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The scene opens at an award assembly to honor the few distinguished students of Ballou High School. Unfortunately, the assembly basically made sure "the whiteys' now had faces. The honor students were hazed for months afterwards (Suskind 3)." In addition to showing the adversity Cedric faces from his peers, the opening chapter also portrays Cedric positively. "Cedric Jennings often retreats [to Mr. Taylor's classroom to practice SAT problems (Suskind 4)]." Unfortunately, one person can only be so positive with a negative world surrounding them. Cedric must cope with drug dealers, fatal shootings, poverty, and a hostile school environment, something most college students rarely experience. His school is a war zone, where the speaker system announces, "Attention Students. We are in Code Blue (Suskind 15)." This use of militaristic language shows the fear and anxiety the students are faced with each and every day. The chapter closes with Cedric remembering the time a gun was pulled on him by a boy who had seen him win some money at the assembly. Cedric was scared to death, but resolved to himself "that's something he can live with (Suskind
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We won't be growing up in any ghettos any time soon after all. However, I attended a very poor high school. I have personally seen the poor black students, the ones who have no dreams of going on to college. I was never in Cedric's shoes, but I can see how hard it was for him to excel. There is no motivation for those students. If they get a D, it's ok. They are often overlooked, and most of the schools' resources were provided to the magnet students. Most of their parent's were not encouraging them to do well when they got home. Most of their parent's probably dropped out themselves. Teachers were constantly frustrated with how little the students knew. No one would take responsibility for teaching them to read. I think this novel does a great job at highlighting the flaw in our society. We need to spend more resources on the poor minority students when they are younger. We need to encourage them while they still have hope, so we can keep encouraging them when they feel like giving up. Cedric could have been just another graduate of Ballou High School, already quite an achievement, but he pushed himself to excel at Brown University. And along the way, he learned about himself, and taught us a little about his
We won't be growing up in any ghettos any time soon after all. However, I attended a very poor high school. I have personally seen the poor black students, the ones who have no dreams of going on to college. I was never in Cedric's shoes, but I can see how hard it was for him to excel. There is no motivation for those students. If they get a D, it's ok. They are often overlooked, and most of the schools' resources were provided to the magnet students. Most of their parent's were not encouraging them to do well when they got home. Most of their parent's probably dropped out themselves. Teachers were constantly frustrated with how little the students knew. No one would take responsibility for teaching them to read. I think this novel does a great job at highlighting the flaw in our society. We need to spend more resources on the poor minority students when they are younger. We need to encourage them while they still have hope, so we can keep encouraging them when they feel like giving up. Cedric could have been just another graduate of Ballou High School, already quite an achievement, but he pushed himself to excel at Brown University. And along the way, he learned about himself, and taught us a little about his