The first bell has just rung at Boston’s English High, a school that has been an epic failure for so long that the state has threatened to take it over. A dozen students are gathered in a fluorescent-lit room, and they are loud. So loud that you can hear them all the way down the corridor and through the cafeteria doors. So loud that they drive every thought from your head but one: Dance.
English High has a drumline. Reggie, Miasia, Australia, and the other kids stand behind tenor, bass, and snare drums. Guided through a complicated series of cadences by music teacher Eytan Wurman’s whistle, the players weave their beats into a groove that rises up and goes through you. Boom-ba-boom-ba-boom, rat-tat-tat-tat-tat, boom-ba boom-ba-boom, rat-tat-tat.
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My alma mater. Years ago, you had military drill, the schoolboy parade etc. Then there was "prize drill" which was the drill team. Latin had one too and they both would perform at half time of the English-Latin game on Thanksgiving. There was a preponderance of blacks in the English drill team and the band, particularly the drum line. As a result, the English drill team had somewhat of a rockin' hip-hop character that was totally absent in the Latin performance.
In our corporate-focused, Paul Grogan, Boston Foundation, think-tank, bubble-test, topsy-turvy educational environment nothing the good folks do at English High will make one whit of a difference unless those damned test scores come up. I can't wait till the day comes when the state closes a major Boston High School because of test scores. Bring in the bubble-test curriculum!! All hands on deck...and other trite, meaningless educational jargon words...
Unlike last year when Narcisse hired unqualified people from the Hyde Square Task Force to teach elective classes, that awarded high school credit during the school day, at least there is a real music teacher at The English High this year. However, 50 students in the music class, at a turnaround school, is not progress, it is called dumping ground! It wouldn't be happening in Wellesley or Weston! Where is all the turnaround money going? The English High School students deserve better! Good Luck English!