Free Early Decision by Lacy Crawford Page B

Anne said. “In truth, what are the two houses of Congress?”
    â€œThe Senate and the . . .” began a girl. Then silence. As in all classrooms throughout time, the second hand on the clock gave an excruciating tick-tick-tick .
    â€œThe House of Representatives,” finished Anne. “Good. Now, what is meant by ‘Republicans’?”
    She scanned the Spanish speakers to see if anyone seemed confident. One moon-faced girl wore a slight smile. Her cheeks were grazed with stubbly pimples, but her wide features were graceful, and there was something sophisticated in her loose ponytail. “How about you?” Anne asked, nodding at the girl.
    â€œG-O-P,” she answered cleanly. “Grand Old Party. One of the two dominant political parties. They’re the elephants, I’m not sure why. Red states. Party of Bush. They control the House—that’s the other part of Congress.”
    Bingo, thought Anne. This was their girl. An autodidact. And she watched the news.
    â€œCristina, is that right?” Anne asked.
    Cristina withered at the sound of her name. She nodded.
    â€œNo, it’s good. You’re right, on all counts.”
    It took half an hour to get through the six paragraphs on the front page, at which point the exercise had run its course. It overwhelmed Anne, every week, the number of definitions and references she’d have to teach to give context to a single news story. How helpful was it to talk about elephants and donkeys? Should she say, Immigration reform will die, and here’s why ? Discuss the impact of No Child Left Behind? Clearly not. Inappropriate, probably unethical. But what would be helpful, truly? In three years she’d seen a handful of kids go on to city colleges and a few state campuses. Thereafter she lost touch with them and could only imagine their lives.
    But a student like Cristina reassured Anne that she might do more in that classroom than shore up her own self-respect. For ninety minutes they drilled math questions for the ACT. These kids were the only ones in their class of twelve hundred to sit the exam. Math was easier than history or politics, certainly easier than language. In her mind, Anne was working out what to say to Gideon Blanchard about this girl Cristina. She paced with an open practice-test booklet in her hand and tried to make things as simple as she could. She chalked names and numbers on the board as she dictated: “Peter and William each have twenty dollars. Elizabeth and Margo each have multiples of twenty dollars. Elizabeth has four times the amount William has. Margo has twice the amount Peter has. How much more money do the girls have than the boys?”
    She looked up and waited for the students to scribble their figures. Some of the boys set to it. Cristina narrowed her eyes, worked it out, and then resumed her slight smile. The polyglot in the abaya stared straight ahead and did no work. For a moment Anne was irritated; this question was easy, and she needed them all to get it so they’d have shared purchase on the material. It would build their confidence, and hers.
    â€œHow much more money do the boys have than the girls?” Anne repeated slowly, as she remembered her own teachers doing. “How much more?”
    A few voices answered, “Eighty.”
    Still the girl stared. “Abir?” Anne asked. “Do you have a question?”
    Abir’s mouth turned down. She was embarrassed to have been called out. You’ll need to get used to this, Anne thought; in college, in life, somewhere, you’ll need to be able to speak up. “Go ahead,” she urged.
    Finally Abir said, “Who is the girls and who is the boys?”
    To: [email protected]
    From: [email protected]
    Dear Anne,
    Here’s my revised draft. I tried to make the changes we talked about, giving examples instead of just telling, showing the reader what the experience is