Getting The Dream Done Keila in a study group with friends EAST BOSTON — The kids at the sixth grade assembly were saying her name, like, Oh, Of Course It’s Going to Be Keila. But Keila Hernandez didn’t believe them. This was a big award—the award for perseverance. It had to go to someone else. Only, it didn't. Mr. Pangburn, her English teacher, made the announcement, and the next minute, Keila was walking down the line of smiling teachers at Excel Academy, shaking everyone’s hand. Her face was all red, and she was trying hard not to cry, but it was only a matter of time. “When I got to the principal, that’s when it happened,” said Keila,14, several months later. “My glasses fell off and everything.” There were a lot of things she felt in that moment—excited, nervous, a little embarrassed, to be at the center of so much attention. But the main thing was proud. This was not an easy school. So many times, she could have stopped trying. But Keila wanted to go to college. Getting The Dream Done Daisy cooks the family dinner after work EAST BOSTON— Drifting is what she calls it. The way one small decision leads to another, then suddenly, the kids are out of school, standing around with friends on the street. Maybe they’re there for a day; maybe they’re there for a decade. Daisy Polanco passes them on the street, and she worries: what if it happens to hers? “I pray every day that they don’t drift to that,” says Daisy, 35, a single mother of three. “That’s my always fear.” Drifting can happen in any neighborhood, to any child. But because they live in a low-income neighborhood, and because they are Latino, and because two of them have special needs, the statistics suggest this: Daisy’s children are at higher risk for dropping out of school. Daisy is not interested in the specifics—that in Boston, 30 percent of Latino students dropped out of the class of 2008; that about half graduated on time, the lowest rate of any group of students in the city, according to the most recent state data. This is the kind of thing that interests local principals and national policy makers; it’s their job to close the gap between kids of different cultures and classes and natural capabilities. It’s their job to figure out how to boost achievement for all children—to get them into college, and to help them graduate. It’s Daisy’s job, nearly every hour of every day, to figure out how to save her own. | About This BlogWelcome to The Small Story, a blog about the lives of everyday people in Massachusetts- the challenges they face, the celebrations they make, and the communities they like to call home.
It’s a natural extension of the eight years I spent as a newspaper reporter, first at The Hartford Courant, then at The Seattle Times. Time and again, the small story pulled me in: the first day of school for a boy displaced by Hurricane Katrina, the final months of foster care for a tired teenager, the slow road to recovery for an injured Iraq War veteran and his mother. I work full-time as an editor now, and write this blog on the side. In the rush of reality TV, and minute-by-minute media coverage, the small story still says something important to me, about who we are, and how we live in this country. Here’s hoping you feel the same. - Cara Solomon Email:cara@thesmallstory.com Twitter: csmallstory Become a fan of The Small Story on Facebook, or shoot me an email and I'll put you on a "new story alert" list! Thanks for reading...  CategoriesAll ArchivesFebruary 2010 |
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