We Beat the Street: How A Friendship Pact Led to Success

School is a problem for Rameck but not in the way that the teachers or principal at his Catholic elementary school think. One day, while again facing off with the nun who runs the school, Rameck gets a clear—and deflating—picture of how the school administration views him. Rameck is in the office for throwing pencils at the ceiling, to see if they would stick, an idea that unfortunately caught on with his peers. When asked to account for his behavior, Rameck explains he was bored. He was done with his work and had nothing to occupy him. The principal then informs him that it might be time to move him to special ed, to a classroom where he can learn at a slower pace. Rameck tries to protest that the course work is not the problem at all; if anything, it’s too easy. It’s the boredom that is the issue. But the principal is unwilling to listen and says she plans on moving forward with the plan to have him put into special ed. Upset, Rameck leaves the classroom and gets in a scuffle with Meatball, the school bully.

After school, Rameck returns home to find his mother asleep on the sofa after a long work shift and decides not to wake her but instead to walk down the block to his grandmother’s house. Ma, as his grandmother is called, listens to Rameck as he complains of his boredom at school. Ma wonders aloud why Rameck is being moved to special ed if he was in Gifted and Talented at his local public school, a facility he left because his mother wanted to stop his fighting. Ma and Rameck agree that it might be time to explore going back to public school but this time with a new attitude and a new sense of responsibility.

Eight-year-old George has a very different attitude towards school than his ten-year-old brother, Garland, does. While Garland enjoys smashing bottles and cutting school, George views his third-grade classroom as a sanctuary. His teacher, Miss Johnson, is a beacon of positivity. George and classmates have no idea how exceptional it is that their teacher decides they are prepared to start studying Shakespeare. She does not view them as inner-city kids with limited potential. Instead, she veers from the curriculum to read Shakespeare’s plays with them and provides children’s versions, so they can take turn acting out scenes. Outside of school, she uses her own time and funds to take her students to see plays or listen to orchestra concerts. One afternoon, when George and his class are at the Lincoln Center, enjoying the orchestra and proudly wearing their burgundy Shakespeare Club sweaters, the class is approached by a woman in a mink coat who asks what private school they attend. When George rattles off the name of their public school, the woman is astonished that the children could be so well behaved.

On the bus ride home, Miss Johnson can see how chagrined George is by the woman’s callous remark. She tells George not to let it get to him or define him. Miss Johnson reminds George that he is one of her brightest students and that he holds a lot of promise. George can’t see it, though, and protests that getting good grades makes him unpopular. When Miss Johnson points out that he will need good grades for college, George is momentarily baffled. College is something he never even considered for himself, but this conversation leaves him newly hopeful. College is a cool idea. Why shouldn’t it be for him?

At age eight, Sampson gets a stark lesson about the dangers of stealing. He and his friends, Noody and Will, are out playing some improvised baseball, which they call sponge ball, in a weedy, littered parking lot across from the projects where the three boys live. On any given summer day, the boys play for hours and hours, thinking that baseball skills might someday be their ticket out of the projects. On this particular day, their game is interrupted by a man they know, who is nicknamed The Bomb. He is one of the many drug dealers who are fixtures at the Dayton Street Projects. The boys have learned to simply stay out of their way. The Bomb accosts them, though, demanding that the boys give him their bat. As the kids watch, The Bomb hurries over to a man huddled in a nearby stairwell, who owes the drug dealer some money. With the bat borrowed from Sampson, The Bomb beats the man unconscious. The dealer then walks back over to the boys and offers them their bat back. They know better than to take it.

Now deprived of their game and thirsty from the warm weather, the three friends decide they want icees from the nearby convenient store, a shop they frequent enough to be friendly with the Latino owner, Jack. Since they have no money, they decide they’ll steal the drinks. They are caught right away and Jack hauls them into a back room, where he threatens to feed them to his dogs, two giant snarling German Shepherds. When Jack finally releases them from his grip, feeling sure they are sufficiently scared, Sampson promises to never steal again.

Following his return to public school, Rameck is better able to find his way. By age twelve, he is doing well in the Gifted and Talented Program, nurtured by a teacher named Mrs. Hartt, who reminds him that he is intelligent and capable. She helps him discover one of his passions—theater. Rameck loves acting and lands a leading role in a school production of “The Wiz.” The teacher directing the play, Miss Scott, notices Rameck’s aptitude for theater and recruits him for her theater club. Miss Scott offers to send out his portfolio to producers in order to get him paying acting gigs; first, though, Rameck needs to get some headshots. On a ride home from school one day, he mentions this to his grandmother. He wants to try his hand at acting, and see what opportunities might come his way. But the headshots and portfolio will cost one hundred and fifty dollars. Ma is initially floored and balks at the amount. Seeing the determination on Rameck’s face though, Ma softens and agrees to loan him the money, though it will mean dipping in to her mortgage payment. Rameck is immensely grateful and promises not to use the money for anything but this intended purpose, and not to mention it to his mother because, as Ma points out, “[s]he’s got demons that eat at her soul” (40).

However, when he returns home, the portfolio money stowed in his pocket, Rameck notices that the electricity has been turned off again. Without electricity the food in the refrigerator will spoil and his infant sister, Mecca, won’t have cold milk to drink. When his mother asks if he has any money, Rameck hands over the $150 to her, even though Ma made him promise not to. His mother does just as he fears: she uses the money to buy drugs instead of paying for the electricity.