I started going to school in kindergarten. My whole family, all my sisters and brothers went to the Trotter School, and I did too. A lot has been written saying that we white kids were bused to school in a black neighborhood, but for me it wasn't really like that. See, I don't live in a white neighborhood, I live in a mixed neighborhood, so being bused to Roxbury, where the school was, was nothin' to me. It was only ten minutes by bus, but I could get there on my bike in five minutes. It wasn't the closest school to my house, but if I did go to the closest school, it would've been mixed just the same.
For some other kids who went to Trotter and who came from white neighborhoods, it was a big influential thing for them, but it really didn't have a big influence on me, y'know, I don't see that. For me, growin' up in the house I did, and in the neighborhood I did, it was like normal life. My brother Chris is black and so were a lot of the foster kids in our house. My part of Dorchester is totally mixed. So being bused to Trotter was just normal for me, a kid going to school.
I was on the same bus as Donnie, so I've known him since I was tiny. But I was closer to his younger brother, Mark. Mark and I were good friends, we used to hang out. When we were little, though, I used to think of Donnie as a bully. He never bothered with me, except he'd come over and pinch his cheeks and say, "Jordan! You're so cute!"
I was pretty good in school. I liked math, and I used to read a lot, I still like reading. I think I'm smart. I think that I probably absorbed more than the kids who got all A's and stuff even if my grades weren't always that great. I've always been fascinated with everything, fascinated with learning, but I didn't always want to do the work, didn't always want to do my homework or a report. But when the teacher talked, I listened. I was fascinated.
What I liked best about the Trotter School is that we had a lot of art we always had plays. My first play was Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I was in the fourth grade and I was Charlie, the leading role. I used to love seeing the plays that the other classes put on. There'd be a night show and a day show, all the parents came, and it was great. I loved it.
Trotter had a great chorus, and you had to try out to be in it. They'd put on musicals and stuff, and that used to be fun. I used to love doing that. I made the chorus right away and it's funny - the lady always used to try and make me do solos, but I was so shy. One day the soloist she usually used was absent and she made me sing. The kids couldn't believe how high I sang. I was so embarrassed, because they were blown away by how high I was singing. Everyone started at me and I was so embarrassed I never did it again.
Next: Jordan Knight - Friends & Games.....
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Jordan Knight - An Extended Family
It seems like as long as I could remember there were foster kids in the house. When I was little, I didn't think about it. They were people, they just lived with us, it was part of life. Later on, I found out that my mom was doing this for professional and for personal reasons. As a social worker, she created this program, a family-oriented group residence for disturbed teenagers, kids that for one reason or another had kind of "flunked out" of traditional foster-care homes. She ran this program out of our house. But she wasn't only doing this because it was her career. She was doing it out of her heart. She believes deeply that "there has to be a place for every kid," and the place she created happened to be at our house.
There were some times when there were fourteen, fifteen people in the house. Our house was so wild that people could come over anytime and be entertained, because so much was going on. Sometimes it bugged me. I could never get a free moment or time to myself, 'cause there was always something going on.
We didn't only have kids, either. We had elderly and disabled people too. A couple of elderlys died while they were living with us.
We have a guy, Ken, who still lives with us who was in a car crash. He was an alcoholic and lost his memory of everything after the car crash. But he's real, real smart, and before the accident he was studying to become a doctor. I used to bring my homework to him and he'd do it with me - but he couldn't remember what he did five minutes ago.
Some of the foster kids were addicted, some were abused, some had serious mental problems. There were all types. Some lived with us for years, and I've gotten very close to a lot of them. When I was little , the foster girls would cook for me, just like in a real family. A lot of them were happy to be in our house because they had never seen anything like it before. Some foster parents are real strict and do it only the money and don't have the loving frame of mind my mother has. She was doing this out of her heart, but she kept control. Believe me, she's a strong woman and didn't take junk from any of them. If they swore, they got punished same as we did. She kept everyone in line. She would try to keep on top of everyone about doing their homework, but it was kinda hard.
A lot of them still keep in touch and even come to my mother for advice. So that shows that she really did good for them. And I think that the ones I got close to are real, real proud of us now.
I never felt bad towards the foster kids. I was never jealous of any of them, and I never resented them being there. But there was a lot of stress. The only times we had big problems was if any of them did something real bad, like steal from us. And that happened. Certain people would do it a lot.
Of course, I felt crowded - big time. But I was always proud of it and I used to love when other people would come in and see how crazy my house was. There was never a dull moment!
I think that living with foster kids has given me the personality I have today. I'm very liberal and very open-minded, and I'm not prejudice one bit - and I think that's what did it. I learned how to get along with anybody.
With so many of us in the house, we all had stuff to do. We had lists of chores, who would cook - different people would cook every night - and who would do the dishes. Up until the time I was ten or eleven, we'd all sit down and have dinners together, saying grace and everything. I usually washed dishes and raked leaves and stuff and cleaned my room. But I never wanted to do any of it. It was more like I just wanted to hang out, go out with my friends. Jon did everything, though. Jonathan just would do stuff because he wanted it done. That's the way he still is today.
Next: Jordan Knight - School Days....
There were some times when there were fourteen, fifteen people in the house. Our house was so wild that people could come over anytime and be entertained, because so much was going on. Sometimes it bugged me. I could never get a free moment or time to myself, 'cause there was always something going on.
We didn't only have kids, either. We had elderly and disabled people too. A couple of elderlys died while they were living with us.
We have a guy, Ken, who still lives with us who was in a car crash. He was an alcoholic and lost his memory of everything after the car crash. But he's real, real smart, and before the accident he was studying to become a doctor. I used to bring my homework to him and he'd do it with me - but he couldn't remember what he did five minutes ago.
Some of the foster kids were addicted, some were abused, some had serious mental problems. There were all types. Some lived with us for years, and I've gotten very close to a lot of them. When I was little , the foster girls would cook for me, just like in a real family. A lot of them were happy to be in our house because they had never seen anything like it before. Some foster parents are real strict and do it only the money and don't have the loving frame of mind my mother has. She was doing this out of her heart, but she kept control. Believe me, she's a strong woman and didn't take junk from any of them. If they swore, they got punished same as we did. She kept everyone in line. She would try to keep on top of everyone about doing their homework, but it was kinda hard.
A lot of them still keep in touch and even come to my mother for advice. So that shows that she really did good for them. And I think that the ones I got close to are real, real proud of us now.
I never felt bad towards the foster kids. I was never jealous of any of them, and I never resented them being there. But there was a lot of stress. The only times we had big problems was if any of them did something real bad, like steal from us. And that happened. Certain people would do it a lot.
Of course, I felt crowded - big time. But I was always proud of it and I used to love when other people would come in and see how crazy my house was. There was never a dull moment!
I think that living with foster kids has given me the personality I have today. I'm very liberal and very open-minded, and I'm not prejudice one bit - and I think that's what did it. I learned how to get along with anybody.
With so many of us in the house, we all had stuff to do. We had lists of chores, who would cook - different people would cook every night - and who would do the dishes. Up until the time I was ten or eleven, we'd all sit down and have dinners together, saying grace and everything. I usually washed dishes and raked leaves and stuff and cleaned my room. But I never wanted to do any of it. It was more like I just wanted to hang out, go out with my friends. Jon did everything, though. Jonathan just would do stuff because he wanted it done. That's the way he still is today.
Next: Jordan Knight - School Days....
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