When I had asked why they were taking English, a boy said: "To help us in real life."

The building itself is hostile: cracked plaster, broken windows, splintered doors and carved up desks, gloomy corridors and metal stairways, dingy cafeteria (they can eat sitting down only in 20 minute shifts) and an auditorium which has no windows. It does have murals, however, depicting mute, muscular harvesters, faded and immobile under a mustard sun.

During what was presumably my lunch period, Admiral Ass (a Mr. McHabe, who signs himself Adm. Asst.) appeared in my room with Joe Ferone."This boy is on probation," he said. "Did he show up in homeroom this morning?""Yes," I said."Any trouble?" the Admiral asked.There we stood, the three of us, taking each other's measure. Ferone was watching through narrowed eyes."No. No trouble," I said.

Like most chairmen, he teaches only one class of Seniors; the most experienced teachers are frequently promoted right out of the classroom!

Teachers try to make us feel lower than themselves, maybe because this is because they feel lower than outside people. One teacher told me to get out of the room and never come back, which I did.

In Memory of Those Who Died Waiting for the Bell