Nilaja Sun's Play "No Child"

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Nilaja Sun’s play No Child showcases a teacher, Miss Sun living in a dysfunctional community teaching one of the hardest classrooms in the Bronx. Throughout the play the two main themes of rejection and accountability are shown through the students, teachers and families that are struggling with the poor educational system. In No Child, Sun brings spirit and hope into the life of students and teachers. The story takes place within a broken community of teachers and students at Malcolm X High School. The janitor, who is the narrator of the story, observes all the obstacles that the school and students have faced over time. The school has many problems to deal with such as, holes in the wall, broken bathrooms and unreliable staff and students. Miss Sun comes to teach at this school in hopes to help these kids succeed and realize their full potential. The educational system that is put into play throughout the story is meant to highlight all the mistakes that stop children from advance learning in today’s educational system. The environment that Miss Sun and her students walk into everyday has turned into a prison instead of a learning place. These children are seen as the rejects of society who are physically imprisoned by metal detectors and mentally imprisoned by their personal surroundings. The educational system fails children like them. Although Malcolm X High isn’t a real school, the problems that they face are present in many public schools. Due to all of these reasons the students in the play feel as though they are prisoners; Jerome: We treated like convicts Ms Sun: How do you mean? Jerome: First, we wake up to bars on our window Coca: Then our moms and dad. (Sun, 912-913) These kids are constantly told what to do and when to do it. No one believes in them or expects anything great from them. It’s almost as if they are expected to fail. The theme

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