Nikole Hannah-Jones Revisits Her School Choice, 10 Years Later
Portrait of a Woman — Adriaen Hanneman, ca. 1653
What Happened
Ten years after writing a New York Times Magazine essay that became famous about enrolling her daughter Najya in a regular public school within one of the most racially and economically segregated school systems in the country — New York City — Nikole Hannah-Jones revisits that decision on This American Life. She talks it through in a series of conversations with producer Chana Joffe-Walt and with Najya, now 16, who has her own very different take on it.
Why It Matters
The original essay asked parents to put principle ahead of the instinct to optimize their own kid. A decade later, the person best positioned to grade that choice isn't Hannah-Jones — it's the teenager who actually lived it. Arguments about fixing broken systems tend to get made by adults on behalf of kids who never got a vote. This one finally lets the kid talk.
What's Next
The conversations between Hannah-Jones, Najya, and Joffe-Walt are out now on This American Life.