CLEM MURRAY / Inquirer Staff Photographer
Trey McCloud tries to convince his mother, Lynn Sydnor, a minority-job recruiter, that the Scrabble word he has made is real. He wrote of his father: "You say you're a man yet you don't even know my voice." Trey's essay "Man Enough" describes his father's lack of contact with him.
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Part 2: Life without a father
Students learn that others have suffered in the same way.
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As his classmates read their essays, Jeremiah Robinson awaits his turn.
For the first time, the 13-year-old has signed up to read his diary, though he made sure he was near last, holding out the possibility that there wouldn't be time.
On his own in elementary school, he had poured his sadness into a diary, but worried about burdening his mother should she find it.
"I got rid of it, hoping all the problems would go away, but it doesn't seem like it," he says.
He has changed schools more than once after being beaten up, and at Grover earlier in the year, a student put a "kick me" sign on him, prompting several to kick him.
The bell rings, leaving unspoken in Jeremiah's diary:
"If there was one thing I wish I wanted was a father. Not money, a bike, or toys but a father."
Contact staff writer Susan Snyder at 215-854-4693 or ssnyder@phillynews.com.
ONLINE EXTRA
For multimedia shows of Trey McCloud reading "Man Enough" and teacher Michael Galbraith discussing the transformation of his class, go to http://go.philly.com/writing
