Three Generations of Black Women Educators Talk TV Sitcom Abbott Elementary, Philadelphia Schools

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Abbott Elementary
Image via Reckon.

For Philadelphians who come from a family of teachers, the hit workplace TV comedy Abbott Elementary hits very close to home, writes MacKenzie River Foy for the Reckon.

Phyllis Byrd (grandmother), Karla Foy (mother), and Seneca Foy (daughter) are three generations of Black women educators who found the show enjoyable but also somewhat unrealistic.

“I think they’ve cherry picked the things that are very palatable,” said Karla. “Stylish Black lady, Italian lady from South Philly…”

“Racially mixed faculty and mixed in other ways too,” added Phyllis. “Glamorized, definitely. The school’s clean and it’s bright in there, there’s art all around on the walls and all. I’m not sure that’s such a realistic look at education in the inner city, right?”

However, they are things in the show that they are getting exactly right as well.

“There was this one episode with the bathrooms when the bathroom was flooded, there was only one bathroom working in the whole school,” said Seneca. “So they had to break the other bathroom for someone to [fix it]. That happens often, at least in my school, the bathroom upstairs is broken and there’s 25 eighth graders waiting downstairs.”

Read the entire interview in the Reckon.

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With only two courtside tickets to a Philidelphia 76ers up for grabs for the whole Abbott Elementary faculty, tensions run high as the teachers try to decide who gets them.

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