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22 December 2023
THEY\'RE NOT CELEBRITIES. THEY WALK PAST YOU ON THE STREET, BRING YOU YOUR FOOD AT A RESTAURANT, AND LIVE IN YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD. THEY\'RE EVERYDAY PEOPLE. JUST LIKE YOU.
JUNE 2004: 2004 RIVERSIDE UNIVERSITY HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATES - VERLEANA HODGES, AMANDA WARNER, AND DAN MAITLAND
IN 1994, WAYNE CHINSANG GRADUATED FROM RIVERSIDE UNIVERSITY HIGH SCHOOL. NOW, TEN YEARS LATER, HE-- ALONG WITH FPHATTY LAMAR, NIGHT WATCHMAN, AND DEBBIE-- SIT DOWN AND ATTEMPT TO FIND OUT WHAT RIVERSIDE IS LIKE NOW. DISHING THE DIRT ARE THREE SENIORS ON THE BRINK OF GRADUATION: VERLEANA HODGES, AMANDA WARNER, AND DAN MAITLAND. LET\'S ALL HOPE THEY GET THEIR DIPLOMAS IN THEIR HANDS BEFORE ANYONE FROM THE SCHOOL\'S ADMINISTRATION READS THIS.
Wayne: I want to start off by saying I graduated from Riverside High School ten years ago this month. And now, you guys are graduating. How would you describe Riverside now?
Verleana: It sucks.
All: (laugh)
Dan: Yeah. To put it bluntly, it’s not so hot.
W: Is it a good school?
Amanda: It’s getting worse, I think.
D: Yeah.
A: When I first came here, it was decent and still had a very good reputation. But, slowly, over the past three years, it’s been declining.
Fphatty: Do you say that just because kids typically don’t like school, or is it actually a bad school?
V: It’s because of the principal.
D: It seems to me that a lot of the students-- the mentality of the whole-- has gone downhill. The class before our class had seven people with 4.0 averages; whereas we lack anyone with a 4.0. Our valedictorian has a 3.9-something.
W: Really?
D: Yeah.
W: Wow.
F: So, is it just a lack of organization?
V: When it comes to spending money, it’s kind of like she [the principal] controls everything. We don’t really have anything new. We have new security stuff, like bars and cameras. But other than that, we really don’t have anything.
D: What’s going on with the finances is, MPS [Milwaukee Public Schools] is in financial trouble. Andrekopoulos is fucking up everything by redistributing all the money. We get allocated grants for everything... and we won a security grant. I’ve been on a committee, so I’ve figured this stuff out.
F: What is Andrekopoulos?
D: The Superintendent of MPS.
W: That’s kind of weird, because, when I went there, Riverside was supposedly the second best school in the city; with a huge rivalry with Rufus King High School. It was always a back-and-forth with King and Riverside. Is that kind of done? What’s the \"good school\" in Milwaukee now?
D: King.
W: King is still a good one?
D: King is still the \"good school\". We’re still supposedly the second best school, but I think there’s a wider gap nowadays.
A: I have a friend that was expelled from Riverside. He got into King, and said it’s astonishing how much better it is there. He got all hyped-up to go to Riverside, but then he gets to King, and is like, \"Oh my God.\"
F: Do you think it’s the teachers? Do they not put forth an effort? What I mean is, do you feel like you have the opportunity to learn if you wanted to?
D: In some of our classes. There are definitely a lot of horrible teachers at our school right now. And, granted, you have to learn to take the punch and roll with it, but.... For instance, in my physics class, it’s impossible to learn anything.
V: It sucks. For my English class, I don’t know where it’s going.
All: (laugh)
V: My teacher gives us worksheets, and he just expects you to understand what he’s talking about. He has no control over the classroom, and he’s just failing people based on essays. Your essays shouldn’t matter as much as the rest of the work you do.
W: When I was there, and I don’t think this is exclusive to Riverside, there just seemed to be, in education, a complete apathy for teaching. The teachers that really like teaching and having people learn from them, those people are few and far between.
D: Yeah.
W: Usually, those people aren’t teachers. (laughs) Usually, those people are doing something else. Are there still school politics, or problems with violence? I was there in the early-Nineties, so you’re talking about a time with a lot of gang stuff going on. Gangs were definitely apparent, and I was friends with people on both sides of it. But are there still a lot of school politics within the student body? What I’m trying to ask is, is there still drama?
D: Absolutely. I think it’s kind of gone from less of the gang stuff—- at least I don’t see it-- but there’s a clear segregation in almost anything. It’s kind of ridiculous. The prom court this year, I think there was one Caucasian, as opposed to a majority of African-American. Now, this sounds horrible, and I can’t really phrase it correctly, but there’s a clear segregation in schools that parallels Milwaukee’s segregation.
W: That’s something that’s supposedly big in Milwaukee, that it\'s supposedly very segregated. And I lived in Columbus, Ohio for ten years, and they are... equally as segregated. (laughs) I mean, I lived with Debbie for the last seven or eight years--
Debbie: That was a zoning thing. They bused me in!
All: (laugh)
W: But, yeah, I’d say we lived in a pretty white neighborhood. So there’s definitely still segregation going on? Does everyone see it? (speaking to Verleana) Do you? You, obviously not being a white person. Because I think that people are comfortable around people they’re similar to. And I think white people are comfortable around white people because that’s what they know. And black people are comfortable around black people... just like anything else. And, of course, you try to bridge that gap. But, are race relations at Riverside a problem? Or is it more something that’s kind of quiet and not talked about? When I was there, we had, essentially, a race riot between some of the black students and some of the Hispanic students. And they shut the fucking school down! We showed up to school the next day, and there were metal detectors, and we were patted down. There were people sent to the hospital... it was bad. So, it was definitely there then. Has it turned into something you don’t talk about?
A: I think it’s overlooked. I mean, you know it’s there, but I don’t think anyone goes out of their way to do anything about it.
D: I moved here from Nebraska, which was all white, so I guess I have a heightened sensitivity to it. I see this diversity that is possible, but they choose to ignore it. Whereas, I came from a place where we didn’t even have an option.
F: Are you guys saying that people of different races don’t hang out, or they don’t even talk to each other?
D: It varies from people to people. But, for the most part, you’ll see the cliques, and they aren’t interracial.
F: Do you know the ratio? The percentage of races in the school?
V: I think there are a larger number of Hispanics. Then come African-Americans, then the Asians, and then Caucasians. It’s really that the majority are Hispanic. When I was a freshman, the majority were African American. Then, my sophomore year, it shifted and became mostly Hispanic.
F: Do they still do busing?
D: Yeah.
F: What is the idea behind that?
D: It’s more because Riverside is considered one of the top schools in Milwaukee. They’re trying to get students who can reach that pinnacle of work ethic.
W: When I was there, people were starting to get involved politically, because the L.A. Riots had happened right around that time. And there was a lot going on in the country that was fucked-up, oddly enough, under the first George Bush. And now, here we are under the other George Bush, and I think that everything is going very political, and people are concentrating more on that. Is government politics something that’s prominent?
D: It’s not a huge deal to the majority of people, but to people who are interested, it is a huge deal. Amanda and I are very involved, politically.
Night Watchman: Is there a forum for that at your school? Does the school support you getting involved and figuring out what people should be doing politically?
V: They tell us when to vote. Other than that, no.
All: (laugh)
D: The most that they’ve done is, during anti-war protests last year, they didn’t suspend anyone when we walked out. And I think that’s as far as they’ve gone to support us. Or at least the anti-war side.
A: I have fun living on the East Side of Milwaukee, talking to adults who are pretty liberal, because I’m pretty conservative.
W: Really?
A: Yeah. All of the teachers, I just have so much fun arguing with them all of the time. They’ll say some really stupid shit, and I’m like, \"What are you saying?!?\" I get in huge debates with the rest of the class.
W: So, you’re really conservative? I would never have guessed that.
A: That’s what I get from most people.
W: Well, like you said, it’s the East Side, and there’s... not a stigma, but a general consensus where people are more liberal. We hang out with a guy who lives on the South Side, and he’s... you know, for instance, we’ve got a poster in our window calling Bush a murderer, and he’s got a pro-Bush sticker on his car. (laughs) But, we agree to disagree, so it’s cool.
All: (laugh)
D: (to Wayne) Meanwhile, when you’re not here, he’s talking about how he can kill you.
All: (laugh)
W: So, you’re both politically involved, and you’re (to Dan) more liberal?
D: Yeah.
W: And you’re (to Amanda) more conservative. Do you two get into it?
D: Not often. We kind of reached the \"agree to disagree\" thing, too. And we just drop it and stare at each other.
W: And would you (to Verleana) consider yourself more liberal or more conservative?
V: Neither.
W: Moderate? (laughs) Stay middle-of-the-road?
A: It works great. We’re (pointing to Dan) going to be world dictators someday. He’ll be my vice president. So people will get the best of both worlds.
All: (laugh)
W: The next thing I want to talk about is, you’ve done the whole high school thing, your four years, the drama and the bullshit. What do you think you’re walking into with college? Do you think it’s going to be much different than high school?
D: For me, I don’t think it’s going to be that different at all. Except that people will be a little more worried about failing classes, because they’re actually paying for them.
All: (laugh)
D: Aside from that, I don’t think it’s going to be that different.
A: I’m looking forward to having a little more freedom; to be able to come and go between classes, instead of being confined to one building all day.
V: I just want... like, they always say you have only two classes a day. I want two classes a day. In high school, you stay stuck in a room for two hours a day with a bunch of people, and you don’t like half of them. And in college, I guess, you have a bit more free time. It’s like you can do what you want, as long as you get your homework done. I can be immature sometimes, like running around the house--
All: (laugh)
V: --so, I’ll enjoy more freedoms, but still do my work.
F: So basically you guys are looking forward to being able to handle yourselves, rather than having everything dictated to you.
W: Yeah. I think college is a lot like high school, actually. (laughs) It’s about learning how to get your ass somewhere on time when you don’t have to.
F: I think it’s harder, because in college you can sleep in; you don’t have to go to your morning class.
W: Yeah. There’s no one going, \"Where were you?\" They’ll be like, \"Oh, you missed it? Fuck you. I don’t care.\" But, yeah, ten percent of college is that, and then ninety percent of it is busy work. (laughs) Nobody’s going out of state for college? Are you all going to the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee?
A: Milwaukee Area Technical College.
W: Okay. What are you guys looking to go into?
D: I’m going into computer science, with, hopefully, a minor in political science and technical data.
A: Political science.
V: Journalism.
F: Did your high school help you decide what you wanted to do? Did it help you with the process of applying to colleges, or are they just sort of pushing you out of the door?
D: Yeah, our counselors are crap. They, plain and simple, don’t do anything.
V: You have to try and find time with them, but they don’t find time with us. We have to take time out of our classes; usually they’re busy, or eating lunch. And they\'ll tell us we need such and such; but when we ask for it, we don’t get it.
F: So you feel like you’ve been left to yourselves to figure everything out?
A: They talk big, but they don’t follow through with it.
W: Were your parents instrumental in you going to college? Was it something they engrained in you?
D: With me, they expected me to go, but they never forced it on me. Nothing was ever said about it, except for my mom bugging me every now and then to apply.
D: When I was in school, the big thing was, \"You gotta go to college to get anywhere. It’s the only way you’re going to get a job.\" And I still don’t have a job, and I went to college.
All: (laugh)
D: Do you feel like there’s still that drive? Not just with your parents, but with the way the world points you?
V: For me, it kind of is, because you see all of these people who complain that they don’t have good jobs. And usually, it’s the people that graduated from high school, but never went to college. Or they dropped out of high school or college. In my family, my brother graduated from high school, my sister didn’t. And, right now, they’re the ones struggling. My other sister, she graduated from college, and she was guaranteed a good job and money. And the way I look at it is, if you don’t go to college, you’ll end up being stuck somewhere down the road.
F: Do you feel like you’ll do better than your parents? Like, I know there are statistics about how this generation did better than the previous one-— I think it’s actually my generation where it turned around, and we’re actually doing worse than our parents.
All: (laugh)
F: But I think, a lot of times, kids assume that they’ll end up with a better house and more money.
V: I think I would be lucky if that happened.
A: I just think, if I do well, I do well. And if I don’t, I’ll figure something out. (laughs)
D: I kind of think I will. (laughs) Not to be cocky or anything, but... my dad dropped out of high school, and my mom got an associate\'s degree and works at a church. It’s enough to live off of. But just because of the field I’m going into, I kind of expect myself to do a little better.
W: Are you sure?
All: (laugh)
W: What would be some advice that you’d give to freshman coming in this fall?
V: I’d just say, try your best. If you want to sit there and look stupid, look stupid.
A: I think you just need to learn how to manipulate the system. As long as you can do that, you’ll get by. (laughs) I mean, make friends with certain security guards, and you’ll be pretty good.
F: Do you think school is more about having good grades, or learning about social issues? Would you tell kids to work their asses off to get into a good school, or just pay more attention to learning how to socialize?
D: I’d suggest they jump through all of the hoops, no matter how crappy it is. I ended up not doing so well my freshman and sophomore years, and then I totally turned myself around. But I still couldn’t get into the college of my choice, even though I did fairly well on the ACT. So, if you’re aspiring to go to college, just pound your way through it. Eventually, hopefully, you’ll find a better experience in college.
W: Looking back on it, what do you think is more valuable: the classes or the experiences?
A: The experiences, most definitely. I’ve learned so much just from people. It makes me happy that I went to a public school on the East Side. There are so many people to talk to, and I’ve learned so much from them.
W: What do you wish someone would have told you when you started high school? Or maybe, what would you tell yourself if you could go back and tell yourself something going into Riverside?
D: I’d tell myself to learn how to play the system well.
All: (laugh)
A: And learn how to avoid the security cameras.
V: Yeah. If you want to be bad, you gotta do it right.
All: (laugh)
V: If you want to sneak out from the side of the school, you have to make sure nobody’s behind you.
W: Are there cameras on all sides of the building?
V: Yes.
W: So, you can’t skip?
D: Well, you just keep your head down.
V: Some parts of the school, like where the buses are, there’s a hidden camera. But there’s always one security guard that’s not looking. There are some that don’t care, and they’ll just let you walk out the front door.
F: So security is there to keep you in, not to protect you?
D: Well, they\'re sort of there to protect you.
W: But more to police you.
A: Yeah. Most definitely.
W: This is kind of a cheesy question, but, on made for television movies and shit like that, they talk a lot about peer pressure. And I never really experienced that. Do you think it’s sort of a myth?
D: Absolutely.
W: It seems to be something that parents use as an excuse. Like their kid did this bad thing, but it was because of \"peer pressure\".
D: Yeah. I’ve never felt pressured into anything. People essentially make a mockery of it. Like, when I want my friend to do something with me, I\'ll say, \"All the cool kids are doing it.\" But we’re just making fun of it.
A: I’ve never felt much of it. Maybe once or twice, here and there. But because I dress or act a certain way, my parents will say, \"It’s because of the group of kids she hangs around with.\" And I’m like, \"No. I’m able to make my own decisions.\"
W: Is there anything we haven’t touched on that is something you’d like to talk about?
D: I’d like to encourage people to not vote down anything that’s for the schools, because MPS is really in financial trouble, and that’s screwing everything up for the students. I lived in Nebraska for 13 years, and everything ever brought to a vote about the schools was passed. They were fully in support of our school system. I took way too much advantage of it there. But then I came here, and was like, \"Oh, shit....\"
All: (laugh)
W: Why did you come here?
D: My mom got a job.
W: Do you like Milwaukee?
D: No. (laughs) I like the East Side, but that’s about it.
W: (to Amanda and Verleana) Are you two from Milwaukee?
V: I am, unfortunately. But I’m gonna move.
All: (laugh)
F: Well, if you go to another city, you’ll realize how much Milwaukee has to offer.
W: Yeah. You don’t really realize how good it is until you leave. Because I moved to Columbus, Ohio, and that was pretty--
D: That’s what you get for moving to Ohio!
All: (laugh)
W: Before we finish, are there any teachers you want to say \"fuck you\" to?
D: Not today.
All: (laugh)
W: Cool. Well, we\'ll end it with a funny story about my days at Riverside. When I was a freshman, there was an actual Japanese woman that was teaching my Japanese class, and a white guy teaching my English class. But during the first month of school, they got a new Japanese teacher... a white lady. So, they replaced the Japanese teacher with the white lady, and they made the Japanese teacher my new English teacher. This would have been alright, if she actually knew English! You could literally hand in anything for English class, because she didn’t know one bit of English. That’s when I started putting things together, and started thinking, \"There’s something wrong here.\"
JUNE 2004: 2004 RIVERSIDE UNIVERSITY HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATES - VERLEANA HODGES, AMANDA WARNER, AND DAN MAITLAND
IN 1994, WAYNE CHINSANG GRADUATED FROM RIVERSIDE UNIVERSITY HIGH SCHOOL. NOW, TEN YEARS LATER, HE-- ALONG WITH FPHATTY LAMAR, NIGHT WATCHMAN, AND DEBBIE-- SIT DOWN AND ATTEMPT TO FIND OUT WHAT RIVERSIDE IS LIKE NOW. DISHING THE DIRT ARE THREE SENIORS ON THE BRINK OF GRADUATION: VERLEANA HODGES, AMANDA WARNER, AND DAN MAITLAND. LET\'S ALL HOPE THEY GET THEIR DIPLOMAS IN THEIR HANDS BEFORE ANYONE FROM THE SCHOOL\'S ADMINISTRATION READS THIS.
Wayne: I want to start off by saying I graduated from Riverside High School ten years ago this month. And now, you guys are graduating. How would you describe Riverside now?
Verleana: It sucks.
All: (laugh)
Dan: Yeah. To put it bluntly, it’s not so hot.
W: Is it a good school?
Amanda: It’s getting worse, I think.
D: Yeah.
A: When I first came here, it was decent and still had a very good reputation. But, slowly, over the past three years, it’s been declining.
Fphatty: Do you say that just because kids typically don’t like school, or is it actually a bad school?
V: It’s because of the principal.
D: It seems to me that a lot of the students-- the mentality of the whole-- has gone downhill. The class before our class had seven people with 4.0 averages; whereas we lack anyone with a 4.0. Our valedictorian has a 3.9-something.
W: Really?
D: Yeah.
W: Wow.
F: So, is it just a lack of organization?
V: When it comes to spending money, it’s kind of like she [the principal] controls everything. We don’t really have anything new. We have new security stuff, like bars and cameras. But other than that, we really don’t have anything.
D: What’s going on with the finances is, MPS [Milwaukee Public Schools] is in financial trouble. Andrekopoulos is fucking up everything by redistributing all the money. We get allocated grants for everything... and we won a security grant. I’ve been on a committee, so I’ve figured this stuff out.
F: What is Andrekopoulos?
D: The Superintendent of MPS.
W: That’s kind of weird, because, when I went there, Riverside was supposedly the second best school in the city; with a huge rivalry with Rufus King High School. It was always a back-and-forth with King and Riverside. Is that kind of done? What’s the \"good school\" in Milwaukee now?
D: King.
W: King is still a good one?
D: King is still the \"good school\". We’re still supposedly the second best school, but I think there’s a wider gap nowadays.
A: I have a friend that was expelled from Riverside. He got into King, and said it’s astonishing how much better it is there. He got all hyped-up to go to Riverside, but then he gets to King, and is like, \"Oh my God.\"
F: Do you think it’s the teachers? Do they not put forth an effort? What I mean is, do you feel like you have the opportunity to learn if you wanted to?
D: In some of our classes. There are definitely a lot of horrible teachers at our school right now. And, granted, you have to learn to take the punch and roll with it, but.... For instance, in my physics class, it’s impossible to learn anything.
V: It sucks. For my English class, I don’t know where it’s going.
All: (laugh)
V: My teacher gives us worksheets, and he just expects you to understand what he’s talking about. He has no control over the classroom, and he’s just failing people based on essays. Your essays shouldn’t matter as much as the rest of the work you do.
W: When I was there, and I don’t think this is exclusive to Riverside, there just seemed to be, in education, a complete apathy for teaching. The teachers that really like teaching and having people learn from them, those people are few and far between.
D: Yeah.
W: Usually, those people aren’t teachers. (laughs) Usually, those people are doing something else. Are there still school politics, or problems with violence? I was there in the early-Nineties, so you’re talking about a time with a lot of gang stuff going on. Gangs were definitely apparent, and I was friends with people on both sides of it. But are there still a lot of school politics within the student body? What I’m trying to ask is, is there still drama?
D: Absolutely. I think it’s kind of gone from less of the gang stuff—- at least I don’t see it-- but there’s a clear segregation in almost anything. It’s kind of ridiculous. The prom court this year, I think there was one Caucasian, as opposed to a majority of African-American. Now, this sounds horrible, and I can’t really phrase it correctly, but there’s a clear segregation in schools that parallels Milwaukee’s segregation.
W: That’s something that’s supposedly big in Milwaukee, that it\'s supposedly very segregated. And I lived in Columbus, Ohio for ten years, and they are... equally as segregated. (laughs) I mean, I lived with Debbie for the last seven or eight years--
Debbie: That was a zoning thing. They bused me in!
All: (laugh)
W: But, yeah, I’d say we lived in a pretty white neighborhood. So there’s definitely still segregation going on? Does everyone see it? (speaking to Verleana) Do you? You, obviously not being a white person. Because I think that people are comfortable around people they’re similar to. And I think white people are comfortable around white people because that’s what they know. And black people are comfortable around black people... just like anything else. And, of course, you try to bridge that gap. But, are race relations at Riverside a problem? Or is it more something that’s kind of quiet and not talked about? When I was there, we had, essentially, a race riot between some of the black students and some of the Hispanic students. And they shut the fucking school down! We showed up to school the next day, and there were metal detectors, and we were patted down. There were people sent to the hospital... it was bad. So, it was definitely there then. Has it turned into something you don’t talk about?
A: I think it’s overlooked. I mean, you know it’s there, but I don’t think anyone goes out of their way to do anything about it.
D: I moved here from Nebraska, which was all white, so I guess I have a heightened sensitivity to it. I see this diversity that is possible, but they choose to ignore it. Whereas, I came from a place where we didn’t even have an option.
F: Are you guys saying that people of different races don’t hang out, or they don’t even talk to each other?
D: It varies from people to people. But, for the most part, you’ll see the cliques, and they aren’t interracial.
F: Do you know the ratio? The percentage of races in the school?
V: I think there are a larger number of Hispanics. Then come African-Americans, then the Asians, and then Caucasians. It’s really that the majority are Hispanic. When I was a freshman, the majority were African American. Then, my sophomore year, it shifted and became mostly Hispanic.
F: Do they still do busing?
D: Yeah.
F: What is the idea behind that?
D: It’s more because Riverside is considered one of the top schools in Milwaukee. They’re trying to get students who can reach that pinnacle of work ethic.
W: When I was there, people were starting to get involved politically, because the L.A. Riots had happened right around that time. And there was a lot going on in the country that was fucked-up, oddly enough, under the first George Bush. And now, here we are under the other George Bush, and I think that everything is going very political, and people are concentrating more on that. Is government politics something that’s prominent?
D: It’s not a huge deal to the majority of people, but to people who are interested, it is a huge deal. Amanda and I are very involved, politically.
Night Watchman: Is there a forum for that at your school? Does the school support you getting involved and figuring out what people should be doing politically?
V: They tell us when to vote. Other than that, no.
All: (laugh)
D: The most that they’ve done is, during anti-war protests last year, they didn’t suspend anyone when we walked out. And I think that’s as far as they’ve gone to support us. Or at least the anti-war side.
A: I have fun living on the East Side of Milwaukee, talking to adults who are pretty liberal, because I’m pretty conservative.
W: Really?
A: Yeah. All of the teachers, I just have so much fun arguing with them all of the time. They’ll say some really stupid shit, and I’m like, \"What are you saying?!?\" I get in huge debates with the rest of the class.
W: So, you’re really conservative? I would never have guessed that.
A: That’s what I get from most people.
W: Well, like you said, it’s the East Side, and there’s... not a stigma, but a general consensus where people are more liberal. We hang out with a guy who lives on the South Side, and he’s... you know, for instance, we’ve got a poster in our window calling Bush a murderer, and he’s got a pro-Bush sticker on his car. (laughs) But, we agree to disagree, so it’s cool.
All: (laugh)
D: (to Wayne) Meanwhile, when you’re not here, he’s talking about how he can kill you.
All: (laugh)
W: So, you’re both politically involved, and you’re (to Dan) more liberal?
D: Yeah.
W: And you’re (to Amanda) more conservative. Do you two get into it?
D: Not often. We kind of reached the \"agree to disagree\" thing, too. And we just drop it and stare at each other.
W: And would you (to Verleana) consider yourself more liberal or more conservative?
V: Neither.
W: Moderate? (laughs) Stay middle-of-the-road?
A: It works great. We’re (pointing to Dan) going to be world dictators someday. He’ll be my vice president. So people will get the best of both worlds.
All: (laugh)
W: The next thing I want to talk about is, you’ve done the whole high school thing, your four years, the drama and the bullshit. What do you think you’re walking into with college? Do you think it’s going to be much different than high school?
D: For me, I don’t think it’s going to be that different at all. Except that people will be a little more worried about failing classes, because they’re actually paying for them.
All: (laugh)
D: Aside from that, I don’t think it’s going to be that different.
A: I’m looking forward to having a little more freedom; to be able to come and go between classes, instead of being confined to one building all day.
V: I just want... like, they always say you have only two classes a day. I want two classes a day. In high school, you stay stuck in a room for two hours a day with a bunch of people, and you don’t like half of them. And in college, I guess, you have a bit more free time. It’s like you can do what you want, as long as you get your homework done. I can be immature sometimes, like running around the house--
All: (laugh)
V: --so, I’ll enjoy more freedoms, but still do my work.
F: So basically you guys are looking forward to being able to handle yourselves, rather than having everything dictated to you.
W: Yeah. I think college is a lot like high school, actually. (laughs) It’s about learning how to get your ass somewhere on time when you don’t have to.
F: I think it’s harder, because in college you can sleep in; you don’t have to go to your morning class.
W: Yeah. There’s no one going, \"Where were you?\" They’ll be like, \"Oh, you missed it? Fuck you. I don’t care.\" But, yeah, ten percent of college is that, and then ninety percent of it is busy work. (laughs) Nobody’s going out of state for college? Are you all going to the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee?
A: Milwaukee Area Technical College.
W: Okay. What are you guys looking to go into?
D: I’m going into computer science, with, hopefully, a minor in political science and technical data.
A: Political science.
V: Journalism.
F: Did your high school help you decide what you wanted to do? Did it help you with the process of applying to colleges, or are they just sort of pushing you out of the door?
D: Yeah, our counselors are crap. They, plain and simple, don’t do anything.
V: You have to try and find time with them, but they don’t find time with us. We have to take time out of our classes; usually they’re busy, or eating lunch. And they\'ll tell us we need such and such; but when we ask for it, we don’t get it.
F: So you feel like you’ve been left to yourselves to figure everything out?
A: They talk big, but they don’t follow through with it.
W: Were your parents instrumental in you going to college? Was it something they engrained in you?
D: With me, they expected me to go, but they never forced it on me. Nothing was ever said about it, except for my mom bugging me every now and then to apply.
D: When I was in school, the big thing was, \"You gotta go to college to get anywhere. It’s the only way you’re going to get a job.\" And I still don’t have a job, and I went to college.
All: (laugh)
D: Do you feel like there’s still that drive? Not just with your parents, but with the way the world points you?
V: For me, it kind of is, because you see all of these people who complain that they don’t have good jobs. And usually, it’s the people that graduated from high school, but never went to college. Or they dropped out of high school or college. In my family, my brother graduated from high school, my sister didn’t. And, right now, they’re the ones struggling. My other sister, she graduated from college, and she was guaranteed a good job and money. And the way I look at it is, if you don’t go to college, you’ll end up being stuck somewhere down the road.
F: Do you feel like you’ll do better than your parents? Like, I know there are statistics about how this generation did better than the previous one-— I think it’s actually my generation where it turned around, and we’re actually doing worse than our parents.
All: (laugh)
F: But I think, a lot of times, kids assume that they’ll end up with a better house and more money.
V: I think I would be lucky if that happened.
A: I just think, if I do well, I do well. And if I don’t, I’ll figure something out. (laughs)
D: I kind of think I will. (laughs) Not to be cocky or anything, but... my dad dropped out of high school, and my mom got an associate\'s degree and works at a church. It’s enough to live off of. But just because of the field I’m going into, I kind of expect myself to do a little better.
W: Are you sure?
All: (laugh)
W: What would be some advice that you’d give to freshman coming in this fall?
V: I’d just say, try your best. If you want to sit there and look stupid, look stupid.
A: I think you just need to learn how to manipulate the system. As long as you can do that, you’ll get by. (laughs) I mean, make friends with certain security guards, and you’ll be pretty good.
F: Do you think school is more about having good grades, or learning about social issues? Would you tell kids to work their asses off to get into a good school, or just pay more attention to learning how to socialize?
D: I’d suggest they jump through all of the hoops, no matter how crappy it is. I ended up not doing so well my freshman and sophomore years, and then I totally turned myself around. But I still couldn’t get into the college of my choice, even though I did fairly well on the ACT. So, if you’re aspiring to go to college, just pound your way through it. Eventually, hopefully, you’ll find a better experience in college.
W: Looking back on it, what do you think is more valuable: the classes or the experiences?
A: The experiences, most definitely. I’ve learned so much just from people. It makes me happy that I went to a public school on the East Side. There are so many people to talk to, and I’ve learned so much from them.
W: What do you wish someone would have told you when you started high school? Or maybe, what would you tell yourself if you could go back and tell yourself something going into Riverside?
D: I’d tell myself to learn how to play the system well.
All: (laugh)
A: And learn how to avoid the security cameras.
V: Yeah. If you want to be bad, you gotta do it right.
All: (laugh)
V: If you want to sneak out from the side of the school, you have to make sure nobody’s behind you.
W: Are there cameras on all sides of the building?
V: Yes.
W: So, you can’t skip?
D: Well, you just keep your head down.
V: Some parts of the school, like where the buses are, there’s a hidden camera. But there’s always one security guard that’s not looking. There are some that don’t care, and they’ll just let you walk out the front door.
F: So security is there to keep you in, not to protect you?
D: Well, they\'re sort of there to protect you.
W: But more to police you.
A: Yeah. Most definitely.
W: This is kind of a cheesy question, but, on made for television movies and shit like that, they talk a lot about peer pressure. And I never really experienced that. Do you think it’s sort of a myth?
D: Absolutely.
W: It seems to be something that parents use as an excuse. Like their kid did this bad thing, but it was because of \"peer pressure\".
D: Yeah. I’ve never felt pressured into anything. People essentially make a mockery of it. Like, when I want my friend to do something with me, I\'ll say, \"All the cool kids are doing it.\" But we’re just making fun of it.
A: I’ve never felt much of it. Maybe once or twice, here and there. But because I dress or act a certain way, my parents will say, \"It’s because of the group of kids she hangs around with.\" And I’m like, \"No. I’m able to make my own decisions.\"
W: Is there anything we haven’t touched on that is something you’d like to talk about?
D: I’d like to encourage people to not vote down anything that’s for the schools, because MPS is really in financial trouble, and that’s screwing everything up for the students. I lived in Nebraska for 13 years, and everything ever brought to a vote about the schools was passed. They were fully in support of our school system. I took way too much advantage of it there. But then I came here, and was like, \"Oh, shit....\"
All: (laugh)
W: Why did you come here?
D: My mom got a job.
W: Do you like Milwaukee?
D: No. (laughs) I like the East Side, but that’s about it.
W: (to Amanda and Verleana) Are you two from Milwaukee?
V: I am, unfortunately. But I’m gonna move.
All: (laugh)
F: Well, if you go to another city, you’ll realize how much Milwaukee has to offer.
W: Yeah. You don’t really realize how good it is until you leave. Because I moved to Columbus, Ohio, and that was pretty--
D: That’s what you get for moving to Ohio!
All: (laugh)
W: Before we finish, are there any teachers you want to say \"fuck you\" to?
D: Not today.
All: (laugh)
W: Cool. Well, we\'ll end it with a funny story about my days at Riverside. When I was a freshman, there was an actual Japanese woman that was teaching my Japanese class, and a white guy teaching my English class. But during the first month of school, they got a new Japanese teacher... a white lady. So, they replaced the Japanese teacher with the white lady, and they made the Japanese teacher my new English teacher. This would have been alright, if she actually knew English! You could literally hand in anything for English class, because she didn’t know one bit of English. That’s when I started putting things together, and started thinking, \"There’s something wrong here.\"
artid
2464
Old Image
6_10_everyday.jpg
issue
vol 6 - issue 10 (jun 2004)
section
everyday people