For some, mention of an inner city public school might evoke scenes from Dangerous Minds. These schools are supposedly overflowing with misguided neighborhood students, pregnant teenagers, and egomaniacal principals. In reality, these figures are marginal, the majority of teachers don’t look like Michelle Pfiefer, and Coolio’s Gangsta’s Paradise is not the soundtrack to which students go about their daily business.However, succeeding in an inner city school district is a struggle against the elements. Focus and ambition are necessary tools in anybody’s battle for survival, but especially while combating violence, overcrowding, and the heated pressure of these things combined. At the end of the day, a choice must be made. Will I survive academically? Or will succumb to these elements? Will I swim upstream? Or will I let myself be carried away by unceasing white waters? Maybe the questions aren’t that simple. Perhaps the question is: will I beat the system? Or will I leave and create my own?Northeast High School is located on the Northeast edge of Philadelphia. Considered mild in comparison to certain public high school’s closer to north Philadelphia, roughly 75% of students at Northeast graduate high school. This number still fails the state target of 80%, but exceeds the district graduation rate of 68%. Joyce, 17-years-old and a junior at Northeast High, has watched her class get smaller and smaller each year. While many of her friends have dropped out, the dwindling class size grants Joyce and other college bound students a little more room to breathe.For Joyce, a typical day begins with a long wait to get to class in the sweltering heat of the hallways. “Well, I go in, it’s a big school, it’s really crowded,” she carefully explains. “It’s hot in the summer. There are lines to get into classes. Some people walk slow to prevent you from getting to class on time,” says Joyce shyly over the telephone. Unfortunately, the struggle doesn’t stop there. Once in class, Joyce’s classmates bully her for the hard earned homework she never fails to complete. Catching on, she’s learned to lie about doing her homework. It seems so backwards that the most difficult thing about school is not doing the actual work, but holding onto it amongst grappling hands.The sheer population of Northeast High seems overwhelming to Joyce. “There are bullies everywhere. The population of the school is too big to control.” She points out that she’s constantly afraid of something like a Columbine happening with so many undisciplined people running around. “They need to be more strict with the students sometimes. There’s a lot of kids, and they accept kids from everywhere. A kid who lives in a neighborhood far away can come to our school,” Joyce explains.When the safety issue was mentioned, 30-year veteran of the Philadelphia School District Sharon Boslet, insisted that “the safest part of a kid’s day is when they’re at school.” However, this statistic-based fact seems arbitrary in the long run. Although technically a student might be in less physical danger at school then on the streets, fear and anxiety can be a lot more psychologically damaging in terms of academic performance and overall desire to come to school, Joyce speaks expressively about Northeast High. Her words sound confident and she is confident about her path to finish high school and get into college no matter what it takes. But behind her words there is some sort of timidity that can only come from years and years of being a smart kid in a Philadelphia public school. When asked what’s cool in school nowadays, Joyce sadly replied, “In order for you to be cool, you can’t be smart.”Joyce has a lot to criticize about her school, but she is certainly not a complainer. During her time away from school, she fills her hours with an impressive list of dance classes which include tap, jazz, lyrical, and hip-hop. She also plays the saxophone in her high school band. Her parents are interested in her academic life and she regularly goes to church with them. Joyce credits not only her own aspirations, but a bond with certain teachers and band mates for keeping her in school. Sharon Boslet claims that “with kids, what makes or breaks a school education is who they connect with.”Peter* seems to wholeheartedly agree with this adage. Coming from the other end of the high school continuum, Peter had connected with no one and recently chose to drop out of Northeast High. His story is a disparaging one. Beginning his education at Dougherty Catholic School, he was kicked out during his sophomore year because his family couldn’t pay the fees anymore. Losing too many of his credit points during the transfer to Northeast, Peter was relegated to repeat a daunting amount of classes. Just like anyone in high school anywhere else, he wanted to graduate as soon as possible.Peter remembers his experiences throughout the year he spent at Northeast. With incredulous excitement and disbelief he recalls one of the worst after school fights he’s ever witnessed. “There are a lot of crazy fights at that school, there were people fighting on cars. One time I seen this kid running from a group of bullies. He ran to burger king but they caught up with him and smashed his head into a car window. A shitload of kids went runnin’ up the street to watch.”It wasn’t just the violence at Northeast High that pushed him over the edge. In his hard Longcrest accent, Peter tells of the incident that brought him to his current situation. “This teacher was a physics teacher, he sat there quiet every day, didn’t talk to no one. He gave us dirty looks like he hated us all or somethin’. This one day, we had a test, and everyone asked him if they could write on the test and he said yeah. When we got the tests back, he failed everyone for writing on it.” Shortly after, Peter left Northeast and high school for good.“I’m a bum musician now,” Peter half jokes. He seems somewhat ashamed of his decision, as though the interested voice on the other line is going to judge him or think he isn’t intelligent. However, Peter is far from stupid, using his time off a construction job to work in a studio on Frankfort Ave. with his rock band. He says that they sound like a mixture of Rage Against the Machine and System of a Down; the inspiration from politically minded bands followed him out of high school. Peter considers his path in life an open ended question not determined by his choice to leave high school for good. A GED might be in his future, he hints. He would rather his band get some gigs and make some money.Problems in Philadelphia public high schools seem to transcend popular misconceptions about the system. Many people believe that racial diversity is an issue in Philadelphia public schools but both Joyce and Peter appreciate the racial mixture at Northeast High. Of Puerto Rican descent, Joyce has never felt persecuted in school for her heritage and has close friends of all ethnic groups. Peter spoke more candidly. “Everyone thinks that black people ruined the schools, but that’s not true.”“People think we’re not doing a good job and indeed the problems are difficult. But we maintain a rigorous curriculum, and we’re well supplied,” says Sharon Boslet of the Philadelphia School District. “I’m a strong believer in public schools because it’s public education that gives everyone the opportunity to go beyond their parents,” she continued.Peter was disillusioned with high school and playing the game, so he left to create a life for himself. The state calls him a failure but he might just be an eighteen year old nonconformist. On the other end, Joyce has her entire life planned out ahead of her even though she hasn’t even gotten her SAT scores back yet. She’s ambitious, young, and given the circumstances she might even be called an overachiever. When asked what she hopes to do post college, she said with longing, “I’d like to go far, to Los Angeles.”Perhaps Peter said it best. “If you wanted to learn, you wanted to learn.” Maybe it’s really that simple. Maybe the obstacles will always remain the same and the decision to succeed is purely left to the determination of that individual. At the end of the day it might only be a matter of doing what you feel is the best for yourself.

2 Responses to “Two Roads Diverged”

1. Paul B. Says:
   November 2nd, 2006 at 2:02 am

   Very interesting article! Thanks for taking the time to pursue covering such an important issue - our children’s education. There was a press conference about budget cuts on public education the other day in Philly…did anyone make it by chance?

2. Karen Says:
   November 7th, 2006 at 7:29 pm

   I liked how you actually went and talked to some of these kids…very intriguing.

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