Those in Rags, Those in Riches

Rags & Riches
Written By Elaine Perlman

Having spent my formative years in a small town of 16,000 neighbors in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, I still awaken every morning surprised and delighted that I live in a gigantic metropolis of 8 million city-mates. Just yesterday, I spoke with people from Tibet, Jamaica, the Deep South and Hungary, all of them representing a global slice of good cheer.

In my 17 years of Gotham living, I have taught and mentored teachers in a preschool, 13 public schools and a private school with tuition now topping $45,000 per year. My students have been in every grade but first and twelfth, including toddler classes and adults.

I have taught those in rags and those in riches.

This broad experience informs my continuing education and shapes my ideas about my sole aim, to make New York City schools the best in the world. As one of the greatest cities, New York City should also be the birthplace of the world’s greatest school system.

At the moment, we are not even close to achieving this goal. I work in one school where only 8% of the students pass the New York State exams in English and math. A UCLA report stated that New York City is the most segregated school system in the nation.

In response to this bleak reality, I am actively initiating conversations with teachers, principals, students, parents and others in the educational community to catapult New York City schools into a realm of active, stimulating, culturally relevant and enriching spaces for students to become adult leaders.

Along the way, I will be blogging about what I am learning.  I welcome your thoughts.

Elaine Perlman

Elaine is aiming to pass two federal laws in the United States, the End Kidney Deaths Act and the Honor Our Living Donors Act. Elaine is the Executive Director of Waitlist Zero, an advocacy group that seeks to end the kidney shortage and provide kidneys to the 90,000 people who are waiting for their lives to be saved in the United States. Both Elaine and her son Abie gave their kidneys to strangers. Elaine founded the groups NYC One Kidney Club, Kidneys 4 Strangers, and Vegan Kidney Donors. She leads the Global One Kidney Club meetings and the Ask Me Anything meetings for the National Kidney Donation Organization. She is also on their Mentoring Team. Elaine cohosted an National Kidney Foundation workshop about the benefits of plant based eating to promote kidney health in addition to a cooking demonstration. Elaine has been a mentor for Plant Powered Metro New York during nine Jumpstarts that help people make the transition to plant based eating.

From 2016-2022, Elaine was a Professor and Program Director for the Peace Corps Fellows Program at Teachers College, Columbia University. For 30 years, she has been a teacher of nearly every subject for all grades from 2-11, in addition to 7 years of teaching children under the age of five. Elaine was a public school specialist teaching children in grades 2-5 about eating healthy foods in the South Bronx, Crown Heights, and Harlem through the Coalition for Healthy School Food. Elaine has painted eleven school murals. She completed the Columbia University course "Food and Nutrition For All," the Plant-Based Nutrition Certificate course from the T. Colin Campbell Center for Nutrition Studies and eCornell and the Main Street Vegan Coaching Certificate course.

http://elaineperlman.com/
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