ABSTRACT
One time I went to school and … I was caught bringing in a case of Samuel Adams beer I got caught stealing I was searched against my will I got good grades I fell asleep, woke up, and passed all of my classes I dropped out after 9.11 and contemplated the many means of escape I got kicked out at the end of my junior year I wrote a 40 page paper on censorship and pornography I wore the worst clothes possible I “fell down the stairs” multiple times I got kicked out of graduation practice for wearing a tube top and couldn’t walk with my class I left school to get my GED because school felt like the land of doom For four years I was mis-educated (Slam book excerpt, Summer 2006)
You want me to paint the picture? This is where it gets a little crazy. I don’t know if you are ready for this. My first day of high school was waking up in the morning, and already thinking about this new experience. I’m kind of excited because I’m going to meet new people … I’m just like motivating myself to go out there, be myself. Make a couple of friends, whatever. Get a little clique started, whatever.
I wake up in the morning, get ready. Start walking, whatever. I get off the train and a billion people are walking with me and we’re all going the same way. Each and every person does not acknowledge one another. It's almost as if everyone in that morning was robots. Just walking there. Not wanting to go. All of them had like some kind of fear hidden underneath them like oh, I don’t want to do this. Like they just wanted to quit and give up. Already it was discouraging and I hadn’t even gotten there, I’m just walking there.
Finally, I get to the building and the building is so—it's seven stories high—it's like huge. It's a big giant building. It's a whole block. It's big. It's really big and then you see the school yard which is closed off inside. Automatically, you just get this feeling—am I going to school or minimum security? Like, am I going to school or am I going to visit my locked up uncle? So you walk in and the most unexpected thing happens. I see metal detectors. I’ve never seen metal detectors in a high school before. A lot of people are used to it but it was something that was new to me. I’m like why the hell do we have metal detectors? What's going on? Is Osama Bin Laden coming to school with us? Why do we have metal detectors? All the security guards they all look like cops. They are ready to arrest anybody right there?
… My first week that I was there were seven fights. That's crazy … a whole week went by and I hadn’t made not one friend yet.
(Jordan, interview excerpt)