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You think YOU’RE worried about grades? So was Anne Frank

You think YOU'RE worried about grades? So was Anne Frank

“Dearest Kitty, 

Our entire class is quaking in its boots. The reason, of course, is the upcoming meeting in which the teachers decide who’ll be promoted to the next grade and who’ll be kept back. Half the class is making bets… If you ask me, there are so many dummies that about a quarter of the class should be kept back, but teachers are the most unpredictable creatures on earth. Maybe this time they’ll be unpredictable in the right direction. I’m not worried about my girlfriends and myself. We’ll make it. The only subject I’m not sure about is math. Anyway, all we can do is wait. Until then, we keep telling each other not to lose heart” (10-11)

Anne Frank (1929 – 1945), The Diary of a Young Girl: The Definitive Edition. Anchor Books, 1996.  

Chicago, IL

I can’t organize everything in my head. I need a classroom environment to keep me motivated. I get way too distracted trying to do it all online.

South Bend, IN

My least favorite class used to meet for hours on end but now the lectures are cancelled and I have so much more free time. I feel like I can actually be productive and efficient for this class and my others.  My motivation is better because now I can take ownership of my own work. There were some personalities I was working with before who I really didn’t agree with, and it’s refreshing to have that separation.

Glasgow, UK

Last Thursday, something really special happened. Our school hosts some night art classes for the adults that live in town. One night after I finished my work in the studio—around 9 pm—I wandered by their classroom and decided to check it out. There was a woman in her forties who was originally from Guangdong, China. We started chatting and, once she learned I had yet to eat anything, she insisted on letting me have her homemade dinner and snacks. It was such a touching moment, but I never saw her again.

Fuqing, China

My dad gave me a few dimes each week. For a whole semester, I didn’t buy any romantic novels. I didn’t eat snacks. I didn’t spend them on shuttlecocks like all the other kids. At the very last day, I spent them all. I remember that was 2 cents. Big number at that time. For me. Do you know what I got? I subscribed a whole year of Mathematics Newspaper.

Rome, Italy

I want to be a teacher so that I can walk to school down a sidewalk that’s covered in fall leaves with books in my bag.

Chiclana de la Frontera, Spain

“Are you going to go to English class today?”
“We do it everyday.”
“Oh, that’s right… Should I get everyone?” 

San José de Chimbo, Ecuador

In math class I feel good. I feel content to be learning. I like numbers a lot.

Xuzhong, China

When I was in secondary and high school, I didn’t think about what I want to do in the future at all. I only know that going to college is the way to go. To the city, and change my fate of becoming a peasant. I dared to dream about what I can do only after I got into college. For rural kids, the only possible way to change identity in the past was to study. But now as long as you have some talent, some nerve, nothing illegal, you may achieve it. The nation has changed.

Changzhou, China

After school, I needed to do farm work and cook dinner. After that, I have to do the dishes too. I couldn’t start doing school work until 8 p.m. At that time, I was a big fan of Maths, so I often stayed up past midnight to solve tricky math problems. Sometimes, I got really sleepy so I fell asleep with candles lit. When the candles melted, the desk would catch fire—this happened three times. Every time I managed to save my Math book first. I’d cry really loud if I see the book was burnt broken. I didn’t think of anything else.