There Are No Children Here

LaJoe has known her best and only friend, Rochelle, since they were children. Before they were even born, their mothers were already best friends, and now, Rochelle is like a second mother to LaJoe’s children. While she does not have a job—instead organizing a monthly card game that gives her enough money to live—she often brings the family clothes or toys.

When gangs enter in what they call “peace treaties,” adults and their children can finally gather outside to meet and play in the narrow parking lot by the Riverses’ building. One such day, when LaJoe and Rochelle are watching the children play around, LaJoe worriedly notes that Pharoah has recently been daydreaming a lot and forgetting things, as though he is living in a different world than everyone else. The city’s teachers have been on strike for a couple of weeks, fighting to obtain a pay raise, and Pharoah desperately wants to go back to school. He asks his mother when the strike will end, but his stutter keeps him from finishing his question. Knowing what he is trying to say, LaJoe still answers him, telling him that he will soon be back at school.

Pharoah loves school. Despite his stammer and being two months below what is considered a standard level at his age, he is one of the best students in fourth grade at his school, because so many of the other students’ grades are lower than his. He usually rushes to school as fast as he can in the morning and often reads at night until his eyes hurt. In his spare time, he practices his handwriting so much that his teachers are impressed by how neat it looks.

In the meantime, during the strike-extended summer, the neighborhood remains violent. When a family friend is killed, both Lafeyette and Pharoah refuse to attend the funeral, because they still have not gotten over Bird Leg’s death. The strike finally ends in early October, and Pharoah is excited to start a new, important school year.

The Henry Suder Elementary School, which both Lafeyette and Pharoah attend, was once a symbol of controversy and racial inequality, due to the school board president’s discriminatory policies. Despite the school’s historically high drop-out rate, Suder is special in comparison with other inner-city schools because of its relatively good discipline which the school’s principal, Brenda Daigre, has played an important role in maintaining. Ms. Daigre also launched “Project Africa,” which raises money to send a dozen students to Africa during the summer, and the project has received national attention and praise. At the same time, Ms. Daigre’s authoritative attitude can also turn into overly harsh judgment, as she’s quick to label students as “bad” and administer punishment that is too severe.

The school also suffers from increasingly limited funds, which has forced it to cut art and music classes, have only one counselor for seven hundred students, and share a nurse and psychologist with three other schools. In addition, Suder suffers from a severe lack of male teachers, who could serve as positive role models for children and show them that employed men do not only work as policemen.

Pharoah’s fourth-grade class is led by Ms. Barone, an enthusiastic, experienced teacher. While Ms. Barone devotes extraordinary energy to her class, she has also suffered from fatigue over the years, and she is tired of large class sizes and lack of funds. Due to her emotional involvement with her students, who often face violence and trauma outside of school, Ms. Barone suffers from excessive stress, which has led her to develop a ulcerated colon.

Ms. Barone insists on maintaining strict order in the classroom because she argues that her students, who experience chaos in so many other aspects of their life, need it desperately to grow and feel safe. When she noticed Pharoah’s stutter on the first day of school, she was mostly impressed by the young boy’s determination to get the words out, and she has since felt a “soft spot” for him.

Unlike in the rest of the neighborhood, Pharoah feels so comfortable and free at school that he spends his time talking in class, and Ms. Barone has had to place him in the front row to keep an eye on him. At the same time, Pharoah constantly asks to be given responsibilities and tasks to perform, and he has also impressed his teachers and peers alike with his writing and spelling, composing essays that convey his imaginative powers. He felt proud once when the entire class laughed at one of his humorous essays, instead of teasing him, as his schoolmates sometimes do when they make fun of his studiousness or his buck teeth.