Join the PS! Book Club on Monday May 20 at 7:00 p.m. on Zoom when we discuss Music in the Halls by Poolesville poet, author, and educator, Bernie Jankowski. Through vignettes, essays, snapshots, portraits, and poems, Music in the Halls reveals the inner workings of a high-poverty District of Columbia Public School. In it, Bernie shows the visceral and emotional nature of childhood poverty and trauma and how it not only impacts a student’s ability to learn but also how it restricts their ability to live a full life. Uncovering the interwoven worlds of children and their parents, teachers and administrators, and the DCPS bureaucracy– all residing in close proximity to the nation’s capital– Music in the Halls is not simply a tale of hard knocks; it is an exploration of how one man’s understanding and compassion can be transformed and expanded to encompass and embrace this world.
Bernard Jankowski is currently a Special Education teacher at JPMS. He was formerly Head of the English Department and an AP Teacher at RICA, an educational facility serving adolescents with severe emotional disabilities. Previously, he was a Teacher and Special Education Coordinator at a high-poverty elementary school. Prior to teaching, he led a groundbreaking foundation research service. He has published two full-length poetry collections and is recipient of the Evelyn Elder Award for American Literature from Montgomery College.