A problem that seemed socially and economically enormous was broken into something concrete and manageable.
Dignity Before Data
There is also another way to understand the project.
It was about dignity.
Teenagers experiencing poverty often become extremely skilled at hiding it.
They may hide hunger.
They may hide unstable housing.
They may hide the fact that they cannot afford something their classmates consider ordinary.
The student Cook described carrying dirty clothes in her bag did not want the school to discover what she was experiencing.
That reaction makes the laundry project particularly meaningful.
Instead of forcing students to publicly prove that they were poor enough to deserve help, the school created a practical resource they could use.
A washing machine could not fix every challenge in a student's life.
But clean clothes could remove one source of anxiety before that student entered a classroom.
Sometimes that is enough to make the next step possible.
Education Can Begin With Something Very Basic
The story of Akbar Cook and West Side High School became widely shared because it challenged a common assumption about why students struggle.
From a distance, chronic absenteeism can easily be interpreted as a lack of motivation.
Up close, the explanation can be much more complicated.
Some of Cook's students were not necessarily rejecting education.
They were avoiding humiliation.
And once the school understood that distinction, the response changed.
Cook didn't simply tell students that school mattered.
He tried to make it easier for them to walk through the door.
That meant taking an old locker room and filling it with five washing machines and five dryers.
It meant securing approximately $20,000 in grant funding.
It meant finding detergent.
It meant giving students several hours after school to wash their clothes.
Most importantly, it meant paying attention to what students were actually saying — and sometimes to what they were too embarrassed to say.
The result became much more than a school laundromat.
It was an example of an educator recognizing that before a teenager can concentrate on algebra, literature or science, that teenager may need to feel safe walking into the room.
And sometimes helping a student return to class does not begin with a textbook.
Sometimes it begins with a clean shirt.
Sources
The Washington Post — August 20, 2018: “New Jersey students were bullied online for wearing dirty clothes. Their principal just installed washers and dryers.” Contemporary reporting on West Side High School, the absenteeism problem, social-media bullying, the $20,000 PSEG Foundation grant and installation of five washers and five dryers.
CBS New York — September 17, 2018: “N.J. School's Laundry Program Teaching Bullied Kids To Wash And Learn.” Reporting on the school's after-school laundry program, donated supplies and Cook's comments about student confidence.
CBS News — March 26, 2019: “How a laundry room revolutionized a New Jersey high school.” Follow-up reporting showing students using the facility and documenting the continued operation of the program.
ABC News — August 27, 2018: “This high school principal is battling bullying with bleach and suds.” Reporting on bullying related to dirty clothing, absenteeism and the school's free laundry facility.
Newark Public Schools — West Side High School: Official school information identifying Akbar Cook as principal of West Side High School in Newark, New Jersey.