The Make-or-Break Year by Emily Krone Phillips

Author:Emily Krone Phillips
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The New Press
Published: 2018-03-14T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 7

The students lounging on beanbag chairs in Tilden’s Peace Room on an icy day in mid-February each had a story to tell about how a change of scenery, coupled with the right supports from teachers, could alter the course of one’s academic career. They were the Tilden freshmen who had ended first semester on-track, despite having eighth-grade academic records that put them at high risk for course failure. Mr. Swinney, the principal, had wanted to get them into a room together to discuss how they had beaten the odds, information that he hoped to use to continue to refine the school’s approach to freshmen. He asked Mr. Walker, the Peace Room facilitator, and Kelvin Chung, Tilden’s counselor, to facilitate the discussion. He hoped the freshmen would be more honest without a classroom teacher, who might be seen to be judging what they were saying, in the room. On the appointed day, though, one of the daily crises that seemed to chew up Mr. Walker’s time kept him from the meeting. Ms. Holmes agreed to pinch hit.

Though the room itself was spacious, the group’s post-lunch exuberance made it feel like a crowded postgame locker room. It also smelled like one. “Someone stink,” one of the freshmen loudly observed. A loud chorus of denials followed.

“It smells like straight poo,” confirmed Marcus, one of the ten students in attendance. He was wearing his signature diamond studs in both ears, baggy khakis, and a black T-shirt that said “BAM,” which stood for Becoming a Man, the name of the mentoring program he participated in. Despite conflicts with Mr. Persaud, his math teacher, and other teachers, he had ended the semester without any failures. When Roderick was doing her study, before the Freshman OnTrack movement, the odds of someone like Marcus ending his first semester on-track were virtually nil. Sierra had also finished the semester on-track, though she was not in attendance this day. David, who had failed all of his courses first semester, had been invited to a separate meeting Swinney had organized to help off-track students get back on-track.

“People!” Ms. Holmes yelled above the commotion. “People!” she tried again. When the chatter eased slightly, she began her spiel. “If you read your invitation to this group, you would have seen that, um …” Holmes searched for the right words to tactfully convey the purpose of the meeting. As usual, she settled for the direct approach. “We are going to be open and transparent with you. All of you came into this high school with a big red flag on you.”

“’Cause we’re slow,” came a voice from the back of the room.

“No. No, not because you were slow. Because you were at risk,” Holmes clarified.

“Because we bad,” yelled another.

“No, not because you were bad, because you were at risk,” Holmes repeated. “They said that you were at risk of failing ninth grade—”

“Who said?”

Holmes persisted, “—probably due to either one or a combination of three things: One, your attendance in junior high. B, your grades.

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