How Poverty and Inequality Thwart The College-For-All Promise

FEATURING DR. LINDA NATHAN – In 2012 a New York Times best-selling book by Paul Tough made the case that children can succeed in school and life through, “Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character.”

Now, a new book by Dr. Linda Nathan tackles this notion head-on. After heading the Boston Arts Academy – a public school for visual and performing arts – for more than a dozen years, Dr. Nathan realized that the idea of a merit-based educational system was a myth that did not account for racism and poverty, nor did it account for our impossible system of college debt and unemployment that leaves graduates with financial burdens for the rest of their lives.

Dr. Linda F. Nathan, first executive director of the Center for Artistry and Scholarship and has taught at the Harvard Graduate School of Education for 15 years. She was the founding headmaster of the Boston Arts Academy (BAA), Boston’s only public high school for the visual and performing arts. Her earlier book is entitled “The Hardest Questions Aren’t on the Test.” Her new book is called “When Grit Isn’t Enough: A High School Principal Examines How Poverty and Inequality Thwart The College-For-All Promise”.