October 13, 2010

(Trenton, NJ)In one room, I met a future astrophysicist, psychologist, pediatrician, and forensic scientist. Four students in a Trenton Public School Advanced Placement Biology class. Of the quartet, I was only able to secure permission from three of the parents to be able to identify them, so, even with the principal’s permission, I’m not naming any of them, for to leave one out of this written version of a class photo would be somewhat whack.

They are, in the two and half years I’ve been in the learning environment that is the Trenton Public School System, the most motivated, intelligent, articulate, and confident students with whom I’ve had the privilege of interacting. It was refreshing and, because of what I do in this space, so opportune. I have longed to write about positive, uplifting experiences as an aspiring teacher in a school district on which many have seemingly given up. I must highlight such students for two reasons: 1) because of the numerous accounts of negative deeds and poor scholastic performance of students in our public schools, someone has to applaud and spread the word about the good students whose parents, for whatever reason, don’t have them in a private school outside our city limits and, 2) a normally disruptive boy or girl may hear about these guys and maybe, just maybe, consider changing their agenda at school from seeking attention through bad behavior to being known for academic achievement. It can happen.

First, let me share the reason I learned there are only four students in the class. I was told by a District employee that certainly more students qualify for that and other AP courses, but when Our Town’s School District made class schedules, it set all the Advanced Placement classes at this school FOR THE SAME TIME, leaving students to choose which one they would take. Kudos to the employee for explaining that without laughing. It would be cool if that’s fixed next semester going forward, so students can bolster their GPA’s by taking more AP classes.  They would become legitimately more competitive, academically, when applying to colleges. Freshman courses are more rigorous these days. Achieving high marks in multiple AP classes shows recruiters an ability to handle a demanding course load from day one.

The students’ regular teacher was completing another task in the building, leaving them to navigate the internet on their own to locate enrichment material complimenting the textbook chapter on forms of energy. Together, they read the material and took notes. At no time did any of them try to minimize that screen and open another to surf the internet for songs and pictures of their favorite rapper or clothing. I’ve been in some classes whose computers have been removed because students were repeatedly using them for things that were in no way related to the day’s lesson or assignments. While doing this, the four students shared with me their career goals and college choices. I was further impressed with their ability to take thorough notes on the day’s lesson AND hold an in-depth discussion on the controversial new immigration law in Arizona. It was led by the aspiring psychologist, who researched the issue during the summer and follows it on the news.  

I hope and pray these four students continue to reach for the stars through education and achieve all their goals. I hope all their instructors recognize their thirst for knowledge and continue to challenge them. Students of this ilk will play an important part in re-raising the academic bar in our public schools.

Hovering over all this, in my mind, were two things. First, the makeup of this young think tank: 3 Hispanic females, 1 Negro male. As far as the quantity and ethnic composition of students who walk into any given class in a public school in Our Town, sit down, prepared and ready to follow a teacher’s instructions, it is a picture close to what I have seen in the District in classrooms I’ve worked, from elementary to high school. My friends who teach in other parts of this country see the same thing. The second was this question: how many of these students are going to leave Our Town as it is, go to college, begin pursuing their career goals and, somewhere in there, return to Trenton, buy a home and, possibly, raise a family next to those who, during their scholastic careers, performed the polar opposite of the way these four students did in the Advanced Placement Biology class? Look around, and be assured that there have been some (a Supreme Court Justice, a mayor of New York, to name two) from This Town who have achieved the heights for which these young people are striving. Very few have returned.

Skip Harrison is an educator, freelance journalist, and parent, residing in Trenton, New Jersey.