970s. If you recognize the words to the above song, you will remember how proudly we sang them – they became the “national anthem” of Harlem Prep. “Step by Step” was sung at graduations, while changing classes, in television appeals for donations. I still remember the words and melody quite easily. Some of you may even remember me running around, then a kid with pigtails. No matter how young I was then, I still remember the vibrant energy and excitement that I felt when I visited the Prep. To this day, I’ve never seen students so jazzed about learning, nor teachers as inspired to impart knowledge.

The 40 year anniversary of the school’s founding recently occurred. Forty years! I began to ask myself, “I wonder how many lives were changed by Harlem Prep? What became of all those people? What if I tried to find former students and teachers? What stories would they tell about their experiences?” Those questions gave birth to the current project – a documentary about the Prep and how it impacted the teachers, students, and the face of alternative schools in America.

We’re still in the early stage of producing the documentary. I recognize that there is a wealth of stories out there, many of which I’m unaware. Please use this blog to dialogue with me and share your recollections. Please include your contact information as I foresee expanding the project to include a reunion (with video camera, of course!)

Harlem Prep family, the story must be told. The time for the telling is now. We all know how strong oral storytelling traditions are. When we had the Prep, we didn’t have the technology we have today. Let’s use it to reconnect, re-energize and infuse our spirits. The Prep is who we are. We would not be who we are today without having lived it.

Please visit the blog regularly as we will keep you posted about the reunion, projects and the like. Thank you, be blessed.

Moja Logo,

Karen