Humans of Jericho: Success Edition

English teacher Ken Darr. “Ray, a student I taught at East Meadow, came to me and was not doing well in class. So, I gave him 'Fahrenheit 451' to read. He loved it. The very next day he came to me and had read the book. He said, ‘Do you have more books like this?’ So I gave him '1984' and he read that in three days. He was in my class, but he wasn’t doing anything anybody else was doing, but he loved to learn. A month later I got a note from him telling me, and I still have the note and I have it memorized, ‘Dear Mr. Darr, You’re the best teacher I ever had. I dropped out of school today. Be cool. –Ray.’ It’s one of my biggest failures and one of my biggest successes. I feel like I made a difference in his life, and at the same time, I failed because I didn't make enough difference for him to stay in school. I’ve since heard that he’s doing very well.”

By AMANDA DAMON, CARLY LAPIDUS, and REBECCA SIMON

Inspired by Brandon Stanton’s blog, “Humans of New York,” the JerEcho has created its own ongoing feature dubbed “Humans of Jericho: Success Edition.” This feature aims to explore how Jericho High School students and faculty define success and how their definitions of success have impacted their lives.

 

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