Wildness

Exhausted and with pain in every joint, I prowled the subway car for seats. A young black man got up instantly and gave me his. When another seat opened up and I offered to move to it so that he and his friend could sit back together, he nearly insisted that I do not, but I did because I wanted to do something to return the favor. The sympathy he felt for me was instant.

A few days later, my friend Sharon and I were riding the subway and a group of very stoned urban teenagers got on the train. One asked as politely as anyone could, if he could have one of our brownies (our nutritious dinner) and Sharon gave him one. Before he took it, he asked if we were sure that we had enough for ourselves. He was quite serious. We did, and then he graciously took it and thanked us both. All right, he was stoned. But, he was more polite than many adults I've met.

We forget sometimes, when we are surrounded by wildness from every age and level of anger, that our young people are capable of goodness.

Every day, my students help each other in some way. There is never any violence at our school -- not to say that people don't verbally assault each other periodically. But, the air is full of deep breaths and watchful eyes. Our security team will talk a kid out of getting too heated, as will our small and new counseling team, our teachers and the rest of the student body. No one wants to see a fight, even if they act like they do sometimes. They like gossip and rumors like most teenagers. But, the school has been home. A peaceful and quiet one.

If you got to www.bcnhs.org, you can read student essays. One student simply says, "I love it here."