New Yorker

I 'borrowed' this New Yorker from my gym the other day so that I could finish an article I was reading. It was one of those articles about a school in a poor area which is underachieving and one man's quest to fix it. This one man was a newly appointed member to run a whole school district consisting of 150 schools or so. The article was about 16 pages long (and they were long pages) and I followed a few hopeful students on their journey as they tried to stand apart while also supporting their families, etc. It was a very typical article, well written, except that the school closed (they talked about how they would reopen it restructured), and the students we followed all but gave up hope. I was upset. I mean, that's the way it actually is out there, I'm not a big fan of Hollywood endings, I was just hoping that the article would give me insight on turning around a school. Maybe a model to follow. I was also hoping it ended well so I could xerox it and give it to my principal. Nope. I was also kind of upset that I read the whole thing and learned very little. Felt like a waste of time.

One thing I did like was from one of the 'hopeless students'. She's into poetry and wrote this good phrase about her life:

Go home be ashamed
foodstamps to medicaid
poor slang hustlas
we are all each other customers
boys go from apple jacks to weed sacks
fast.

Also reminded me of Def Poetry Jam which is starting a new season again. Such a good show.