10 1s 20 2s a» “NOT MY ALMA MATER’... A VITRIOLIC PROLOGUE Montreal, May 1984 1 got ticked curt oF high School today. can't believe Ht. Vhave an A average. and Ive never gotten a detention or even £0 much a6 a demerit pomt and those. morons qo and kick nme out. Stupid morons. He feat that | as omg anything that 1 don"t usualy do. ans hanging out at muy locker wearing my Spray painted "fat Dirt and Die® shict that | made. and 4he vice. principal sales by and 4els me not to wear That Shict ansyucre. Totaly out of the. blue. Wve been cara this shirt tuo, maybe. three Hines a neck for the past sit months, and today he decides | can't wear it ansguore. Then later I'm in technical drawing and hee comes back and tates me out of class. He mates me go to the principa’s office. and thes Hel me not to come to School ansquore looking lite this. tell them to eat my mom and She Shows up and tokaly supports then. mean, Liou she hates the wars Nook, but ‘this has NONSENSE aritten allover + in mle high lebters and everyone's acting Uke H's totaly my Sout. Tue vip. Hels me that Vm detracting the other students, Bure, shen | got muy chat, the lady sho runs the cosmetology department asied me not to hang around there because | seare the dd adies sho cone into get their hair dyed bue trou, that's a je) by the. gigs. 80 Ary but it kind oF hard 40 do with my locker riot dome the. ha and may Archaea caning cass right cress From ccsmetclogy BH2,\ 5H in the back of the cass al the tine, co there's no ream 4% 50 5s 6s ” hu, they shoud say distracting ererypody, Besides shich, my hai’s been tke ‘tis Kor Si, Seven months. now, Get ever it ready, Then the Wp. Says that Va ust trying to be tke this git whose plcture”s in my locker, Reali? The only reason MS. Mendy O. Kitians of the Pasmaties graces ny locker doce i because. she looks the me, not the. other say around. had a big, tende Sin say before Id ever Seen one on anybody else. Aad her's the last Hine they Sam me standing on a tank hearing nothing but leather underwear? Pease, "Besides, | tel them, "if anyone's going to be tke anyone tise, you shold want our other students to be tke me. tm the one sho gets Straight A'S and has never got a detention.” Right, inbectes? kay That dide't qo over 50 wel. The Principal Says that the ay dress 6 indecent, Like, the First tine \ cane to School M nipped Fishnets, spike heels, thighs Wich red mini, Spiked belt, ripped-up T-shirt (40 Skin, though, lace. gloves, ful geisha makent and Sideue Sin, brought a pai of jeans. 1 new as pushing it Did they Sy anuthing ‘then? No, But everyone. ee dil. For Some reason, the litte dense, boys in 4his schoo! thought | was trying to be appeating, st Ike these din-uits are thinking tow. Guess again (met toking what they and their tociety ‘think is attractive. and muting H+ aly Beemuse that's shat it i, Get i? Guess not. So I'm cut of here. | got one. year of igh school eA and these just kicked ther smartest student out of ther agi stupid luting, Thea est don"t get rh Mel, dan them if thea can't tive a ce. Escaneado con CamScannerAtlanta, March 1998 Aithougp these events occured half a etme ago, there effects lager in muy fe, theie repercussions defining my present ond shaping my Sotuce, Had \ not been expeled oom Pesenere High Schoo) | weuld probably be a drattscerson, maujbe even on architect or ew enqincer, today, This particular episode remains a Sesh and vivid memory, \ ean Sti recat the precise shade of the brown carpe in the. principal's office, the placement of the cheap office Suriture. fren nore dictinctiy, | remember hou | felts benidered, Snastrated, angry, gomertess. as ea bad anvioty dream, the kind here you tate or Servam but no Sound comes cut, as Of course, i ratty, | as taking cut fd. Bot no one heard me. you had asked me, ten sho | was shat 1 mas dong, and what thad 40 Sad, | oul have +d spa that nas protesting "he wystice of Tae Bytom’. woud have tld you that | suas not tring to anger peorl, but 40 Beare tram, fo wie them up| woud have 40d 44, asec nob in these words, tha as not %” 5 Arig, to be attractie or ndecent, but Hat | nas mocking Send Sexuaity trough cored | woud have tld hou becoming a punk was, foe ne, the timate in self-engoneenent that thad moved Srom a position of vietinization, ss the swartest, dertapst, mesh purseeuted grt m eho, to ont of agency, aS a PeIEOR it contre of muy selK-presentation, | would have eld sp ho had gone Srom being a Soci cutcast 40 beng a core nenber of a marginal pose, that it as no longer de case that the werd Kos against me, but rather that | 110 sas against the nord 10s 120 ns bo 40 Ms 1 would have told 4ou how punk Saved ny Se. | reeal ver since the ementory sched, being tod by boss - often, and to rug face ~ Phat | nas ugly. A smart, nicole, orking-elass git | was tthe arong things in muy schoo Social erles. Not cay did ear urge asses, but ly parents coud not afford to dress me in the latest designer deans or Lacoste shirts Hat denoted mid eighties preppie cack. Before \ became a punk, nj ‘uciness' hanuiated me, witied hunched cover, staring at the Moor, $0 ashamed of mi, appearance that | did not dare ook anyone inthe face. The tough, ler kids in the back of the school bus taunted me, Hreatened ne, and tires robten uach renains at me, a5 | got off the bus in the afternoon. Tas as in part shat precipitated my rejection Of socist noon and ment into Hh word of punk, OF course, none of these chyective cireanstonces changed shen | became a punk stopped wearing muy lasses and shaved ny head, but, in Sack, my persecution only increased. What did change. was how felt about myself, After \ become a punk, shen | as confronted with negate evaluations of rus Supposed ugjiness, \had the. strength 40 tun the tables on these assalants, to real, Yeah, but at least I'm ugg on purpose.” My peers, 4he other punks in my high schoal, understood this, and didn’t have to ask shat | was doing, of shat U had to sau. With ease and singlicity, they adopted me (a8 one of their ont, st another rebel in ‘the ranks of the ih School rejects. AS a matter of fact, 10 one ever asked me, not even the adninsstrators of aly high School on the day they expeted me for transaressing Escaneado con CamScannereas Buel their (gender? norms. | distinctly recall and confrontational manner. No one ever 150 sitting in the principal's office that day, asked me, or realy listened +0 what | was listening +o their declarations that my 165 Saying. | was diing (dieing?) +0 tell people hairstyle was disrupting class and that | was what was on mig mind. My adoption of the a bad influence on the other students. As punk style was an attemot at communicating much as \ tried +o defend my appearance what | thought and Felt adout nuclear war, 155 and my actions, they tried +o force their Feligion, lanquage, politics, racism, classisn, or interpretation on me. I+ made no Sense to me 170 any other topie, but no one wanted +0 hear then, ard it doesn't +o this day. To tell you it. Lwas a fifteen-year-old git challenging the truth, it still makes me mad. the entire wortd on a number of fronts, but it seemed at the time that everyone had no one cared to listen. 160 a theory about who | was, what | was doing, and what \ was declaring, and people. often Adapted from Pretty st Pantk ‘shared’ these. with me in a most unpleasant ‘yy Laumaing, Le Banc 1 Look at the first diary entry (Montreal, May 1984) and answer the fallowine auestions Escaneado con CamScannerNot my alma matter Read the text and do the following reading activities taken from “English B Course Companion”. OUP 2012 1 Look at the fist diary entry (Montreal, May 1984 om the following questions a Why is Leblanc surprise school? b The words Vice principal’ and “principal! are written using small iystead af capital letters, What does this show abo Leblane’s teelings towards her school’s pri prineipal? she was expelled Ite Land vice © Whar does Letilane mean when she says this hay NONSENSE written all over it in mile-high letters’ lines 222? Explain the irony in “to get their hair dyed blue” (line 30), © What is the most obvious similarity between LeBlanc, the teenager, and Wendy O, Williams? {When LeBlanc says brought a pair of je does this tel (line 60), what he reader about how she perceived what she Look at the second diary entry (Atlanta, March 1998) and choose the correct answer from A, 1,0 D. 2 “repercussions (line 761 is A consequ B allusions 1b LeBlanc’s expulsion resulted in: A. her becomitny an artist D hier remembering everyth ‘imation © ony bb mockery dcaricature 4. Becoming a punk was for LeBlanc: Aawaytoproveherself -Bawaytostandout Caway tocontrolherlife Da way to realize €. “myopic” (line 114) is closest in meaning to: A short-sighted B prejudiced narrow-minded Dbroad-minded Escaneado con CamScannerNOT MY ALMA MATER. (by Lauraine Le Blanc — Pret Grammar Exercises. Exercise A: (Derivatives, Word formation and Parts of Speech) Definition of Derivatives: Words that are formed from other root words. Punk) Prefixes and suffixes play a very important role when writing the different parts of speech. Look at these words ‘and write as many derivatives from words as possible, stating what part of speech they are. All these words ‘appeared in the text “Not my alma mater”. Supports (line20) Distract (line 25) Attractive (line 67) Memory (line 81) | Powerless (line 86) : Wain Anviety (ine 87) | Anger fine 55) cimizaon | sapamed (ine 122) | strength ine 137) Influence (line 153) Unpleasant (line 162) ‘Adoption (line 166) Cared (line 173) Exercise B: Read the text again. Focus your attention on the diary entry dated ~ Atlanta: March 1998. Find, at least, 3 conditionals (3" type) 1 2 Escaneado con CamScannerExercise C: Finish these sentences. 1 | fle Bianc hadn't felt so bewildered, frustrated or angry, she.. 2 | her parents could have afforded more expensive clothes, she... 3 | Ifher classmates hadn't rejected her, .. 4 | ifthe teachers and principals had noticed what was happening to Ms. Le Blanc ‘Writing Section Think of a different perspective from which to approach the text and explore the main theme. We are only privy to Le Blanc’s point of view in the text. What about... © Le Blanc’s mother? ‘A. Decide which text type you would like to use to tell the story from a different point of view 8. After you have chosen your type of text facus on who your audience Is. Identifying your audience Is very important since it determines your style, tone and register. Write your assignment using between 200 and 250 words. Escaneado con CamScanner