Manhattan Center attracts more than its fair share of devoted teachers. Dedicated veterans and intrepid newbies alike strive to help our students hone academic skills for college and beyond. Even the newest members of our teaching staff tend to be impressed by our charismatic and diverse student body.
When 9th & 10th Grade English teacher Cassandra Richardson left MCSM last year to marry and start her family, she kept her students in her heart. More than that, she and her mother raised the funds to publish an entire book of creative writing by her former students, selected from English assignments Ms.Richardson (now Mrs. Richardson-Coughlin) devised during her 2015-2016 school year. She titled the book Listen.
49 student writers contributed everything from poetry and fiction to personal memoirs and expository research essays to this ambitious compilation.
Prestige Guedegbe’s “Culture Poem” celebrates diversity; Jahnay Bryan’s opinion essay “Catcalling” wonders why men need to whistle and yell at female strangers in public streets. Ibrahima Barry explains how one becomes an architectural engineer. One student even uses a pen name to anonymously describe the contemporary experience of going to school while one’s family is homeless.
Listen is an extraordinary collection, full of material that reveals the aspirational heart of MCSM. If you want to know how to get a copy, email Ms. Richardson-Coughlin at:
Cassandra.src@gmail.com