In the Heights

This blog is dedicated to education in film and TV, but the first post is actually about a musical.

The American Educational Research Association (AERA) met in Denver for its annual conference recently. While in Denver, I had the opportunity to see the Broadway musical In the Heights, which won 4 Tony Awards in 2008. The musical is about a group of people who live on a block in Washington Heights. Aside from the simply outstanding music, singing, and dancing, one of the sub-stories of the musical relates to higher education.

Nina, one of the main characters, is a high-achieving Latina who received a scholarship to attend Stanford. She returns to Washington Heights after her first year away at college. Her parents, friends, and others in the neighborhood had and continue to have high expectations for her- they expected her to go far and accomplish much. Through the songs, we learn that they are excited her return- to hear about her first year at Stanford was and to hear just how successful she was in college.

However, Nina returns to Washington Heights as a college dropout. Her scholarship did not cover all of her costs to attend college, and she took on two jobs to help pay for books and other expenses that she encountered. Her jobs left little time to study, and she dropped out of college four months before returning home for the summer. She has yet to tell her parents, and is anxious about letting them (and others in her community) down.

Her story is woven throughout the rest of the musical, with her parents learning that she dropped out and expressing their disappointment in her after all they sacrificed for her, to her father selling his business to help her return to college, and finally to her realizing that she can and should return to Stanford. Within this story, are the struggles that many families experience when their children go off to college as first-generation students, as well as students of color. Nina experiences push-pull factors that impact her college-related decisions- a scholarship that doesn't cover all expenses, expectations of others, her own disappointment in herself, the sacrifices her parents make...just to name a few.

The song Breathe tells of Nina's story and the struggles she experiences coming home after dropping out of college. Here is a sample of the lyrics:

I got every scholarship,
Saved every dollar,
The first to go to college,
How do I tell them why
I'm coming back home,
With my eyes on the horizon
Just me and the GWB, asking,
Gee Nina, What'll you be?

Straighten the spine.
Smile for the neighbors.
Everything's fine.
Everything's cool.
The standard reply,
"Lots of tests, lots of papers."
Smile, wave goodbye,
And pray to the sky, oh God...
And what will my parents say?

You can listen to Breathe in its entirety here.