Morphological Confetti

Today, I read an article in the Washington Examiner that the Washington, D.C. Public School system (DCPS) will start referring the parents of frequently truant students to child-protective services.  In reading about this, I could not help but think back to my elementary school days at Washington Highland  (now Ferebee-Hope)  Elementary in southeast Washington, D.C.  Back then, I don't think my case would've been referred to as "frequent," but I definitely spent time "ducking the paddy wagon" as we used to say.  In 1978, it seemed like a part of growing up in DC.  Unlike today, the school system didn't have the automated service that would call your home when a student was absent, and if they did there was no answering machine and definitely not a voice-mail.  African American single parents like my mother depended on older siblings to keep the rest of the children in "check" because she was working full time at the hospital. Ther...

Sometime back in the fall or spring 1976, I was just a boy at Washington Highland Elementary School in Washington, D.C. Well, one morning I was playing with some friends outside on the schoolyard pictured above. I remember that it was in the morning right before the bell. That morning, we laughed and chased each other around the bumpy asphalt we called our playground. Back then, there was no soft foam or sand to play on in my neighborhood in Southeast D.C. There was just asphalt, rocks, and sometimes glass. As you can see, nothing has changed.  While playing “chase” with another child, I accidentally bumped into a little girl and she fell face-down onto the hard asphalt. Initially, she did not make a sound and then she rolled over to her back and let out the most horrific scream. It was so loud that all the children stopped playing to look. I stood there amazed as I watched her older sister pick her up from the ground. At that moment, I could see that her mouth ...