November 15, 2024
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A New York state of mind

If the Searsport District High School students’ four-day visit to Brooklyn, N.Y., could be compressed into a montage …

. A Searsport mother wiping a tear from her face after hugging her daughter before she leaves the high school parking lot Thursday morning.

. The silence that falls over the bus as it rolls off the highway and into upper Manhattan, then through the electric, eye-popping vibrancy of Harlem’s sidewalks.

. Anxiety on some Searsport students’ faces as they cram onto a subway car during rush hour, clutching their luggage, as it rattles and roars through dark tunnels, bumping the students against strangers.

. Nervous smiles from

students in both high schools as they get reacquainted in an ice-breaker event at a teen center next to the school.

. Red-haired, fair-skinned Annette Anderson from Searsport dancing in the midst of a tight group of four or five Brooklyn black and Latino students.

. Brooklyn students working at “translating” lines of a Shakespeare sonnet in an English class, while the visiting Searsport students watch, oh-so-familiar with that perennial educational struggle.

. Frankfort’s Nathan Adams tentatively shooting hoops with School for Law and Justice students at a Brooklyn park, under the watchful eyes of some young men from the neighborhood.

. The close attention of Searsport students during a class Friday in which a guest speaker describes the history of a recently unearthed African slave burial ground in lower Manhattan.

. A mix of teen excitement and apprehension preceding the Saturday night dance, as the Searsport and Brooklyn teens cluster on opposite sides of the room while a DJ blasts hip-hop.

. The fear on the face of a Searsport girl, standing alone with her Brooklyn host at a bus stop after 11 p.m., waiting to board a ride to an apartment complex 45 minutes away.

. Weary eyes on students from both schools Sunday morning as the Searsport group prepared to leave, the talk of homework due Monday, the goodbye hugs.


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