PHILADELPHIA
In science class this fall, Maxwell Gontarek has been learning about genetic engineering by observing the offspring of two zebra fish an albino father and a wild mother.
“I’ve gone here so many years I don’t really want to leave,” said Maxwell, 12, who plays stand-up bass in music class and is one of three seventh-grade representatives on Student Council at the Penn Alexander School, a public school run in partnership with the University of Pennsylvania.
Meanwhile, Umar Farooqi, in his seventh-grade social studies class, has been learning about the trial and execution of Greek philosopher Socrates, convicted of corrupting the minds of the youth of Athens.
“I love it. This school has good education, I love the building and the teachers are really cool,” said Farooqi, who has two younger sisters also enrolled at Penn Alexander and an older brother who has since graduated to Central High, a top academic magnet school.
This is public education at one of Philadelphia’s most successful school “experiments.”
Since opening its doors in 2001, just before the state takeover of city schools, the K-to-eighth-grade, West Philadelphia school created from scratch by the school district, the University of Pennsylvania and the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers has become a success story in its neighborhood and a model for school reform in other cities.
