Today the student body ranges from around 625- 650 students. This is not a drastic climb since the day I walked down the hallways. I grew up in Washington Township, right outside Slatington, Pennsylvania. This is where my hometown school is located. I moved here when I was 18 months old. I am originally from El Salvador, but was adopted into a Caucasian, Protestant family. They moved here to get away from all the growth and change taking place in New York City. I became a suburbanite. My parents home was the first in the neighborhood, other than an old farm house dating back to the 1800's. The town had its perks, It was quiet and nothing bad ever happened, but it was quiet and nothing ever happened. Far away and tucked away from the rest of the world we were.
My parents had money and I lived In a great neighborhood. Growing up and going to school would not have posed such a challenge to me, had I not felt so different from everyone else. I knew from the first day of school that I was the 1 percentile. My mother would have to constantly fight with my kindergarten teacher, who for one reason or another treated me very different from the rest of my classmates. Things eventually died down and I spent the remainder of my elementary years without too much incident. Junior High was a whole other animal. Children at the beginning of puberty, trying to come into their own. It can be a fragile time for most. It is where everyone starts being lumped into categories based off status and looks. Its where I got my first real dose of racism. Riding home on a bus and being called a "Spic" for the first time is something you never forget when you're a child. The feeling of not always fitting in grew greater and greater. I eventually began to not like school. By the time I went to High School I wanted to be anywhere else but there. I forced my parents to send me to half day Vo-Tech, this is where my increasing passion for art flourished. I also fit in better, it was more diverse, ethnically speaking. My parents still made me take college prep classes at home school, but all the while I don't remember speaking much to any guidance councelor. There was not much guidance for those who were not at the very top of the academic chart or on a sports team. I was officially a Vo- Techer. Vo-Tech students were labeled as outcasts. If you went to full day Vo-Tech and received your education there, the learning requirements were minimal. They did not expect much from these "inner city" children. I can relate this part of my schooling to Jean Anyon's "working class shools" concept. NLH would be "The middle class school" as Anyon would say. So the rest of school I became this fragile shell of existence. The best years of my life, not really. I was tired of all these labels. I was me, but not one person could see the real me in this existential form of isolation. The remainder of school was a bit of a blur, I can tell you that I took my diploma and ran out those doors, I could not wait to be free. I could not wait to break free.
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