In the third chunk, Miles Corwin continues to address the problems of these inner city students and the insecurity of Ms. Little, by using anecdotes,description, and emotional appeal. He also uses imagery to describe the weather and the city. In this chunk many of the students are waiting to hear if they got accepted to the universities that they applied to, such as Danielle who is waiting to hear from Stanford and Willie from Morehouse, however there is also that one student, Olivia, who is waiting to hear from a judge. However, I think she probably would have rather kept on waiting for the judges decision than receiving the results she did; which was that she has stop attending Crenshaw and attend Dorothy Kirby Center for nonviolent offenders for the check hoax she was invloved in. After reading about Olivia we came across Ms. Little's breakdown, Princess and we run back into Toya. Ms. Little has officially lost it; after moving on from the dispute with Ms. Moultrie, she found something else to bicker about and make a big deal out of; she is now complaining about an offensive comment made about her and how nobody seems to care about it and take her side. She is so upset about this situation that she is looking for a new school to transfer to. The third chunk also introduces Princess, a student faced with financial problems. Princess was a student who went from a steady life style to a really poor life style. She and her mother were in a constant battle with financing, it was to the point that Princess' mother was not going to be able to pay for Princess' graduation; however her mother pulled through and got a full time job. Toya was a student who had left Crenshaw because she had baby and could not afford a day care center that would take care of her baby while she was at school, however that changed when she found a program that would pay for her day care center and allow her to attend the school she wished, as soon as she heard about this she immediately returned to Crenshaw. All of these students have one thing in common and that is their courage and ability to never give up . All of them have faced many problem and have still managed to overcome them, move on, and get the education they need so they will not have repeat those problems. For example, even though Latisha and Willie both had mothers addicted to cocaine and suffered a lot with them, they have managed to look past that and continue with their education so their kids, as well as them will not have to suffer.
Discussion Questions:
Clarification: Is Danielle upset that her father will not let her become and athlete?
Application: Do you think it is always better to stand up for what you believe in, rather than just stand around and go along with something that is against your morals? If so why?
Application: Have your parents ever done something that made you want to do better so you will not repeat what they did?
