The play “Open Admission” gives a specific way of shaking the audience. It grabs attention of the audience and refuse to give us the way out. It tells us off the conflict between the white female teacher and a black male student in a public College. It reminds me of a boxing match, Small cubical area in darkness as Allice was cornered at the door by Calvin. Calvin requesting to be seen by Allice immediately like it was life and death matter. However, he was bothered and wanted some explanation about his work and his grades. Both actors are decent people. And both are casualties on a battleground of a broken educational system.
The battleground was set by educational planners, who’s policy would allow the students to finish the college and improve their lives. As having the higher education would lead in to the middle-class population. Or that was the plan, however, it was more like a broken-down factory that pushed the poor students through four years crowded and undertaught classes, leading them back to ghetto. The ‘Open Admission” was basically place where the poor and middle-class students could get their four-year college diploma and give them a fresh start in life.
Character that plays Young man in the “Open Admission” is a black, he is trying to fight the challenges presented to him. He knows that that school won’t give him the skills to escape the poverty, and the foster homes. He is trying to achieve his goals through education, by asking his teacher Alice to help him and teach him to write. However, Alice knew that Calvin reading was equal to fifth grader and that he was just another student drifting through her overcrowded classroom. Calvin was a student who felt that he was being robbed, robbed from the educational perspective, because he felt he wasn’t learning enough for the grades that he was getting. Every time he would do any project, test, or any other assignment, his grade was always a ‘B’. However, he was feeling that he wasn’t deserving the grade, and the teacher never discussed the grade with him on how to improve. He felt that he hasn’t learn anything since he came to the college, and that teacher in high school told him that he was smart and that he will make a fresh start for himself. In addition, he asked Alice to start teaching him how to wr...
