Notes from The Max

Their America, 2010

On Friday June 18th, about 30 ninth-grade students at the Jeremiah Burke High School in Dorchester presented their final projects from The Courage of My Convictions program to their teachers, fellow classmates and friends from The Max. These students, led by teacher Caitlin McGrail, read from essays they had written about their America, following the example of LeAlan Jones and Lloyd Newman from one of the 9th grade anchor texts, Our America.

Similar to the students who presented last year, the students were asked to take a "long and hard look at their communities," describing in detail the sights, smells, sounds and feel of their homes, neighborhoods, towns and cities. Once again, we were honored to hear stories about Boston's neighborhoods that were honest, realistic, heartfelt, moving and hopeful. Some students also prepared additional components, ranging from maps, posters and photo collages of their homes to Power Point presentations, complete with music and animation.

In the coming weeks, we hope to be able to share excerpts from these essays with you on this blog, as we did last year. We provided the students with stenographers' notebooks and pencils, to encourage them to continue to observe and write about the world around them, to be reporters for their America, just like LeAlan and Lloyd.

"On even the darkest days in our beloved Boston, you remind me that there is hope for a brighter tomorrow. These texts have ignited an academic spark in all of you that I have have created a generation of young citizens who are aware of your ability to have a voice in your community. Thank you for your courage in sharing your America."

-Ms. McGail's letter to her 2010 ELA 9 students, in the preface to their collection of essays and poems

What Did You Think?

On Monday, we posted the eleventh and final essay from our ninth-grade students at Burke High School in Dorchester, MA. The series of essays we posted came from the students in Ms. McGrail's English Language Arts class, who participated in the ninth-grade Courage Curriculum program, The Courage of My Convictions.

After reading Our America and considering what it takes to show courage in their community, these students wrote about their America, the places where they live and learn. They described in detail what it is like to live where they live, providing an honest, heartfelt, realistic, at times unflinching, and ultimately hopeful look at life in Boston's neighborhoods. We were honored to be able to share the honest and uncensored voices of these young people.

Now, we'd like your thoughts. Getting feedback is an important part of the writing process, so we invite you to add your encouraging comments for our young authors. It is our hope that this experience will encourage these students to continue writing.

In addition, be sure to check back here in future weeks for more student essays. We'll be posting work written by sixth graders from Boston and beyond, from 1993 to the present as well as recent essays from students studying English and participating in The Max Warburg Courage Curriculum as far away as Thailand!

Cashman's America

Today we proudly present Cashman's America. The views expressed in the following essay are his alone. We kindly ask that you do not reprint or post this essay without written permission from The Max Warburg Courage Curriculum. Cashman's essay represents the eleventh and final installment of guest essays from Ms. McGrail's 9th grade English Language Arts class at Burke High School. We hope you've enjoyed them as much as we have.

My America looks unpleasant because when you walk down the street you always see litter on the ground, which makes the air smell bad. There is also bad air pollution because of people smoking and not caring about how it may affect others. Life in my America feels okay, but it's not the best. I try to make every effort to make it better. I do that by not littering and making sure that I keep where I live clean.

In addition, we have friends to protect us and be our guide when times get rough. However, there are people who will not like you nor respect you. The most important thing to the people in my America is their family and their reputation in society. Some people in my America believe in God and go to church on Sundays.

There are also those who believe in loyalty and will do anything to get it. Some people will kill to earn respect, but that is not the right way at all. Their lives depend on who they are and what they are doing. There are some people who try to make their lives better by enrolling in school and getting a proper education so they can be successful in life. There are those who affiliate themselves with gangs and do dreadful things to get themselves in trouble, including robbery, theft, murder and assaulting people. This is how everyone in my America is portrayed because of this negative behavior. this makes my society look awful and that's not fair.

My America is overwhelming and hard. It takes a lot of courage to live day by day, especially when you always have people disturbing you. For example, in my America, it is a constant struggle to fall asleep at night because my neighbors play loud music that keeps me awake. I hear mothers yelling at their children and I see youth all around. My America is not a safe place to live at all.

My America is a place of hope and change. I strive to be the best I can be in all that I do. I am capable of being successful by being a leader and by surpassing all the negativity that surrounds me everyday. I am convinced that anyone in my America can make a difference in my neighborhood if they are willing to do so. In my America, negativity exists, but there are those who try to be positive to make a difference. People should be aware that in my America, it's not worth it to do wrong things. Anyone can make an impact by having the mentality to know that success requires the vision to see, the ability to believe and the determination to succeed. Cashman O., signing off.

Robert's America

The following essay was written by Robert M., a student in Ms. McGrail's ninth grade ELA class at Burke High School. The views expressed are solely his own and are not to be re-printed or published without the organization’s consent. Robert's essay represents the tenth essay in a series of eleven, written by students participating in The Max Warburg Courage Curriculum’s ninth grade program, The Courage of My Convictions.

Forty years ago, 20-30% of Grove Hall's residents were Afro-Americans and Latino-Americans. Now about 92% of the Grove Hall community is Afro-American and Latino-American. Grove Hall is located in the inner-city of Boston where there are many homicides, thefts and violence.

Grove Hall doesn't only hold tears and heartbreaking times. It holds laughs and memorable moments in my life. Even though many crimes have been committed in my community, I still love living here. The reason why I love Grove Hall is because I have been living here since I was a little "seed." My family and friends are in Grove Hall. I feel safe and sound when I'm here. I feel as if I don't need to be afraid of anything because I know everyone in my neighborhood.

I live a hard-working life. In my community, you have to grow up fast and we sometimes feel that the court of law doesn't apply; however the laws of the streets do. In apartment buildings, once you walk inside you can smell urine, drugs and mildew. The streets are filled with hoodlums; the walls are covered with graffiti. You can hear gunshots from time to time. Even though all of this goes on in my community, I still love it.

The only type of employment I see is dealing drugs and I know that drug dealers are killing their own kind. However, I still respect them because they are trying to make ends meet. I often see independent mothers working two or three jobs. I always feel awful for the hard-working single parents. Most of the families in my community are on welfare.

I know I live in a dangerous community, but I adore it. There is always something to do. I can go play ball and the dealers always look out for me by giving me money and asking how my mom is doing. In my neighborhood, no one is better than anyone else. I like it when the adults or older kids pick fights with my friends and me. It's not that they are trying to hurt us; they are trying to make us tougher. In the summer, we always have balloon fights and we turn on the fire hydrant and play in the water. I hate it when the cops come and turn it off.

I adore Grove Hall even though it is a rough place to grow up. I always wonder what it was like living in Grove Hall 40 years ago. I bet life back then was completely different.

Natiyanna's America

We are pleased to share with you our ninth installment of guest essays from Ms. McGrail's 9th grade English Language Arts class at Burke High School.  Today we proudly present Natiyanna's America.  The views expressed in the following essay are Natiyanna's alone.  We kindly ask that you do not reprint or post this essay without written permission from The Max Warburg Courage Curriculum.  Enjoy!

My America is a place where there is so much drama, but so much fun. It is a place where not many people get along, but you live and love it. No matter how much conflict there is, people still call it home. That's where we live. My America feels like home. I'm used to the things that happen in my America; it's nothing really new to me. I've lived there so long that I'm used to the yelling, screaming, fighting, the things that happen on my street, the things that happen that I'm surrounded by.

My America sounds busy, loud, like people are always doing something: kids playing outside or grown people sitting outside reminiscing about the old days. The people that live in my America are my family, friends, neighbors, people from different cultures, and just people around me. Everyone's lives are different from each other's. Their lives are hard, difficult, smooth, easy, good, happy. But sometimes you wouldn't realize it. Maybe you will never know about the things that happen in their homes, in their families. They may look happy on the outside, but could be hurt and going through a lot in the inside. You never know what goes on behind closed doors.

Most people that live in my America believe in making things work. They believe in trying and in not giving up. They believe in what is important to them: their families, their jobs, their friends. They believe in working hard themselves and they believe in their families working hard as well. They work for what they have and they try to keep it that way.

But my community isn't perfect. The families in my community have their ups and downs and they go through their troubles. There are some issues that should be addressed to change my community. There are issues like the shooting, the fighting, the hate in the community, and the drama. By "drama" I mean the bad events that take place in my neighborhood or community. Something should be done about it. Something needs to be done about it. Something needs to be done to make my America a better place and a safe place where there is no violence, drama, hate, fighting and shooting. Anybody can make this change in our community. This would change the events that happen here and it would make our community a better place for the people who live here. Maybe helping out will rub off on the people who are involved with the drama, and influence them to change. Maybe this can happen in my America.

Tyree's America

We are pleased to share with you our eighth installment of guest essays from Ms. McGrail's 9th grade English Language Arts class at Burke High School.  Today we proudly present Tyree's America.  The views expressed in the following essay are Tyree's alone.  We kindly ask that you do not reprint or post this essay without written permission from The Max Warburg Courage Curriculum.  Enjoy!

My America

My America is a place where a person has to look out for everything around them, because it’s crazy out in these streets. People will sometimes approach a person to see where you are from for no reason. For an example, they might approach a person for what he or she is wearing and they might think you’re from a hood.  It’s also a place that you can call home because you get used to everything. A lot of people know each other and this makes everyone feel safer with the people around them.

            My America looks dirty, like there’s trash everywhere - in fields, beside homes and on the main streeets, and there is trash over flowing. I hear people talking, yelling, fire trucks, police cars and I also see cars riding around, people sitting on their porches on warm days, cats and sometimes dogs walking around, and homeless people.  I smell smoke from people smoking or houses burning, people cooking food in or outside, and even food from stores.

            There are many different people who live in my America.  There are single mothers who have to take care of their kids by themselves.  There are teen parents who drop out of school for their newborns. There are bums who ask for money everyday and everywhere you go.  There are crack heads who always want drugs and more and hood gangs that always fight and kill mostly for no reason at all or for anything that is serious.

            To me, in my America, if it’s too quiet, it means something bad is going to happen or something already did. Basically it feels like a small world, because most likely everyone knows each other. There are people who go to school and people who don’t. There are people who live their lives in the streets and people who don’t. There’s positive and negative in my America, but that doesn’t matter unless you put yourself worrying about it.  My America means a lot to me, because it’s a place in which I feel free and where I can do anything I want and it is a place where all of my friends and family live.

Stay Tuned...

Starting on Monday (June 29th) and continuing through the month of July, each Monday and Thursday, we will be posting a selection of writings from ninth-grade English Language Arts students at Burke High School. As part of the ninth-grade The Courage of My Convictions program, the students read Our America and then wrote about life in their America.

These essays and poems are personal, often making reference to people, places and things the students encounter in their lives. The following may help give readers some context:

• Ghetto Life 101, the original radio broadcast by LeAlan Jones and Llyod Newman (which inspired the book Our America)
• Map of Dorchester, MA (a section of Boston)
• Jeremiah E. Burke High School
• Definition of "repping" or "reppin'"

Please note that the views shared in each essay or poem belong soley to the author.  We are honored to be able to share the honest and uncensored voices of these young people.  We kindly ask that you do not reprint or repost any of this content without expressed written permission from The Max Warburg Courage Curriculum. 

If you would like more information about our ninth grade program, please do not hesitate to contact The Max's program director, Elizabeth Evans at eevans@maxcourage.org.

Their America

"You must learn our America as we must learn your America, so that, maybe, someday, we can become one." - LeAlan Jones, Our America: Life and Death on the South Side of Chicago

Yesterday, about 30 students at the Jeremiah Burke High School in Dorchester who participated in the Courage Curriculum's ninth-grade program presented their final projects to their classmates, teachers, and friends from The Max.

The students read essays and poems about their America, describing in detail what it is like to live where they live. In addition, some students had created maps, drawings and photo collages of their neighborhoods, visually portraying their world. The result was an honest, heartfelt, realistic, at times unflinching, and ultimately hopeful look at life in Boston's neighborhoods.

These projects mark the conclusion of the year-long program, which builds on our sixth grade program and challenges students to put their courage into action.  By framing Max's story with an emphasis on how he and his family worked to unite a community around a specific cause, the students learn how they too are capable of such acts of courage.

The Courage of My Convictions features two anchor texts, Our America by LeAlan Jones and Lloyd Newman and Fences by August Wilson and is being taught at several high schools in Boston and surrounding neighborhoods.  Ms. McGrail, a ninth grade ELA teacher at the Burke, is teaching The Courage of My Convictions for the first time and has been an incredible source of inspiration as we continually seek to refine the program.  Ms. McGrail worked tirelessly to engage her students in meaningful reading and classroom discussion, building on the themes outlined in these two texts, as well as Max's Story.  She charged her students with developing a writing portfolio for their courage unit that would describe, using varied media, their America. 

Each student wrote a personal essay, inspired by LeAlan, Lloyd and Max and their courage to take a "long and hard look at their communities."  Students considered the following questions in developing their essays (from Ms.McGrail's Final Project: "Your America," adapted from Courage Curriculum materials):

• How would you describe Your America?

• How does your America look, feel, sound or smell?

• Who are the people who live there, and what are their lives like?

• What do they believe in, and what is important to them?

• What truths about your community do you think should be shared with the people of Boston?

• What issues should be shared with others in order to bring about change in your community?

In addition to the personal essay, students could chose from several additional assignments, including an annotated map of their neighborhood, an intervew with a neighbor or faculty/staff member at Burke High School, a thank you letter to a supportive family member, a collection of photos that illustrate their America, a collection of three or more poems about their community, and a PSA about a specific issue.

Ms. McGrail invited us to join her class as they presented a selection of writings from these porfolios.  The experience was altogether moving and inspiring.  We were honored to be able to share the day with such talented and promising students, who are clearly in good hands in Ms. McGrail's classroom.  She is incredible. 

In the coming weeks and months, we hope to share some of these students' work with you, here on our blog and on our web site.  We have encouraged the students to continue writing, giving them journals and writing prompts to consider over the summer.  In the meantime, we will leave you with the preface to their collection of essays and poetry:

"Through the lives and words of Max Warburg, August Wilson, LeAlan Jones and Lloyd Newman, we have learned that it takes courage to look long and hard at our communities and expose any problems for the world to see. [Our essays] describe what it is like to live where we live...what it is like to live in our America. Our essays are honest. They are critical. They are hopeful. They are courageous. We are courageous for sharing them." - ELA 9 Students, Burke High School

[Pictures from the event can be found on the right, under "Photo Albums"]

Remembering August Wilson

Today would have been August Wilson's 64th birthday. Wilson, born in 1945, passed away from liver cancer in 2005, but his contributions to the literature and drama are still well-known and celebrated across the country.

As a playwright, Wilson won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama twice - once in 1987 for Fences (a Courage Curriculum text for our ninth-grade program, chosen for its exploration of the virtue of courage in relation to family, racism and death) and once in 1990 for The Piano Lesson. Both plays are a part of Wilson's Pittsburgh Cycle, a series of ten plays reflecting on the African-American experience in the 20th century, with each play representing a specific decade. Wilson won numerous awards (besides the two Pulitzers) for these plays, including New York Drama Critics Circle awards, Drama Desk awards, Tony awards and American Theater Critics Association awards.

Wilson's achievements in drama are remarkable, even more so when you consider that he dropped out of high school. The son of a white German immigrant and an African-American woman, Wilson endured a constant barrage of racism as the only African-American student in his 1950's, 1960's high school. Tired of the taunts and threats, Wilson left school at age 15 and educated himself at the local library. Due to his ingenious and extensive use of the library's resources, in 1999 the Carnegie Library (Pittsburgh) awarded Wilson its first - and only - high school diploma.

After his death, two institutions were renewed in his honor: Broadway's Virginia Theater became the August Wilson Theater, the first Broadway theater to be named after an African-American; and the African American Cultural Center of Greater Pittsburgh was renamed the August Wilson Center for African-American Culture. The latter provides more details about Wilson's life and his contributions to Pittsburgh, theater and African-American literature.