Miseducation

In 1946, President Harry Truman signed the National School Lunch Act. It aimed to “provide nutritionally balanced, low-cost or free lunches to children each school day.” More than 60 years later, Michelle Obama championed the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, which required schools to provide students with healthier lunches. Since 2017, New York City has provided free breakfast and lunch to all public school students. 

These acts and reforms are great; they seek to ensure that all students receive nutritional meals at school. But in practice, let’s just say the results are… mixed.

Students sit and eat in the cafeteria every day, and yet conversations about education often leave out this crucial element of our daily lives as students. 

In this episode I document the quality of school lunches through the perspective of those who eat them, students. I also chat with one of my teachers, who used to help develop school lunch menus and guided me in my search for answers about how lunchtime can be improved.

Get ready listeners, because we’re about to have a food fight!

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Miseducation is a podcast of The Bell that equips New York City public high school students with the tools to report on inequities in the nation’s largest school system.

When I was in seventh grade, something changed in my school. The administration at the Bronx Academy of Letters was implementing a strange new policy called “Yondr.” Haven’t heard of it? Neither had I.

Yondr is a company that makes lockable pouches for smartphones to create “phone-free spaces for artists, educators, organizations, and individuals.” The idea is that it helps with student learning by removing distractions from the classroom.

As you might expect, students had some questions about the new policy, many of which I was wondering myself: Is the Yondr phone policy underestimating student maturity? How is the policy affecting student-teacher relationships?

To get some answers, I talk to teachers, my principal, students who have experience with Yondr and even representatives from the company. Listen to this episode to for an inside look at the impact of restrictive cell phone policies on schools like mine.

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Donate to The Bell.

Miseducation is a podcast of The Bell that equips New York City public high school students with the tools to report on inequities in the nation’s largest school system.

At my high school, Frank Sinatra School of the Arts in Queens, almost two thirds of the student body identify as people of color. When students witnessed a teacher make a racially insensitive comment during class, they knew something had to be done. The administration stepped in and facilitated a restorative circle, but the impacted students left feeling unsatisfied.

This incident offers a lens into an ongoing debate about how teachers and school staff should handle acts of racial discrimination to properly protect students of color in public schools.

In this episode, I went looking for answers. I spoke with students who are active members of my school’s Black Student Union, one of my guidance counselors and my vice principal to figure out what needs to happen for our school to live up to its anti-racist commitment. Plus, I spoke with the NYC Department of Education’s Student Voice Manager to understand how the school system handles incidents of racism and discrimination in schools.

Reporting resources for students:

Report student-to-student discrimination, intimidation, and harassment, including sexual harassment and/or bullying: https://www.nycenet.edu/bullyingreporting

Office of Equal Opportunity reporting form (for adult-to-student discrimination): https://www.nycenet.edu/oeo

You can also call 718-935-2288 or email the Office of Safety and Youth Development (OSYD) at [email protected]

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Miseducation is a podcast of The Bell that equips New York City public high school students with the tools to report on inequities in the nation’s largest school system.

If you grew up in New York City, chances are you have heard of the Regents. The Regents are standardized exams that students across the State of New York have to pass in order to graduate and earn a diploma that’s recognized by the State Board of Regents.

Some words people I spoke to used to describe these exams: “A mess,” “stressful,” “Frankenstein” and “inequitable.” Today, there are Regents tests for ten core subjects, including U.S. History, English Language Arts and Chemistry. Most New York high school students must pass five of them in order to graduate.

New York is one of only eight states that mandate high school exit exams. As so many other states are turning to alternative forms of assessing academic proficiency, why does New York still use these standardized tests as a graduation requirement? How should graduation readiness be evaluated?

To all our New Yorkers, get ready for an educational flashback that you probably hoped would stay in the past.

To join the conversation, send us a message and follow us on Twitter and Instagram.

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Donate to The Bell.

Miseducation is a podcast of The Bell that equips New York City public high school students with the tools to report on inequities in the nation’s largest school system.

Every year thousands of students fill out the FAFSA, a form designed to help working class families receive financial aid for college. Simple right? Fill out a form, get some money, go to college. Well, not quite.

The FAFSA isn’t as easy to complete as it may seem. It encompasses 180 questions ranging from your family dynamics, to how much you and your parents earn, to citizenship and immigration status. 

Not only are there many questions, but they are often confusing. Those in most need of the FAFSA’s support, low-income and first-gen students, are often the ones who struggle the most. Some students’ parents don’t speak English well, so they have to take on the extra effort of translating. Others are in unique living situations, and might not fit neatly into the categories the FAFSA wants. 

The process is time-consuming and draining.

Check out my episode to hear directly from students who have experience filling out the form, as well as people who provide FAFSA and college readiness support, such as the guidance counselors.

To join the conversation, send us a message and follow us on Twitter and Instagram.

Never miss an episode! Subscribe on Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Google Play | Stitcher

Donate to The Bell.

Miseducation is a podcast of The Bell that equips New York City public high school students with the tools to report on inequities in the nation’s largest school system.

Are women more likely to contract STDs? Can HIV be cured by having sex with a virgin? Is using two condoms safer than using one?

These are only a handful of the questions about sex that exist in the minds of high schoolers across the city. But because this topic often evokes discomfort and embarrassment, from both adults and young people, questions like these often go unasked. They become misconceptions. In the age of social media, where students like myself get a lot of their information about sex from the internet, misconceptions like these can and do cause real harm.

According to the New York City Department of Education, schools are only required to teach an HIV and AIDS curriculum. Sometimes even these few lessons are pushed to the margins because of parental disapproval or time concerns.

The result? A glaring void in comprehensive instruction on safe sex and healthy relationships. That’s a problem.

In this episode, you’ll hear more about the current standard of sex education in New York City high schools, how it affects teenagers and what needs to change.

So, get comfortable listeners, because we need to talk about sex.

To join the conversation, send us a message and follow us on Twitter and Instagram.

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Donate to The Bell.

Miseducation is a podcast of The Bell that equips New York City public high school students with the tools to report on inequities in the nation’s largest school system.

My classmates are not happy with my school’s 8:20 a.m. start time, and honestly, neither am I. I’ve missed that first bell so many times. I had 12 tardies and 4 detentions in the past quarter alone, just from being late. And I’m not just late, I’m tired. When I get home, I’m physically exhausted, my bones hurt, and I just want to go to bed straight away. 

But as a junior, each month is very important. College applications, SATs, and the course work keeps getting harder. I just have too many responsibilities: homework, the internships I need for college applications, and the side jobs to support my family. 

School start times are a policy choice.

Who's calling the shots when it comes to school start times? Is student health and well-being even on the agenda? To get some answers, I chatted with sleep experts, fellow students and even the head of my school.

Join me as I navigate through the maze of early mornings, shedding light on the detrimental impact of sleep deprivation on our lives. Will we ever see efforts to start school later? What needs to be done? Trust me, this is one podcast episode you don't want to hit the snooze button on.

To join the conversation, send us a message and follow us on Twitter and Instagram.

Never miss an episode! Subscribe on Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Google Play | Stitcher

Donate to The Bell.

Miseducation is a podcast of The Bell that equips New York City public high school students with the tools to report on inequities in the nation’s largest school system.

For the first time ever New Yorkers have the opportunity to vote in a citywide participatory budgeting initiative. It’s not people on the ballot. It’s people’s money — tax dollars – and how to spend them. All New Yorkers age 11 and up can have a say in how $5 million of taxpayer money is spent. On the ballot this year are projects like financial literacy classes for youth in the Bronx, revitalizing cinema deserts in Canarsie to anti-violence and restorative justice programming in the Lower East Side.

This episode of P.S. Weekly explores the People's Money initiative and the people behind it.

To vote, go to participate.nyc.gov. Voting closes June 25, 2023.

Miseducation is a podcast of The Bell that equips New York City public high school students with the tools to report on inequities in the nation’s largest school system.

Mental health, perhaps more than ever, is a topic of conversation for the masses. Clinical terms like “triggered” and “anxiety” crop up in everyday discussion. Tik Tok channels dedicated to self-help and self-care offer tips on living your best life. And when it comes to young people, public leaders, from doctors to principals are trying new preventive approaches, like tele-therapy, to reach students before they’re in crisis. In the midst of a generational shift on mental health, we wanted to elevate the voices of young people who are thinking deeply about it. This is a conversation on mental health featuring Miseducation interns Wesley Almanzar, Fredlove Deshommes, Jose Santana and Nusrath Uddin. They discuss what mental health means to them and how they navigate the topic in their lives in and out of school.

To join the conversation, send us a message and follow us on Twitter and Instagram.

Never miss an episode! Subscribe on Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Google Play | Stitcher

Donate to The Bell.

Miseducation is a podcast of The Bell that equips New York City public high school students with the tools to report on inequities in the nation’s largest school system.

As we kick off our first ever spring fundraising drive, one of our student reporters shares what working with The Bell has meant to him.

Donate at give.bellvoices.org.

Miseducation is a podcast of The Bell that equips New York City public high school students with the tools to report on inequities in the nation’s largest school system.