It's the Thought That Counts: Students' Attempts to Get Back to School

Chaos on the first day back to school! While a quarter of Masterman’s student body was scheduled to return to in-person learning on Monday, not a single student entered the building!

“It made no sense,” said Masterman’s own Officer Taylor. “For years now, I’ve greeted every student that enters Masterman in the morning, and not a minute goes by where someone isn’t coming through the door. This morning, the door didn’t open once.”

How was this possible? Where could the two hundred plus kids that were scheduled to return have been? As it turned out, returning students were scattered all over the city, including a mob of Masterman fifth graders who were desperately trying to find the building.

We interviewed some kids over Zoom to see where they were.

“What can I say? My body didn’t remember my internal ‘sleep on the train’ timer, and well, now I’m here,” said one student from 69th Street Transportation Center. “Oh wait, no way, there’s Ben. I took the train with this kid every day last year. [To Ben] Hey, Ben! What’s uuuuuppp! Train timer off, huh? Yeah, me too.”

Another student had quite the opposite problem.

“Listen, I’ve taken this bus... for three years now, and it’s always come... within a few minutes. It’s been an hour and a half, but nothing’s... pulled up,” said an eighth grader, with noticeably droopy eyelids. “Look, I’m at the stop and everything! The sign…is right… there.” She then turned her camera for proof, directing it at a sign that clearly read, “NO PARKING ANYTIME.”

Along with these interviews, we sent a Voices Special Reporter into the field to pick up some quotes from the pack of fifth grades tearing through the city.

“How are we supposed to know where it is?” asked one child. “Orientation was eight months ago!”

“All I know about Masterman is that it’s an old brick building with asbestos,” said another student in the mob. “Do you know how many buildings there are in Philly with that description? Like half of them!!!”

“Pillars, pillars... I know Masterman has pillars!” murmured an especially crazed fifth grader. “Over there! Pillars!” she shouted, running off toward the Franklin Institute.

“The Route 2 goes by the school, right?” asked a student. “And the 2 goes by the Comcast Center, too. See where I’m going with this? I’m pretty sure Masterman is somewhere in that building.”

Fifth graders were also seen migrating toward blossoming trees, buildings with cages on their roofs, and houses with a variety of patios.

Teachers are currently working with SEPTA and city officials to prepare for Thursday’s second wave of returning students.