Elsie Kim

Blake Academy and the Green Arrow

Certain parts of this chapter had me shaking my head in disbelief. Once again I am appalled at the horrible

experiences Mr. Oliver Queen had to endure as a child. I cant imagine being a child with LDs and high levels of

anxiety having to cope with moving to a new school on top of a recent scarring parental divorce. However, this chapter

also provided me with some degree of hope and enlightenment for schools tailored to the needs of children with LDs. I

believe that Queens time spent at Blake Academy illustrates that there are certain aspects and advantages of being

educated in a separate, special school.

It was heartening to read that Queen was able to expand his knowledge and learn at Blake Academy, in contrast

to Lynn Pelkeys experience at her normal public school. Even though Queen still had teachers that he considered to

be unhelpful, he found motivation within two of his educators. Once again, I found myself thinking about my cousin,

Jacob. My aunt and uncle work so hard for him to be in a public school because they dont want him to feel different

in a bad way. However, a battle they are constantly fighting is the schools constant switching of aids. Similar to the

high school I worked at, there are a handful of specialized aids that assist the students with LDs at my cousins school.

Though Jacob usually receives assistance from the same aid, somedays a different assistant will come into his

classroom. Jacob is wary of strangers and extremely uncomfortable with change. I wonder if a specialized school like

Blake Academy would be beneficial to Jacob in that it would provide a little more structure.

On the other hand, I can see the disadvantages to separate specialized schools. Though Queen was not doing

well in his public school, Blake Academy proved not to be a safe haven for student with LDs. Queen was still labeled

and felt tension from the Dixon Valley students everyday. Though Queen thought that there would be some sort of

community between the students, as they all shared a similarity, this did not exist. In addition, Queen and his peers

were placed in an environment that encouraged racism and segregation. Queen already felt apprehension towards

African-American people. It was sad to read about how the surrounding community, instead of embracing and

improving the students who attended Dixon Valley completely segregated them, even from Blake Academy, where

children of similar if not same disabilities attended. Instead of learning to accept and realizing that the students at

Dixon were remarkably similar to him, the degree of separation between Queen and African Americans deepened.
 In my future classroom, I hope to build a warm and comfortable classroom environment with a strong sense of

community. I hope my students will be kind and accepting to their colleagues that have LDs. I want to show my

students that everyone is unique and learns in a different way, not just students with LDs. Again, I am reminded of one

of my favorite sayings, Be you, everyone else is taken. I just struggle with how I will successfully create this warm

and loving community within secondary school. In my opinion, society has made kids want to grow up faster and

though we have taken steps toward a more welcoming world, we have also gone backwards in certain aspects.

Though Queens mother reached her breaking point, I feel like sending him away was a mistake. Is this even

allowed? When do social/child protective services get involved? How come Queen was not diagnosed with ED? Do

children with LDs have a tendency to also be emotionally distressed?