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And so it was with the kids in Shaylee’s pod. When she asked if anyone could compare what was going on in the economy now to the years of the Great Depression, a few kids actually spoke up.
Lucy Yang, Keesha Bell, Nell Cousineau, and Ollie Gage were the most talkative, Ollie admitting that his father had lost his job in the dot-com crash, and Keesha worried ried that her parents might have to turn their condo back to the bank. Shay kept her eyes on her desk, and Jules had to ask Chaz Johnson to remove his hood and stay awake. Although Maeve Mancuso kept her eyes down as she fidgeted at something under her sleeve, when called upon, she was able to answer a question. JoAnne Harris, aka Banjo, shared her sense of guilt. Though her family was doing well, she felt bad that her grandfather was scooping up foreclosed homes, kicking homeowners out, then renting the houses, sometimes to the same people, actually making money off of someone else’s misfortune.
“That’s really messed up,” Ollie said. “But it’s not on you. You know what I mean? Not your fault, Banjo.”
Eventually Crystal Ricci raised her hand. “So what’s really the difference between a depression,” she asked, looking more bored than engaged, “and a recession?”
“Good question,” Jules said. “Why don’t you tell me?”
Surprisingly, the kids suggested a wide range of answers, some of which led to more questions. Finally, with only ten minutes until the end of class, even Shay and Chaz gave up their ticked-off expressions and seemed somewhat interested.
Jules found herself loosening up a bit. If it hadn’t been for the violence that had been perpetrated on this campus, she might have even enjoyed herself. Yes, she would have had to deal with her conflicted feelings for Cooper Trent. Yes, she would be barraged by Shaylee to get her out of the school. And, yes, there were still unanswered questions about Blue Rock Academy and its practices. All those things were true, but she had always loved teaching and could see that many of the “problem” or “troubled” kids here were bright and insightful.
“It looks like we’re about out of time, so read chapter seventeen tonight. We’ll discuss it tomorrow, and we’ll get started on outlining essays. You can focus on any era you’ve studied so far this term, so pick a time period and a social topic by Friday.”
“It would be a lot easier if we had e-mail,” Lucy complained.
“That it would. But we don’t, so you’ll have to do it the old-fashioned way.”
Crystal and Ollie groaned theatrically as everyone began to file out of the room. Keesha grabbed her books and hooked up with BD, who was waiting for her by the door. Once the kids had filed out, Missy Albright stepped into the classroom.
Shay, the last student in class to leave, cast a guarded look over her shoulder. Her eyes met Jules’s in silent warning: Be careful!
Missy didn’t seem to notice as she set her purse on a side counter near Jules’s book bag. “Reverend Lynch assigned me to be your assistant,” she said in her tiny, falsetto voice that didn’t quite fit her body.
“Really?” This was a surprise. “He didn’t mention it to me.”
“He will. He just told me to come and talk to you, so here I am.” She gave an exaggerated shrug, the kind cute girls do when they are trying to appear even cuter and sweeter and more innocent. “Anything you want me to do—I mean, for tomorrow?”
“Tomorrow. Huh. To tell you the truth, I haven’t thought that far ahead,” Jules admitted, a little irritated that Lynch hadn’t clued her in
first before assigning the girl as her personal aide. “I’ve seen what the previous teacher planned, but it’s a little dry. Lecture. Discussion. Questions. Test.” She glanced at Missy. “Pretty boring.”
“It’s history,” Missy said, as if that explained everything.
“I know and I’m just learning the ropes around here, not quite sure how I want to do things, but I’d like to make the class a little more interesting.”
“Good luck.”
Jules was already thinking aloud as she straightened the room, repositioning the desks into a semicircle that faced her desk. “Right now, this class is studying the nineteen thirties and the Great Depression. I think that’s a great opportunity to tie into what’s going on in the country today. I’d also like to make it real by studying day-to-day struggles. Real life in the thirties.”
“I thought you didn’t want it to be boring.”
Jules grinned a bit. “Okay, so give me a break. What if we came up with some kind of guessing game about life back then. Questions like, How much money did the average person make in a month? What did a loaf of bread cost? What movies were popular?”
“Did they have movies back then?” Missy asked, leaning against the counter as she watched Jules.
“Yeah, Missy, even in the dark ages of the twentieth century there were movies,” Jules mocked. “You’ve even seen some, I’ll bet.”
Missy was shaking her head, her blond hair almost white under the fluorescent light.
“How about classics like Gone with the Wind or The Wizard of Oz, or Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs?” The head shaking stopped. “And then there were movie icons like the Marx Brothers and Shirley Temple. We can talk about books that were written around that time. Off the top of my head, I think of the Dr. Seuss books, Agatha Christie mysteries, and classics like The Grapes of Wrath.”
Missy was unimpressed. “The kids probably won’t care.”
“Come on, they all read Dr. Seuss as kids, and they know who Agatha Christie is. And don’t tell me they never watched a Disney movie growing up.” Jules felt her blood pumping. “I bet they even played Monopoly or watched the Yankees, which were both big in the thirties. Yes, there was the Dust Bowl and hobos riding the rails and extreme poverty, but there was also Albert Einstein and Joe Di-Maggio and Lou Gehrig and Duke Ellington and Bette Davis. Twinkies and Spam—the food, not bad e-mail.”
“I know,” Missy said, rolling her eyes at Jules’s enthusiasm.
