I do not have fond memories from my first summer in the Mississippi Teacher Corps. Well, that’s a lie – our nights in the honor college as we planned for the next day, the day Dr. Monroe taught us how to make foldables, drinking amaretto sours at City Grocery with my classmates on the weekend were all good moments. The stress, the anxiety-induced nausea, and the simultaneously rigorous, useful, and completely awful role-plays overshadowed most of my positive memories from summer school. So, I was not enthusiastic to return. No reassurances from the recently-graduated second years could persuade me otherwise.
Chapter 4:
The Extra Mile
When I saw one of my students, Maria, from Byers on the first day, I perked up to see a familiar face (yet was regretful that this sweet student had to spend her summer making up class credit). I think she felt the same way. During the school year, she had been in my Creative Writing and Mississippi Writers classes. She had said on a survey once that she liked the quietness and productiveness of the class. She had failed her Physical Science class during the school year, and unlike some summer school students, she was determined to make up the credit and move onto the next grade level.
​
One problem: she had inconsistent transportation to and from Holly Springs summer school. Only two students from Byers were attending summer school that year. The bus picked them up at Byers, drove them to Holly Springs, and then back to the Byers campus at the end of the school day. Maria had difficulties getting to Byers due to her mother’s work schedule, and because of the condensed schedule of summer school, summer school students could only miss three days. Three days of her mother not dropping her off at Byers was all it took to ruin her chances at credit recovery.
​
One day after summer school, her mother was supposed to pick her up directly from school and never showed up. She insisted on walking to her sister’s house, just a block or so from the school. After giving her my cell phone number and insisting several times that she text me the moment she reached her sister’s house – I’m going to be one of those helicopter parents, I just know it – she went on her way.
​
As I worked with the other High School English teachers to prepare the room for the next day, she texted me as promised, “Made it. Thx 4 caring!” I smiled and texted back a “Thanks for letting me know.”
​
The next morning, she sent me another text: “I won’t be at summer school day. I may not be coming back. I’m sorry.”
​
“What happened?” I asked.
​
“My mom won't take me to Byers.”
​
“What about staying with your sister?” Something she had mentioned the previous day as we waited for her mother to appear.
​
“She just made up a bunch of reasons,” Maria said. “It really hurt me.”
​
“I’ll talk to the principal,” I texted her. “I’ll see if we can get something worked out.” Which is exactly what I did. When I had a chance, I explained the situation to Sam Williams, the 2016 summer school principal. “We only have two students from Byers,” I said. “Isn’t there same way we can get the driver to pick her up and drop her off at home?”
​
Sam Williams assured me he would look into, so I sent one last text to Monica that morning: “We’re getting something worked out.”
After some administrative finagling (which I wasn’t really involved in after initiating it), the bus situation was resolved. They worked out a drop off point within walking distance of her home. As invested as she was, I am glad that inconsistent transportation didn’t prevent her from attending summer school.