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CultureQuiet 2d · day 3

Nikole Hannah-Jones admits choosing low-performing school for her daughter was wrong

The 1619 Project creator published an essay saying she sacrificed her child's education to make a point about school integration.

newest coverage 2d agosummary written 2d ago2 pieces Newswires

What to know

  • Nikole Hannah-Jones enrolled her daughter in a struggling Brooklyn school in 2016 to demonstrate personal commitment to school integration, defending it publicly as 'the just' choice despite her own doubts.
  • In a new essay, Hannah-Jones says she knew about serious problems at the school and kept her daughter there for nine years anyway—a choice she now calls a failure to both her values and her child.
  • The daughter struggled with ungraded assignments, couldn't pass the state algebra exam due to elementary-school gaps, and asked her mother directly: 'Did you know my school was bad like this when you decided to put me here?'
  • Hannah-Jones continues to defend the broader case for school integration while acknowledging her own decision was wrong for her individual child.

“Black students remain the most segregated group in New York's schools and that the country has "actually moved backward" on integration since 2016.”

Nikole Hannah-Jones, Journalist · The New York Times Magazine ↗ · Sep 20

Nikole Hannah-Jones Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, 1619 Project creator

Nikole Hannah-Jones admits choosing low-performing school for her daughter was wrong
Newsweek

How it unfolded 1 development · click the chart to see its coverage articles

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Sep 22yesterdaynow · 5:46 AM ET
  1. 1

    Essay details educational harm to Hannah-Jones's daughter

    The essay describes how Najya, though one of the brightest students in her class, could not pass the state algebra exam due to gaps traced to elementary school, found ungraded math assignments in her folder, and had a teacher who "most likely never performed the school's mandatory reading assessments for Najya or any of her classmates." Hannah-Jones recounts her daughter asking: "Did you know my school was bad like this when you decided to put me here?"

    “I felt overcome with regret. Najya deserved better. They all did. But she was mine. This girl, my only child, looked to me to protect her, to give her what she needed to thrive. And I had not chosen her.”
    — Nikole Hannah-Jones
    1. 1 outlet Nikole Hannah-Jones May Have Just Written a Eulogy for Woke Idealism

      first by Newsweek, 2d ago

  2. background

    Hannah-Jones publishes essay admitting the school choice was wrong — Hannah-Jones published a follow-up essay in The New York Times Magazine in which she revisited the decision and acknowledged she got it wrong. She describes knowing about problems at the school but keeping her daughter there anyway, and now says she "cannot forgive" herself for the consequences on her child's education.

  3. background

    Hannah-Jones places daughter in low-poverty Brooklyn school, publishes essay defending choice — Nikole Hannah-Jones enrolled her daughter Najya in Public School 307, a school serving the Farragut Houses public housing development where 91 percent of students were Black and Latino. She published an essay in The New York Times Magazine framing the choice as a personal commitment to school integration, writing: "I worried — I worry still — about whether I made the right decision for our little girl. But I knew I made the just one."