Athletics News

Seventh graders channel literary characters

“Stay gold, Ponyboy. Stay gold.”  With those words, Johnny dies in his hospital bed in one of the most well-remembered scenes in American literature.  

Written by S.E. Hinton when she was still in high school, The Outsiders remains one of the greatest coming-of-age novels ever written, according to teacher Nancy Almoyan. 

The book explores stereotypes and the importance of looking past labels and outward appearances to discover what’s inside a person. Although teens of today live in a much different world than Hinton’s world of the 1960s, the struggles they face socially are much the same. And this is why The Outsiders continues to resonate with students today.

Seventh-grade English students had the opportunity to study this novel and memorize and recite Robert Frost’s poem “Nothing Gold Can Stay” that is at the heart of the novel’s theme. Students discussed the meaning of the poem in the context of the world of Greasers vs. Socs, but the message of the poem has never meant more than it does today.  

The innocence of childhood is gone in the blink of an eye, and we have to appreciate what and who we have while we still have them,” Almoyan added.

To celebrate what students learned during the course of the novel study, students enjoyed an Outsiders’ Day on the half-day before fall break.  

Dressed as Greasers or Socs, students performed reader’s theater skits, played Outsiders’ Bingo, and worked Outsiders’ crossword puzzles and word searches. Winners of the costume contest were Allyx Beavers (best-dressed Soc) and Josie Plaisted (best-dressed Greaser). Runners-up included Charlie Harris, Sarah Lundy, Bryson Perdue and Elijah Barker.