Jordan Knight - School Days

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.

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