School Daze

I am not enrolled in school for the first time in 17 years, which is causing a Big Ben sized identity crisis. To help remedy this I went and helped my cousin set up her classroom yesterday. She is a teacher at an alternative high school in Canarsie, Brooklyn, which is geared toward students who are either too old for the amount of credits they have, or have been removed from a traditional school because of disciplinary issues. (Her job has the possibility of both being really rewarding and really depressing.)

My high school was not modern, or particularly clean, and I saw my fair share of fights (my friends from college were shocked that we had security guards, and three vice-principals), but I have never seen a school like this. For example, the students can't use the lockers because there is a chance they'll set fire to them--and there are charred lockers to prove it. My cousin's classroom is large and has an entire wall of windows, but it also had a mouse, and we're guessing the whole school probably has asbestos. It's pretty different than the rarefied liberal arts vibe I've been used to for the past few years.

What my high school did have was some really wonderful teachers, and from what I know of my cousin, and the Canarsie high school, these students have the chance to learn a lot. And I got to put the ol' art history degree to work when I set up the section of pictures from places around the US (and a few from Europe) that my cousin will use for History Mystery questions.

(Don't you love the borders? I do! The ladies in the main office are awesome, and found us some antique map borders, which are super cool too.) We're trying to think of a good American history related quotation for above the pictures--suggestions welcome.