And now the ground has shifted. The divisions at lunch are different. Most of the kids who hang together in threes or more speaking Farsi and Spanish and Korean are bound by cultural background. Most students can't even tell you where everyone else is from, and make their own divisions, different from those sanctioned by social studies class and geopolitics. Ebony counts among her friends "Persians--you know, Iranians--people who are Portuguese, people who are Ethiopian. I know many different cultures." She says she'd rather roam during lunchtime than join in one of the cliques.
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Both Sides Now
Three Decades After Graduating From Uni High, Karen Michel Returns to Find That Her Alma Mater Has Changed--and Stayed the Same. Students Still Bridle at Dress Codes, but Their Fears Are Different From Those of the '60s.
INSIDE STORY
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Another of Holtby's '60s students, another weirdo who doesn't want to be named, says she keeps rereading Saroyan. Now, she's a professor and a lawyer. Then, she was our baby Brigitte Bardot. The girl was ooh la lah! Cleavage, tight furry clothes that unbuttoned down the front, a pout. And she was smart! She carried books by Freud and Sartre and actually spoke decent French. Our French teacher was clearly impressed. It would have been hard not to be. She's still got great legs and a fine mind, but like the rest of us, she's proof of the law of gravity.
Until a few months ago, her daughter's boyfriend's daughter--a 17-year-old--went to Uni. The different, multi-culti Uni. She is white; the boyfriend's daughter black. She thought she wanted to be an obstetrician, now she's thinking about being a psychologist; meanwhile she remembers liking the story she read in English class about this guy, "in the Navy or Army or something." Mr. Roberts. Ultimately, though, she, too, found Uni "whack."
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Olga Kokino, advisor for Uni's award-winning student newspaper, says the students in her Journalism I class are focused on graduating, going to college (most of Uni's students do) and landing the big job. Lawyer, obstetrician, shrink. One of Kokino's students has an unusual goal: to be a beautician in a mortuary. "Because I figure there's a lot of people that die every day, and it's good money. Not everybody's willing to do it." The 18-year-old with amazing lashes isn't afraid of death. A former gang member, she says she's lost friends she loves.
