Ap Beatty Survival Skills At A School In Laa Summary

Lauren Powell
Mrs. Sagert
AP Composition
4 September 2014
From the Inside Anne P. Beatty, who wrote Survival Skills at a School in LA, provides an inside look into a high school phenomenon in South Central Los Angeles, California. Her article illustrates a few events that take place at a high school where death and violence commonly occur. Since attending these schools, students have adjusted to the violence in such a way that they partake in routine procedures, like “the students coming around for donations” (Beatty; par. 5). when a fellow peer passed away. While a majority of adults continually struggle to cope with the occurrence of death, this story tells a tale of children who have practically become accustomed to it. Beatty provides a distinct look at this urban school setting through her inside view of student emotions, evidence of pain within the kids, and the feelings that she evokes from the audience despite her straightforward tone. (simple)
While first reading about Ms.
Beatty and her inside story into this previously uncharted territory, I sensed as though she was a woman who possessed a very intimate bond with the students. In the story, when describing what occurred on days when the students mourned someone who was killed, Ms. Beatty notes that “boys lingered over handshakes and looked into my eyes solemnly. Girls threw their arms around me and wordlessly moved away. No one said enough.” (Beatty; par. 5). A majority of her descriptions of students and events, as well as her diction, seem somewhat heartfelt yet a bit plainly stated on the surface; however, the cultural distance between Ms. Beatty and the students seemingly increases the more we observe how she interacts with them. When Ms. Beatty discusses how the kids hugged her, the description actually makes her seem somewhat aloof. The way that the author words the sentence makes it seem as though the children approach her with emotions and she is simply present, receiving the
actions.
As a teacher, Beatty never necessarily makes a huge effort to help the student’s cope with these devastating loses, except in the case of DeAndre where Ms. Beatty does display some emotional involvement. On the day of this peculiar interaction between student and teacher, Beatty “was not prepared for the sight one day of DeAndre, standing alone behind the stairwell.” (Beatty; par. 6). However, even in this case we see her as an outsider looking in: when a counselor arrives after a failed attempt to comfort her student, Ms. Beatty “watched them go with a mixture of relief and dread. Out of [her] hands.” She obviously had worthy intentions to comfort DeAndre, but the situation seemed to be bigger than anything she could resolve. Ms. Beatty’s trustworthiness becomes another important factor to focus our attention on and her illustration of events keys us into the devastation that takes place in South Central Los Angeles. The story itself does not appear to include any influence of bias, but the author narrates from a personal point of view and therefore the article contains her opinions and viewpoints on the matter. Ms. Beatty gives credible information because she witnessed all of these hardships and events first-hand; she offers highly trustworthy information in comparison to, for example, an internet news columnist who would write about different schools in Los Angeles. When narrating, she delivers a subjective point of view that would not be attainable from an outside source. The tone throughout the article delivers a sense of authority that is unmatched to anything I’ve ever read before, somehow conveying emotion in such a nondescript manner.
While describing the tale of events, Beatty utilizes fairly straight forward language. When recounting DeAndre’s story of false accusation, she gives evidence to the type of misfortune that falls upon the shoulders of young teens in this area. The story of DeAndre evokes both logic and sympathy because no child should have to suffer this type of harassment and blame, especially not in DeAndre’s case because he had such good intentions of standing up for his sister. Pathos lingers throughout this recap of DeAndre’s accusations When discussing the accusations, the Beatty says that DeAndre “was taken into custody, where he was told they already had evidence that he’d killed the boy and were just looking for a confession. The smartest thing he could do, they told him, was to confess, so they could get his sentence down to a few years. If he refused, he would get life.” (Beatty; par. 16). This section of the story really resonated with me, and I cannot imagine a person falsely accusing me of murder or coaxed into making reparations for a crime of which I did not take part in.
Although it appears that Beatty lacks the same cultural background as the students, I believe that she could have written her story with more conviction, urging readers to reach out to the hopeless children. Through researching, I found out about multiple organizations and charities that help motivate inner-city kids to graduate high school. When Beatty talked about her “heavy-footed student who looked too old for ninth grade” (Beatty; par. 3), it made me realize that what some of these students needed was a ray of hope in their violence-filled surroundings. One charity called the I Have A Dream Foundation pledges college education funding for kids who graduate high school, and this would be a great thing for Beatty to have introduced into the school. Focusing their efforts into schoolwork and attempting to make something out of their lives might be just the spark that South Central Los Angeles would need to eliminate teen violence.
Beatty’s emotional involvement with her students is never quite enough; her aloofness, insensitivity, and difference in cultural upbringing make it difficult for her to connect on a deep level with her students. Although she shows undoubtable sympathy and a genuine understanding of what they are going through, her sympathy is just that and nothing more. If Beatty were to take her position as a distant, on-looking teacher and turn it into something useful, then the students at South Central would benefit immensly.

Works Cited
Beatty, Anne P. "Survival Skills at a School in LA." The American Scholar: Phi Beta Kappa. T, Winter 2013. Web. 12 Sept. 2014.
""I Have A Dream" Foundation." "I Have A Dream" Foundation. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Sept. 2014.