NEWS & VIEWS > THE OTHER ATLANTIC CITY

Visiting My Alma Mater: Atlantic City High School

By Turia S.A. Raheem
Add Comment Add Comment | Comments: 1 | Posted Jun. 15, 2011

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ACHS has 46 such courses from which students can choose and if a student is not sure about taking them freshmen year, if they plan on attending college, they should definitely take two or three between 10th and 12th grade. As a college English instructor, I can assure you that taking free Honors or AP classes in a public high school will help you avoid paying for remedial courses in college.

Students also had fond memories of their vice principals, some of whom came with them to ACHS from their previous schools. They found comfort in seeing familiar faces among administrators when they reached high school. Sadly, many students said they would not recognize Principal Torres if they saw him.

Being a former high school teacher myself, at ACHS, I found what I usually found at the various schools where I taught: high schools are a reflection of the broader society. Most of what’s going on is really good, some is mediocre and in need of reform and a little is really bad and needs to be discarded. 

I was not disappointed with my visit to my alma mater. I left feeling pleased and hopeful that this generation will do better than us at finding ways to work together and ensure that all human beings at least have the basic necessities of life, the same way I felt after my own commencement in June 1972.

This year’s commencement ceremony is June 22.

Turiya S.A. Raheem was born and raised in Atlantic City. Currently an English teacher at Atlantic Cape Community College, she loves to describe her neighborhood as “the other Atlantic City,” because it was not the casino-resort mecca most people know today. It was a place with a “cozy, down-home feeling” as she describes in her 2010 book, Growing Up in the Other Atlantic City: Wash’s and the Northside.

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1. K.M. Brundidge said... on Jun 20, 2011 at 09:46PM

“Thank you for giving us a view of "the other Atlantic City High School". The information you gathered from the students themselves is more reliable than listening to rumors. ACHS sounds like a great place for diversity.”

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