Canaries, a coal miner's early warning system, drop over from carbon monoxide or methane poisoning before those deadly fumes can reach miners. Allen Canaries are dropping over, too, sending their own warning in Allentown.Allentown resident Scott Armstrong, who publishes the informative Allentown Commentator, has noticed those dying Canaries. He has kindly allowed me to cross post his well-written, but sad, report here.
If one wanted to witness firsthand a perfect metaphor of Allentown's decline there was no better place then in one of the many available seats in the hometown section of J. Birney Crumb Stadium tonight. It was there that Bethlehem's Liberty High School rolled over the once mighty Canaries 62 to zero. It wasn't just the football team that was overwhelmed by the visitors; the visitors outshined the hometown in eery way. Liberty fans filled their stands, their band was large, disciplined and impressive (they will be going to Pasadena for this year's Rose Bowl Parade), their cheerleaders were motivated and having fun… Meanwhile the Allen seats were occupied by only a few odd students and a smattering of parents who came out in support of their children who were on the field as players, band members or cheerleaders.
Clearly tonight's match was more than just a football game, it was a contest between a functioning municipality and school district and a non-functioning school district and municipality. It wasn't pretty and although I wore an Allentown Band parent T-Shirt with the words "Allen Pride" I felt ashamed that my son's school experience routinely included this sort of humiliation.
Fifteen years ago we made the decision to move into Allentown.
Clearly that was a big mistake.
Personally, I think it's the name. I can understand a Hawk or a Huskie, but Tweety Bird?
16 comments:
I agree with the perspective, but never quite understood the title of the team. Canaries do not have fearsome connotation.
Very sad. A vignette that tells us a lot.Thanks Bernie.
As a relatively recent Allen alum I know all too well about this....
just in case your readers are not familiar with the lore, the reason the Canaries are so named is that when Allentown High School got its mascot, the only local competition was from the Hurricanes....
Guess which bird can fly straight through a hurricane?
"Guess which bird can fly straight through a hurricane?"
It sure as hell was not a canary on Friday night. But that's a cool little story.
Armstrong is really showing hiss Allen pride here. What a loser. Sure picked up a piece of litter or two over the years but really all he amounts to is a big whiner.
I'm not really sure what the point of his post is, or what the point of Bernie reposting it is either.
Keep the brown people down?
Anon 6:43,
What is your point? Continue to pretend that Allentown and its school district do not have serious problems? Does it help more to:
a) pretend there are no problems and that things really are improving; or;
b) admit that we have some serious problems, some which are worsening, and that we better start fixing things in our city?
The Pawlowski Kool-Aid drinkers are in group (a).
I don't see any requirements for a particular skin color to be in either group.
Anon 6:43 makes two mistakes.
First, he tries to pretend nothing is wrong in Allentown, an irrational trait common among many Allentown/Pawlowski sycophants. In reality, Allentown is a seriously sick city and its problems have an impact on all of us. It supplies the second largest number of prisoners in Northampton County, so even those of us in the boonies have a right to take notice. When a city school loses pride in its sports program and band, it does reflect on the entire city.
Second, he makes a diversionary attack - in this case it's racial - to draw attention away from the point that Scott made so well. Scott's criticism is directed at the entire city, not just the "brown people."
"When a city school loses pride in its sports program and band, it does reflect on the entire city."
Scott and Bernie are really showing their school pride here!
One should also note, Allen high does not represent the whole city. We also have Dieruff and Central Catholic. Regardless, Allen has a great gifted program, top of the line opportunities for special education, and a strong theater academy.
Looks to me that the bald people are trying to paint a picture that everything in Allen and/or Allentown is bad.
Allen Pride
I was at the game too, and had some of the same feelings.
But you know what, the band kids looked like they were having fun and the Allen players still hustled and kept playing hard.
Sure, they were outsized, slower, and had fewer players, but I thought High School sports was about building character, and not all about winning.
So call me naive.
But one thing is for sure. I'm sure the football team has the same problems as the rest of the school. There are too many students that are just parked there for a short time, waiting to go someplace else. The Allentown schools have a big problem with transient students who are pulled out or show up any time as the family moves back and forth from elsewhere.
Hard to get good grades or play football if you're only there for half a semester.
Allen High did not provide my gifted freshman daughter with the opportunity to learn in the gifted program. During her Freshman year last year, she asked for homework from two of her gifted teachers throughout the year, to no avail.
She tired of all the wasted time waiting for students to clam down and behave so she can get her work done.
She wanted to be treated like an adult and not brought to the lowest common denominator.
She is entitled to a good education, and as her parent, we are upholding our responsibility to make sure she gets one.
At her request, she now attends Central Catholic.
The other choice we had was to move outside the City.
These are the cold, hard facts.
My wife and I believe in making a difference in Allentown. However, we will not do so at the expense and sacrifice of our children.
I have been in the stands at J Birney Crum last year...Mr Armstrong is correct.
Wake up Allentown School District...wake up Allentown. Stop the procession of glad-handed accomplishments. We need leaders who will rise above the bureaucracies.
May God help us.
I'm going to chime in here again and say that for students enrolled in the gifted/honors/ap program at Allen, there is a considerably different "education" that takes place for those who are not. I dropped a gifted class one year so that I would have time for a foreign language - I was shocked at the difference just going into a college-prep course. This kind of disparity, to me, is truly shameful.
But on top of that - as the parent who posted above about his daughter's experience most surely understands - even the gifted/honors/ap program at Allen does not measure up to other school districts. I thought I was receiving a pretty solid education when I was at Allen. I left Allen in my senior year and went to Emmaus High School. I cannot even tell you how often I came home and cried because every day at Emmaus the opportunities which had been denied to me at Allen (that I didn't even realized existed) were staring me in the face and I had missed out on all of them. That's not to say that I don't have very fond memories of my time at Allen, or that I didn't appreciate the opportunities of the Arts Academy or of growing as a person even if not as an academic - its just pointing out that, in my opinion, the positives in the ASD are far outshadowed by the negatives.
I understand that the ASD has huge challenges that are not faced by many school districts surrounding it - and I don't think that "blaming" the School Board or the City for not solving problems which have stumped every urban center in the country is really fair - but given the choice, I wouldn't even send my worst enemy's children to school in the ASD.
I think anon's point is that BOH really has no ground to stand on when pointing fingers. Does BOH support real initiatives that will lead to real change?
Has BOH ever taken a stand on the issue of equitable school funding? I sure haven't seen anything on here stating his support for that initiative. I doubt I will either.
It would be nice to be proven wrong here.
Anonymous 1:01PM
There you go again as all good liberals go. Toss more of my money at the problem. The two essentials of a good school district are content oriented teachers and discipline. Add to that the fact that the educating of the child will occur and not simply job training and you have put yourself on the road to success.
If I recall correctly, Washington,DC spend $16,000 per child per year on education. It is one of the least successful districts in the nation. Despite what you feel about inequitable spending, the supposed inequity is a myth.Tossing more money at a bad situation will not, rest assured, make the situation better.
Anon 1:01,
Once again, instead of addressing the issue, you are attacking the person who deliovers it. As it happens, I do support equitable school funding. I've said that in my post about Michelle Rhee. There is no reason why kids in Allentown should get less funding than kids in Parkland or Nazareth.
But the problem goes deeper than that. One commenter notes that A-town's population has become too transient. There are other problems as well.
"She is entitled to a good education, and as her parent, we are upholding our responsibility to make sure she gets one.
At her request, she now attends Central Catholic."
Shouldn't all Allentown residents be given an opportunity to choose a better school?
Lots of pro-choicers here, except when it comes to lower earners' kids' educations. Why should poor folks be charged with fixing the broken school district? Why shouldn't they be able to choose a better school for their kids instead of being forced to pay - in real life consequences - for the mess that's been left to them?
Some of this really is about keeping the brown people down. There are some political types who greatly benefit from maintaining a wanting class (i.e. a government that robs Peter to pay Paul may always expect the support of Paul).
Until the ASD brain surgeons fix their mess, parents should have the option to reject the mess and find a better school for their kids.
Scott --- You miss one thing... Bethlehem Area School District is comprised of Hanover Township (Northampton County) feeding Liberty and Bethlehem Township feeding Freedom. If these Suburban upper class Township's did not feed this District, sadly, Liberty and Freedom would mirror both Dieruff and Allen. It goes to show that the so called sprawl areas are necessary and important in sustaining a School District both academically and athletically. If Allen and Dieruff were made up of South Whitehall Township, Whitehall and other contiguous suburban municipalities, I guarantee that those schools would be on par with Liberty and Freedom.
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