OCTOBER 13, 2026. 37:05
EPISODE 3: ONE STUDENT AT A TIME
One student's freshman year is upended by violence and loss. As her attendance slips, Andrew faces a choice: enforce rules or respond to the person in front of him.
Her story becomes a turning point - not only for Andrew, but for the advisory itself. As other students begin to find their footing through internships, college classes, and new passions, the group slowly becomes something more than school mates.
Episode three explores what "one student at a time" really means - and why relationships may be the school's most lasting innovation.
OCTOBER 27, 2026.
EPISODE 4:
THE LONG HAUL
Coming Soon
The Advisory: Class of 2006
Episode 3 - One Student at a Time.
Justine: My name is Justine, I am thirty six, right? I think.
Andrew: I think you know better than me.
Justine: No, I'm thirty-eight. [laughs] I can never remember how old I am. So make sure we let's edit that.
Andrew: Let's try this again. We'll take it from the top.
Yeah. It’s true I never remember my age. But I do remember my name, so let me make sure that’s clear. I’m Justine Lambert.
Justine: I am twenty eight and I graduated in two thousand and six.
Andrew: You just lost ten years 'cause you just said you're twenty eight. Do you want to try it one more time? Let's try it one more time.
Justine: [sighs] Oh all right.
Okay. So... for the record… I’m Justine. I’m 38. I was in Andrew’s advisory at the Met and I graduated in 2006.
A few things to know about me. I’m married now. I have a ten year old son. And school wasn’t easy for me growing up. For starters, I had serious struggles reading. I felt a lot of embarrassment because of that. When I arrived at the Met as a freshman, I didn’t want to be there. At all. And one of the first things I said to Andrew is that he should never, never ever talk to me about college.
Justine: Remember what I said, f*** college. [Andrew laughs]
Andrew: I think that that was about the most delicate way that you said it. You had even more extreme emotions about that [Justine laughs in the background]
But experiences at The Met have a way of changing the way you see yourself and what you think is possible. I mean yeah, I’m still me. I still get a little salty sometimes. But looking back at high school, l can see how the Met helped me grow. Let’s just say I stopped saying “f*** college.”
And it wasn’t just me. Everyone changed. And at the same time, we grew closer. We became the family in that photo. You remember, the one Andrew showed us.
How?
Well, one thing that changed us was Natasha. What she went through…. I mean. It’s hard to believe she didn’t just disappear. Like “See you later. I’m done with school.”
We want to tell you more about Natasha's time at the Met. It will help explain how our advisory shifted and became a family. And it will show you why - at the Met - building relationships is just as important as anything else we do there.
But, first, we want to take you to an exhibition. Even though 20 years have passed, I can still remember what it feels like to do an exhibition. And, if you really want to understand the Met, exhibitions are key. It's where students share what they're learning, and where you see students grow over time.
From Big Picture Learning, this is The Advisory: Class of 2006. Here’s our advisor, Andrew Frishman.
SCENE 1 - Exhibitions
[ambi of chatter in the room]
It’s March 2026 and we’re back in Beccy Siddons’ advisory.
Beccy: Okay, good afternoon. Thank you all for coming to Daniela's exhibition. We're going to get started because she generally has a lot to present, (fades under)
Daniela - who gave us a tour of the Met and the Rhode Island State House - is presenting in front of a room full of people in her advisory. All eyes are on her.
Daniela: Hi, my name is Daniela Muralles, and welcome to my second trimester exhibition of junior year. [fades under]
At the end of each trimester, students do an Exhibition - a public presentation of their learning. Slideshow and all.
Daniela: So first my introduction. It's a little bit about me. I love movies. My favorite movie right now (fade under)
After sharing some things about herself Daneila will guide everyone through all she’s done this trimester plus what she’s done at her LTI.
Daniela:...talking about my LTI…
That’s Met jargon for “Learning Through Interests and Internships.”
Daniela:...and finally a conclusion. (fade under)
The idea behind an exhibition is both simple and radical. Student interests drive their learning and they are experts on their own growth. They have 45 minutes to demonstrate some of the skills they’ve developed, the knowledge they’ve gained, and publicly reflect on their work. They also talk about what they want to improve on and share ideas about what they want to learn next.
Daniela: Skill development, here I was just saying about how I sort of have to have more time management. I need a lot of time management…(fade under)
People in attendance jot down highlights and constructive feedback. Daniela’s audience is pretty typical. About 15 - 20 people including Met staff, other students, Daniela’s mentor from her internship, and her mom. In fact parents or family members are not just invited, they are expected to attend all of their student’s exhibitions.
Daniela: So I'm going to be passing out my learning plan. So it just has my LTI, LTI project, books I've read, and QR, (fade under)
QR stands for Quantitative Reasoning - or the ways Daniela is learning to think like a mathematician. Students are also asked to explain how they think like an historian or a research scientist – Social Reasoning and Empirical Reasoning.
Daniela: This trimester, I interned at the Workers' Compensation Court.
Daniela’s interest in state government is laser focused. And insatiable. This trimester, she even sat in on a murder trial in Superior Court where she listened to the opening statements and the first cross-examination.
Daniela: It sort of inspired me to want to be a prosecutor. Beforehand, I was sure I just wanted to do criminal law. I was focused on that. But with being in district court and then also seeing that trial, it definitely set me with that anticipation of wanting to be a prosecutor.
Students at the Met are encouraged to be honest when they reflect on their work. Which Daniela is when she’s asked to share how she did this tri-semester. And she tells the group she wasn't always able to give 100% on projects outside her internship.
Daniela: I just sort of fell into a slump where I really didn't want to do anything. For next trimester I know I'm going to do better. I always do better by the third trimester.
Before Daniela moves on, Beccy takes the opportunity to ask her a question.
Beccy: So Dan, heading into senior year, what can you do to avoid the second trimester slump? Because in college that'll be the end of your first semester. So it's a bad time of year to have a slump in college. So what do you think we can make different next year to get you ready for college the year after?
Daniela: I seriously don't know. It's like the work appears and I do it and then it just keeps coming and I go whoa. I guess just trying to stay more focused.
Beccy: Maybe it's something that we can brainstorm as an advisory, because I think you're not the only victim of the second trimester slump.
Beccy then turns to all the other people in the room.
Beccy: Okay, so we'll take a few minutes to give some feedback, so some constructive and positive feedback for Daniela.
Daniela's exhibition ran long. They're tight on time. Her mentor from the State House is the first to speak.
Rob: So great job, Daniela, and it's been a pleasure working with you the last couple years. The one piece of feedback I'd have is try to plan it so that you can get through everything in your presentation bec… (fade under)
A close friend in the advisory talks about Daniela’s new goal of becoming a prosecutor. The friend sees bigger things for Daniela. She sees Daniela becoming an AG. Attorney General.
Brianna: I'm always blown away about the work that you do.
It's a calling. And I feel like it's your calling. I see you being an AG one day and like working, like on these really tough and complex cases like you have that within you. That's who you're meant to be, and future president, of course.
And just before the exhibition ends, Beccy, weighs in:
Beccy: I would have liked to hear more about what parts of your research you've been able to integrate into your tour at the State House just to kind of pull that together. But overall I think that it was a strong exhibition. I think you have had a really strong trimester at your internship sites and looking forward to seeing you pull out of the slump in the third trimester. Good job. (Applause)
After the applause, the formal part of Daniela’s exhibition is over but she’s not done. Now she meets with her mom and Beccy to discuss her learning plan for the next trimester. Because it’s near the end of her junior year, they start with Daniela’s post-Met plans; she’s been thinking a lot about college…
Beccy: Where are you in your conversations with your mom about the schools on the list that you and I have been kind of looking at?
Daniela: Um. We're mainly on the same page. She's not too comfortable with, you know, Chicago and Washington.
Beccy: Wants you to be a little closer.
Daniela: Yeah.
The conversation moves on to other elements of Daniela’s learning plan for the next trimester. She wants to read Wuthering Heights and complete the film class she’s taking at the local community college.
And her plans for this summer, maybe not a surprise? Daniela says she wants to keep working at the State House. Giving tours. And you should see Daniela’s eyes light up when they start talking about a possible senior year internship at Providence city hall.
Beccy: I wonder, do you feel like if Morales wins the mayoral race.
Daniela: That's what I'm thinking.
Beccy: How's your relationship with him? Do you think we can work it out?
Daniela: That's twin. We, oh my God, so Beccy, I actually, he lives in my neighborhood.
Beccy: I know. Mm-hmm.
Daniela: Like, I didn't know that.
Beccy: And you stalk him at the state house.
Daniela: I stalk him all the time.
Beccy: So maybe you should start planting some seeds now that whatever he's doing next year, maybe he needs an intern.
Daniela: I'm thinking, I'm thinkin' the same thing.
Beccy: All right. Thank you so much. Thank you.
SCENE 2 - NATASHA / ONE STUDENT AT A TIME
Natasha from video: Alright. My name is Natasha Luigui. I’m in the ninth grade. This is my second quarter exhibition. And, I’m in Andrew’s advisory.
I have this moment etched in my memory. It's Natasha's exhibition. January of freshman year. 2003.
Natasha’s nervous. Standing at the front of the room shifting her weight from one foot to another.
Natasha from video: My first quarter narrative talks about the good things and the bad things that went on last quarter.
This was only Natasha's second exhibition at the Met. And despite her nerves, this is exactly what she signed up for.
The way Natasha remembers it she was an 8th grader at Nathan Bishop Middle School in Providence - trying to figure out where to go for high school. Then she heard a presentation about the Met. It sounded like a cool place. So she applied.
Natasha: I told my mom, we have an interview at this high school and she's like, what high school? I'm like, I filled out the application, you signed it. [laughs]
They went for the interview and one thing really caught Natasha’s attention: she would be in charge of her own learning.
Natasha: My mom's just like, are you sure? You're not gonna have any classes? So I'm like, yes, I'm sure. I know how to plan my own education.
When Natasha got to the Met, she dove in. I saw a devoted student. Focused. A kid who kept a perfect daily planner. And she’d slip out of the advisory when things got too loud in order to get her work done.
But it would take me some time to understand what I wasn’t seeing and why she was increasingly absent.
Natasha: Like I'm feeling this anxious, anxiety, sadness, depression. I didn't really know how to handle those emotions at such a young age.
Natasha lived with her mom and younger siblings in the Chad Brown Housing projects in the north part of Providence. It was an area that at that time was plagued by a lot of violence. And just before school started freshman year, someone Natasha knew in her neighborhood was murdered. His name was Jamal Perry. He was 17. Rumor had it, he was killed as an act of revenge.
Then a few weeks later, in late September, Jermaine Ellis - who Natasha was friendly with - was killed in a drive-by shooting. Right there. Just a couple blocks from her house. Jermaine was 12. In her journal at the time, Natasha wrote that he wanted to be an astronaut.
Natasha: He was just, you know. At the basketball court, that all of us go to, walk through. It could have happened to any child at the time.
Two months later, Jermaine’s older brother, Joel, was shot and killed. He was a friend.
Natasha: I never experienced death like that where I knew the person. It was really scary just knowing that someone close to home, someone that I was close to and that I knew could be taken away so quickly. This was like the very first time I've ever experienced grief. During that time I didn't really know like how to feel. So my main reaction was just shutting down.
Shutting down meant missing school. In the first quarter of freshman year, Natasha was absent seven days. By the second quarter, she missed twice that. It’s a little hard to hear, but I asked about those absences during her exhibition back in 2003.
Andrew from video: Do you want to talk about attendance over this last quarter and how that’s been?
Natasha looks a bit embarrassed. Uncomfortable. She bites her nails.
Andrew from video: Do you see it as an issue? Do you think that it's something that was just happening that quarter? What do you think?
Natasha from video: There's nothing really to it.
Natasha says, there’s really nothing to say about my absences.
Natasha from video: Do you want to talk about it?
Do you want to talk about it? Then she says the final part of her exhibition will help explain why she’s missed school.
Natasha from video: The next thing I'm going to show is, well, it's an essay, if you want me to read it, I'll read it to you.
Natasha starts to sway back and forth behind the desk. The essay held in her hands. And she begins…
Natasha from video: Every day, I think about the same thing. Why do people kill other people? What can they get from that besides getting revenge? [Cross fade]
Natasha: The only thing they can get is going to training school or jail. The world is really going crazy. Everyone killing each other for no reason whatsoever. People kill others being on different sides in the city. I lost three people who had gotten shot all in the same year…
Natasha: (paper rustling) Yeah. That was a lot for that age.
Andrew: That's a lot, right?
Natasha: Yeah. Absolutely.
Natasha: I felt like I was in the middle of like a tug of war because it's like, okay, I'm shutting down, I don't wanna be around people, but then at the same time, it's I need people to talk to to see if they understand how I'm feeling or just someone to just be with me. If I had been like at a regular traditional school, I still would have been struggling or keeping things to myself and I wouldn't have been able to get out the feelings that I were feeling at that time. Where here I was able to to write it out, talk it out. And just being able to navigate it that way was good for me.
Natasha from video: Why can't everything just rewind? And the things that happen don't happen because I would know what is about to happen, and I could warn them before anything happened. If that was real, then they will still be alive and everyone will be happy and live on with their lives together.
Natasha finishes. She leans on the table with both hands. She goes quiet.
Off camera, an adult in the room says, “That’s a pretty intense piece of history you’ve just lived.”
Natasha tries to hold it together. But she can’t. She picks up her essay, holds it in front of her face and starts to cry.
An awkward silence fills the room. And then, not knowing what else to do, I cautiously invite everyone to give Natasha a round of applause for all her hard work.
[applause]
Natasha doesn’t move. She’s frozen. She’s hiding her face behind her essay. I walk up to her, put my hand on her shoulder and say something just to her. Natasha puts the paper down. And we walk off. Together.
[ambi fades out]
The Met's philosophy is often described as "one student at a time."
When I started as an advisor, I thought that simply meant personalizing learning. Finding the right internship for each student. Building projects around a student's interests. And sure. That’s one of the things “one student at a time” means.
But what Natasha was going through helped me understand something deeper.
It would have been easy to punish Natasha for missing school.
But her exhibition made clear that what she needed wasn't some kind of disciplinary response, it was support. From me, and from others in the advisory. What took me a while to get my head around was that one student at a time doesn't just mean individualized learning plans. It means building individual connections. Individual relationships.
Later, during the spring of her freshman year, Natasha witnessed another shooting in her neighborhood. This time the two victims survived. But Natasha’s attendance at school got so bad, she was required to attend summer school to make up the days she’d missed.
SCENE 3 - INTERNSHIPS & OTHER THINGS
One of the other things I was learning about being an advisor is that no two students were ever in the same emotional place at the same time.
While Natasha was carrying more grief than any fourteen-year-old should have to carry, Anthony was... he was being Anthony.
MUSIC
You remember Anthony. The joker. The kid who would snatch my car keys and re-park my car on the other side of the parking lot so I had a hard time finding it. It felt like every time I called him to set up a learning plan meeting he’d say in a quiet voice…
Andrew: I can't make it, Andrew, I am in the hospital.
Anthony: I used to… I don’t remember that one. [laughs]
Andrew: Oh yeah, like one time it was, like, I got in this bad car accident, I'm paralyzed.
Anthony: I said that to you? [laughs]
Andrew: You did. And there was one time you were, like, oh yeah, no if we're going to do a learning plan meeting, it's got to be on the seventh floor of Miriam Hospital. And I was like there are only five floors to Miriam Hospital.
Anthony: (laughs)
But just like finding my car, eventually I’d track Anthony down and - along with his parents - we’d lay out a learning plan.
And he talked a lot – and I listened a lot – about how much he loves cutting hair.
Anthony: So, growing up, my dad used to give me these horrible haircuts. He used give me this Puerto Rican haircut that they would do, that they will do, everything short with a long tail. I used to love my tail, but I didn't like the haircut. So one time, I took my dad's trimmer, and I tried to give myself a line up, and I did good. And that’s how “I think I can do this more.” And that's how I started experimenting.
Anthony’s first internship freshman year was at a local barbershop, Katt’s Kuts. And it didn’t take long for kids at school to start asking him for hair cuts.
That summer he got a job cutting hair. Once again, pack rat Andrew saved some of Anthony’s writing from that time.
Anthony: The summer after my freshman year, I also worked in the barbershop. It's called Goldfinger. The first day, I made $160. I got customers, it's building up. This other guy said if I keep caring the way I do, I'm gonna be the best, he said.
Sophomore year, Anthony stayed at Goldfinger for his internship. While he was there, he learned about the licensing processes for barbers in Rhode Island.
He also put together a project focused on the business of barbering - what it takes to start up and run a shop. He created flow charts and spreadsheets that tracked costs and explored ways to potentially increase profits.
Anthony: I learned just the business part of like how you gotta get the location. You know, the bills, the stations, do you charge them booth rent or do they do commission, take a percentage? I understood that.
But barbering wasn't Anthony's only interest.
In middle school, he liked gym class and had a positive relationship with his gym teacher. He thought "maybe I should become a physical education teacher." So, Anthony reached out to his old teacher and landed an internship.
While he was there, he learned the school district was planning to cut the hours students were in gym class. He was 100% against that. And he wondered "How do other students feel?"
He conducted a survey and learned that students felt gym class was critical to their success.
He shared those results with the media and with government officials.
The cuts didn't happen.
The superintendent of Providence public schools reached out to Anthony and thanked him for what he’d contributed. They said his work made a difference! He was all of 15 years old.
While Anthony was crushing it, so was everyone else. It seemed like every advisee was picking up steam sophomore year.
Take Justine. She built so much confidence during her first year at the Met that in her second year….she enrolled in a college class.
Justine: That was one of the opportunities that I really enjoyed was being able to take college classes while I was in school. As much as I didn't want to go to college. I don’t…how… why did even I do that? I don’t even remember. Who made me do that?
Andrew: Well no. What I think… what I… if I remember.
Justine: Who made me do that?
Andrew: You're looking at you're looking at me like pretty intensely. [Justine laughs]
Despite the look she’s giving me, it wouldn’t be her last college class.
And then there’s Joseph. He told me once - when he was in middle school - instead of studying for a test, he hand copied an entire book by the martial artist and actor Bruce Lee. He wrote it out. Word for word.
His teacher scolded him for not studying. But, I wanted to figure out how to embrace his passion for martial arts.
Joseph wondered if he should intern at the Providence Zen Center which was about a half hour drive from the school.
Joseph: I remember you telling me I need to take the bus, I was like wait what… the bus? By myself?
He figured it out. Because he was motivated. It was at the Zen Center where his interests took a turn toward philosophy.
Joseph:I think I felt more free to like go towards what I really wanted to learn.
Vimar, who had interned with the non-violence institute, was now exploring medicine. Turns out, she and her older brother shared a bedroom when they were little. One night, when she was around seven, her brother had a severe asthma attack. Vimar ran into her parents room, woke them up and they rushed her brother to the hospital.
Vimar: I wanted to heal his asthma. So I wanted be a doctor.
Vimar interned with a pharmacist and became CPR certified.
Samenta led workshops for students in other Providence high schools about teen pregnancy and Sexually Transmitted Infections. Justine got a scholarship for an outdoor leadership course on a sailboat in Maine. And Noam interned with Senator Lincoln Chaffee's office. Everyone was on fire, it seemed.
I thought “Okay sophomore year, I see you.” My blood pressure went down. I didn’t call my wife as much or track down our principal Nancy yelling “help!”
From that point on, there were fewer arguments. Students seemed to actually start liking each other. Seemed to actually start liking me. And we began to feel closer… I mean, even Samenta - who been fired from an internship - apologized to me for some of her behavior in advisory.
Andrew: I found this in my file. I wonder if you could read this for just a moment.
Samenta: Oh my god.
Andrew: Go go ahead.
Samenta: I just want to say sorry for the way I was acting this morning. I'm sorry if I made you regret why you're here because our advisory really needs you. I know at times we don't show it but we do. So sorry again. *Laughs*
Andrew: I’ve been waiting.
Samenta: Woah.
Andrew: I’ve been waiting twenty years to get you to read that Samenta!!!
Samenta:*big laugh*
SCENE 4 - ALBERTO
So this "one student at a time" approach. Getting to know my students - both in and outside of school. Know them deeply enough to fully support them. It really started to sink in for me sophomore year.
Alberto is a perfect example of what I'm talking about. He had a lot of responsibilities at home working nights and weekends to help his mom with expenses. And yet, in school, he seemed to be thriving.
From the minute he arrived at the Met, Alberto was all about computers. And right out of the gate, Alberto landed an internship assisting the IT team at the school. His mentors were Met staff.
Alberto: They started teaching me about memory and RAM and you know, how a hard drive needs to be formatted and all those lovely technical geeky terms.
The team provided computer support across the whole campus.
Alberto: If somebody's computer wasn't working, I was the guy who showed up and made sure your computer worked.
Andrew: So hardware, software...
Alberto: Yeah. Hardware, software, networking. I was the guy.
And this was it for Alberto. He wanted to be “the computer guy.” He knew it in his bones. That’s how he saw his future.
Alberto: I have a lot of memories of you going, where are you going? I gotta fix this computer, Frish. I gotta go. And just walking out of class. So there was, there was some perks too.
Eventually, Alberto signed up for a computer networking class at the local community college.
Alberto: That was stressful. Even… I loved it. Just the aspect of being able to say, Hey, I'm in high school and I'm taking college courses, and being on the college campus, that was great. But I just remember thinking to myself, man, you gotta do okay in this, like you, you gotta you gotta nail this class.
Which he did - more or less. Alberto even started an organization called Comp-U-Need. He and a buddy gathered old computers from companies, fixed them up, then donated them to non-profits and people who couldn’t afford computers.
But, as much as he was thriving in his internship, some days, he seemed completely checked out. For starters he had long shifts bussing tables at the Italian restaurant.
Alberto: I was coming home cash, coming home with like six hundred to eight hundred bucks back in the two thousands.
Andrew: A week.
Alberto: Yeah, a week as a, as a kid only working like three or four days a week.
Home life was also taking its toll with his mom's physical and mental health struggles. Each week, he'd give mom some of the money he'd earned. He was glad to do it. But, his mom often spent the money on frivolous things.
Alberto: One day we were having a conversation. She has a stack of mail kind of like under her leg, and I can see like a manila envelope. And I said, Hey, have you seen my check? And she's like, No, I don't know, maybe it'll come. And I said, So what's that? And I came over and I snatched it. And I remember her like trying to fumble for it. And so I, I opened it and it was my tax return. She had already signed it, she was gonna deposit it. I said, I'm only doing this to help you. And you stole a measly 70 bucks from me. Like I was so proud that I filed taxes, like a hardworking individual. So that was kind of like the moment where I was like, I'm not gonna be able to finish high school if I stay here.
The unpredictability of his mom. Food insecurity. Living for stretches without electricity. It became too much.
Alberto: I have all these dreams, all these things I wanna do with my life. I don't wanna be like my mother. Like I don't wanna be here, stuck in this perpetual circle of whatever this is.
Alberto moved out. He was sixteen and he moved into a small rental apartment owned by one of his mentors from the Met: Maria.
Alberto: She of course, much like you, was very aware of the stuff that was going on at home. She happened to offer up the apartment next door, and since I was already making decent money, I said, hey, I'll happily pay you for that apartment.
And he didn’t move in by himself. Another student from the Met and his mother were in need of housing, too. They all moved in together.
Alberto’s relationship with Maria was initially based on his passion for computers. But because Maria saw him week after week, she got to know him well enough to recognize when something was wrong.
Alberto: Even to this day we call her Titi 'cause she was like an aunt to us.
Maria, along with other adults at The Met, helped create a safety net for Alberto that extended far beyond academics.
Alberto: At that point, I was able to focus more on school because I didn't have the stress of, you know, dealing with my mother and all the, the dysfunctions that were going on there.
And so, Alberto kept coming to school. He kept working. This time paying his own bills. But even after he moved out, he still cared about his mother.
Andrew: I think I remember you calling me from Rhode Island Hospital saying, I've been here all day with my mom. I don't know if she should be here alone. I remember I spent some time with your mom at the hospital. And so I think it gave me a somewhat of a sense of like, what you were trying to navigate.
Alberto: Yeah. Yeah, it was a lot. I'm trying not to burst into tears, but you were one of those people. Um…[pause] One second. I always credit you for keeping me on the path and pushing me, because I know at that time I needed the help. You know, not everybody's fortunate to have people that steer them in the right path. And, you know, I'm again, always very grateful for having you. Um.
Andrew: Can I give you a hug?
Alberto: Of course.
SCENE 5 - GATES
NPR piece: From NPR News, this is All Things Considered. I’m Michele Norris. It’s hard to imagine a school with no tests, no grades, and no classes. But Dennis Littky and Elliot Washor, two maverick educators have created something like that…[fade under]
While I was focused on my advisory, the Met was taking off. By the early 2000s, people beyond Rhode Island started paying attention.
NPR piece: Take Vimar Rodriguez. “In 9th grade, I didn’t know my choices.” She liked the medical field. She worked in a pharmacy. She tried several other things…[fade under]
NPR’s Margot Adler reported about the success of the Met. A book about the Met was published. The school had one of the lowest drop out rates in the state. And, a high college acceptance rate.
NPR piece: The students take RI standardized tests and their math and reading scores are higher than the scores at the three largest Providence High Schools. Even so, fewer than half are proficient.[fade under]
Even the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation took notice of The Met. They were especially interested in small schools.
The Gates Foundation approached Big Picture Learning - the organization Dennis and Elliot had created and said “We’d like to fund more schools like The Met.”
Within a few years, Big Picture Learning schools opened in California, Washington, Illinois, Colorado, Michigan, and beyond. Always by invitation. Always in communities that wanted to try something different.
But, could something like the Met be replicated? Could it be scaled? Not everyone thought so.
I remember some people thought the Gates funding could be dangerous for the Met. Saying things like:
"Give the money back. Give it back."
They worried that scaling up might ruin the whole thing. But Dennis and Elliot pressed on.
I saw all that happening but it was in my peripheral vision. Because I was still trying to figure out how to be an advisor. What I cared about was what was happening right in front of me. And what was happening right in front of me was this.
A group of 15 teenagers who, little by little, were starting to trust each other. Starting to care about each other. Starting to become a community.
And just as that community was beginning to take shape, Natasha needed it more than ever.
SCENE 6 - NATASHA 2
The summer after 9th grade, Natasha was dreaming of escaping. Going far away. But instead, she showed up at summer school. To make up for all the days she had missed freshman year.
Loss had become a constant in Natasha's life. She had been exposed to so much violence. So much death. It haunted her. Thankfully that summer, despite the heat, things in her neighborhood seemed to calm down.
Sophomore year, Natasha landed a couple of internships but mostly she seemed kind of lost.
Natasha: A lot of what I was doing was just wandering, basically wandering around, trying to figure out my way.
And while her attendance in 10th grade wasn't perfect, she made it though with the rest of the advisory.
Then one day in August, just before junior year was about to start, Natasha's phone blew up. It was her mom. Frantically trying to reach her.
Natasha: She kept calling my phone, but at the time we had minutes, we had to pay for minutes. So I'm like, I'm gonna be home soon, but she ended up texting me and let me know that my ex-boyfriend at the time, Kyle. He got into a motorcycle accident in front of our house and passed away. That… [pauses] was like my first real heartbreak. I dealt with grief with the others, with the shootings, but since I was in a relationship with him and I was so young, I didn't really know how to handle that. I couldn't eat, I couldn't drink.[Pauses] That was the most difficult time.
When 11th grade started, some days Natasha would be there. Quiet. Keeping to herself. Other days we'd start the morning and her chair would be empty.
Sometimes, I’d get in my old blue Corolla. The one with the toys glued to the top of it. And drive to Natasha’s house to convince her to come to school.
You might expect that from me. The advisor. The adult.
But the thing was… by then, everyone in the advisory knew what Natasha had been through. The shootings. Her ex-boyfriend’s death.
We all knew what she was carrying. And what struck me wasn't that the other students noticed Natasha was struggling. It's what they did about it. On the days she came to school…
Natasha: They would come like, hey, is there anything that you need. Do you want to talk about anything? And then if it's no, then it's like, okay, well, I'm here if you need to talk.
And on days she stayed home?
Andrew: Samantha or Vimar or Noam, someone was gonna get on the phone and was gonna be like, I’m calling Natasha, and they'd be on the phone calling to you. Hey Natasha. Where are you? Are you coming in? Like, what's going on?
Natasha: Like, if you don't get here, we're gonna show up to your house, and it was pretty funny. I would be in my mood where it's like, I'm not going to school, I don't want to be around people. But then hearing their voicemail, it's just like, alright, I guess I'm going to school tomorrow. Just having people care for you, showing that they care genuinely, that's the part that really meant a lot to me is just knowing that they were there and being supportive.
Looking back, Natasha wasn't the only one being tested. So was the advisory.
And this is when I knew we'd be okay. Not because everybody was getting along… they weren’t. Not because everybody was succeeding..they weren’t. But because the advisory had become something bigger. The students were taking care of each other.
I was beginning to more fully understand what “one student at a time” actually meant. And - more than that - what it felt like in practice. It was about more than just being a school. It was about being a community. A family.
Natasha: If it wasn't for, like the people that I had in my corner, I probably would have dropped out of high school.
Instead, Natasha stayed. And over time, something else happened. Surrounded by people who refused to give up on her, she slowly began imagining a future for herself. And then… she started moving toward it.
Natasha: You can either use what happened to you as an excuse to not do anything or you can use it as something to build off of.
From Big Picture Learning, you’ve been listening to The Advisory: Class of 2006. Join us next time for Episode 4, “The Long Haul.”
If you enjoy this series, please help us spread the word by telling your friends about it and by leaving us a review wherever you subscribe. To see archival photos, to learn more about The Met, Big Picture and our advisory, visit our website: classof2006.org.
I'm Andrew Frishman. Thanks for listening.
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