ABSTRACT
As a young, idealistic teacher in Harlem in the late 1970s, like many urban teachers I struggled with how to integrate my political commitments to poor and working class students with my teaching. Having myself grown up working class and having struggled academically in school, I saw myself in many of my students. Th e alternative school I taught in was located in the old Hotel Th eresa in New York City, a high rise building in central Harlem that at one time was an elegant hotel where jazz greats like Duke Ellington and political fi gures like Fidel Castro stayed. In those days it housed mostly city offi ces and our communitybased school called College Adapter Program (CAP). It was a “second chance” school for youth who had dropped out of their high schools but showed promise. Our job was to get them ready for nearby City College, which at the time had open admissions and free tuition.
