‘Charter schools are like turkey hot dogs’ and other education musings from a South Philly stoop lady [video]

NewsWorks has long followed the turbulence of Philadelphia’s public schools. Since class opened on Sept. 9, we have sought opinion and insight from advocates, critics and experts. To get some home-grown perspective on Philadelphia schools, we turned to longtime denizen of South Philadelphia, Patsy.

Since the Philadelphia public schools opened earlier this month, NewsWorks has sought opinions and insights from such education experts as Michelle Rhee (former Washington, D.C., school chancellor and long a critic of teacher seniority policies) and NYU Professor Diane Ravitch (a defender of public schools over charters).

To get some home-grown perspective on the turbulence of Philadelphia public schools, we turned to venerated opinion leader and longtime denizen of South Philadelphia, Patsy. Her own kids attended the Holy Mary Mother of God school (a reverent institution that exists beyond the reaches of the Internet; don’t bother to Google it) near 7th and Shunk streets (don’t attempt to locate it, either). Why did she send her kids to Catholic school? “Three words,” says Patsy: “‘Nuns don’t strike.’ The hit youse, but they don’t strike.”

Patsy holds court on her semi-regular show, “The View From My Stoop.” That view can get pretty fuzzy as she strains to see anything north of Snyder Avenue. We asked her to entertain reader questions about the state of Philadelphia’s public schools.

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“Patsy” is a character created by Jen Childs, the founder and director of 1812 Productions, an all-comedy theater company in Philadelphia.