Short Scene Preview to Annual Exchange Day
Introducing Annual Student Exchange Day & Topic of School Violence
Teacher Secret #48: We do not gather around water coolers, hallway drinking fountains or teacher lounge vending machines. We briefly congregate around the designated printer room, often running out of paper or desperately trying to clear a jammed feed before the bell to class rings.
MR. TERN: (Exiting in a hurry with class set of 30 copies) We’re resuming our annual Student Exchange Day this Thursday, where we visit a much wealthier suburban community only seven miles north. I’m anxious to hear about one discussion topic, why there’s so many fights at our school.
MS. REE: Good luck.
MR. TERN: Thanks. First time in over three years. I’ll let you know how it goes.
MS. REE: Please do.
Former Detroit Mackenzie High School gym. Opened in 1928, closed in 2007, demolished in 2012. A logical eventual destination with considerable poverty, inadequate funding, high crime — and disappearing communities.
Two days later. Introducing our unique exchange experience, remarkably continuing for over 20 years. Two dozen students converge from two separate high schools: one all African American, mainly lower middle class; the other, all white, mainly upper middle class, in Birmingham, Michigan.
The students tentatively gather into two concentric circles, alternating their respective seats, in the large school’s fully functioning Media Center. At first, the inner circle, the one verbally having the floor, responds hesitantly to the suburban host teacher’s general prompt. It’s about school violence.
Abruptly, one of the visiting urban students blurts out, “How many fights do you have in a day, or in a week?”
Several suburban counterparts instantly reply, “Zero” and “Not one all year.”
Collective groaning fills the stirring space, before the student hosts start asking the obvious follow-up questions, “So why do you fight? What for?”
They really want to know. “What do you fight about?”
“Everything. . . .”
TO BE CONTINUED. . . .
Can't wait to read about how the trip turns out! ;-)
Hi Bill, I like the beginning dialogues. Eiyah