With arts, an Anacostia school is reborn

The Washington Post, Ruth Marcus… When Principal Patrick Pope arrived at Savoy Elementary School in the blighted Anacostia neighborhood in March 2011, his impression was bleak: “It was the saddest school I’d ever been in.” Which is saying something, given Pope’s 30-plus years in the capital’s public schools. “The kids didn’t want to be there,” Pope recalled. “The teachers didn’t want to be there. The parents didn’t want to be there.” Although the facility was new, it had a penitentiary atmosphere, with unadorned cinder-block walls and students plodding through rote worksheets. http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/ruth-marcus-with-arts-an-anacostia-school-is-reborn/2014/05/16/179dcbe4-dd23-11e3-bda1-9b46b2066796_story.html