Posted on 11/07/2002 7:16:52 PM PST by 11th_VA
Tweed Academy will be located on the ground floor of the courthouse, the new home of the Department of Education. Students from all over the city will receive short-term instruction in literacy and New York-focused government, art and other classes. On evenings and weekends, teacher training and adult classes will be held in the space.
"The Academy will provide our city with a prime educational center located in Department of Education headquarters that is dedicated to learning, leadership, academic achievement and excellence and that reinforces the value of learning as a lifelong, family-oriented activity," Mayor Bloomberg said last week.
Beginning with third graders next March, students will rotate through the program for two-week "academic residences." Seventh graders will start in the program next school year. Parents last week expressed guarded optimism about the program.
"I think it's a great idea," said Bernard D'Orazio, of the Lower East Side, whose youngest son will be a seventh grader next year. "New York City's government is obscure even to people who follow current events. Maybe this will help to illuminate the mysteries of City Hall and our unique system."
D'Orazio, who used to live in Tribeca, said he was opposed to having a regular school in the landmark building, but he likes having students from all over the city using Tweed.
Some preservationists and Community Board 1 have called on the city to use part of the building for more public uses such as a museum.
As many as 200 students will be enrolled in the Academy at one time. School officials said they had not yet determined which students will attend Tweed, but said that all of the city's 1.1 million students will get some exposure to the facility over the next two years. The first classes are scheduled for March 2003.
In addition to the two-week sessions for elementary and middle school students, afternoon sessions will be held for high-schoolers with famous public school graduates. Parents will have the chance to learn English or take other classes at nights and on weekends. Teachers will receive special training at the academy year-round.
The mayor said it would cost $7.5 millions to get the ground floor of the Tweed Courthouse ready for the students, including construction of classrooms and a cafeteria. That amount is not included in the $100 million renovation of the entire building.
Some objected to the school being named after Boss Tweed, a famously corrupt 19th-century bureaucrat who was known to auction off teaching jobs to the highest bidder.
"It's ridiculous," said former parks commissioner Henry Stern. "You might as well name the FBI the Academy of Al Capone."
Oh, now I get the connection ...
William Marcy "Boss" Tweed is most famous for running the corrupt New York City political machine of a well-known national party. Which one? Here's a hint: it's not the Republicans.
There is little question that the Tweed Ring were outright thieves and that Tammany Hall did have a series of reoccurring scandals. An estimated 75 to 200 million dollars were swindled from the City between 1865 and 1871.
Tammany represented a form of organization that wedded the Democratic Party and the Society of St. Tammany ( started in 1789 for patriotic and fraternal purposes) into an interchangeable exchange. The weave of city politics was the triangulation of the Mayor's office, the Democratic Party and the social club organization.
The book, Plunkett of Tammany Hall was first published in 1963 and contains chapters like, "honest and dishonest graft," "the curse of civil service reform," "reciprocity in patronage," " Tammany leaders not bookworms," "dangers of the dress suit in politics," "on the uses of money in politics," " bosses preserve the nation," and "Tammany the only lasting democracy."
When George Plunkett dies in 1924 he was eulogized this way;" He understood that in politics honesty doesn't matter, efficiency doesn't matter, progressive vision doesn't matter. What does matter is the chance for a better job, a better price of wheat, better business conditions. Plunkett's legacy is to that practicality."
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