White Water Below:
Building Bridges of Opportunity toward a Better Life
When my family and I travel to Minnesota, we have to cross a number of rivers. The highway crosses these bridges high above the rushing water. I like to try to look out over the edge and see the water far below. I’m afraid of heights, but I enjoy looking down at the danger we are flying over as our car races over the bridge. Just as bridges are used to span rough or dangerous terrain along a highway, so also are there many types of bridges to span life’s challenges and disadvantages toward a life of greater prosperity and fulfillment. In “Building Bridges” by Andrea Davis Pinkney, Bebe, the black, teenaged, and orphaned female protagonist from a poor family represents thousands…show more content… In the documentary, Stephanie attends Gage Park High School in Chicago. As she reflects on her first year at the school, she, like other incoming freshman, felt that she was “going to the worst school in the neighborhood.” While it probably was not statistically true, Stephanie had internalized a feeling that it was surprising when people actually graduated from Gage Park, and she perceived that even the school staff and administration expected students to drop out. Everyday, when she came into the school, she had to pass through metal detectors and security guards, which made her school feel like she was in prison, as if the school saw them all as juvenile delinquents. And in fact, there were many students who were repeatedly getting out-of-school suspensions, and in her own neighborhood there was a lot of violence. She even had a friend who literally died right in front of her house. All these experiences must have made her feel like she was trapped and added to her feeling that she could not go anywhere in life. Stephanie describes that she felt hopeless about her future, which consequently brought her grades and self-esteem down, and almost made her drop