Muskegon Ave

My father lived on Muskegon Ave. If you know Chicago, you know that's the hood. Abandoned houses, drive bys, drug dealers living next door, the whole nine yards. My bother and I returned to Kozminski. It never changed. The demographics, the structure, the education, nothing. When I moved back to Chicago, everyone thought I was a genius. For the first time since I left Chicago, I was the smartest kid in class again. Back then I was always happy and proud of my grades. Reflecting back I now see the problem in knowing so much more I knew than my peers. I would argue that I didn't necessarily work harder than a lot of the other students in my class. I was just more advantaged because I spent a few years in a more privileged school systems (in FL). Since I was a bit older at the time, I knew that if I stayed at Kozminski my education would be stunted. I was never challenged, teachers were more concerned with punishing misbehaving students than teaching, and I know that I needed to be better prepared if I didn't want to go to my neighborhood high school. That's when I remembered Kenwood Academy, a school that all my siblings attended, had an accelerated program for 7th and 8th graders. In 6th grade students from all over Chicago were able to test for the 100 spots in the program.