From the Archives: November 1990

This article originally appeared in the November 1990 issue of Sojourners. Read the full article in the archives.

I REMEMBER one particularly troubling occasion at I.S. 61, Leonardo da Vinci Intermediate School in Queens. I was in sixth grade, class 6C, an SP (special progress) class. One day, midway through the school year, the assistant principal walked into my homeroom class and told me that I was being transferred into 6N. ... When you are 10 years old and in the third-ranked class in the sixth grade, to be told suddenly in front of your classmates that you are being transferred into the 14th-ranked class is embarrassing. In the few seconds it took for my mind to absorb this bad news and the shock of it, the opinion of my classmates of me changed from “peer” (meaning somewhat smart) to “dumb.”

The next morning I reported to class 6N. I told the teacher that I really did not belong there and that no one explained to me why I was being transferred. Had I been struggling in my subjects? ... The most painful part was the plummet in expectations for me by my teachers. I had no relationship with them or my classmates, or with the guidance counselor who was absent during this two-week nightmare and the administration that had arbitrarily removed me from one social group to another. Everything was different: expectations, requirements, friends, attitudes toward school and learning, values, and life chances. Although I was put back into class 6C after two weeks, no explanation was given to me except that a mistake had been made.

Anthony A. Parker was assistant editor of Sojourners when this article appeared.