I've always felt so grateful that I dropped out of school, that I never had to do a thesis. I wouldn't know how to organise and structure myself to film so that B follows A and C follows B.
When I turned 11, we had to leave East Germany overnight because of the political orientation of my father. Now I was going to school in West Germany, which was American-occupied at that time. There in school, all children were required to learn English and not Russian. To learn Russian had been difficult, but English was impossible for me.
I grew up performing in glee club at my school; I was the ostrich in 'Peter Pan,' and then I was super-involved in church choir and worship leading at my church. So I always loved music and was involved with it, but never really thought it was what I wanted to do until I started writing.
My father used to act in high school. He was in a production of 'Othello;' I don't know who he played, but it wasn't Othello. He would talk about it, though, and read Shakespeare to me.
I'd read Shakespeare in school, translated into isiXhosa, and loved the stories, but I hadn't realised before I started reading the English text how powerful the language was - the great surging speeches Othello has.
'Othello' was my first Shakespearean discovery. I was obsessed with drama at school, and I studied the play for my English GCSE. Desdemona is the part that everyone wants, but Iago's wife Emilia is the one I've always been drawn to.
I was impressionable at that age, and my high school coach did such an unbelievable job helping me, so I want to do that for other kids.
I went to elementary school in Ottawa, and then to a private secondary school.
Baseball was popular in the summer, but hockey was big most of the time. With five brothers, you never escaped it. We had an indoor rink in our town, and all the boys would play on it right through high school.
I was one of two Jewish kids in my school. We were probably one of two Jewish families in our town.
Too pop for punk, too 'old school' for the New Wave, Mumps were a '70s era New York rock band, out of time.
LaGuardia High School is a place of acceptance. You have every type of kid there, performing. The outcast girl would not have been made fun of in my high school.
In high school I was an outcast... I wasn't cool to hang out with. I ate my lunch in a bathroom stall because that was the one place I could go where I wouldn't been seen.
I played outfield in high school a little bit.
If your child seems to click with another kid in the class, try to set up a time for you to meet at a park after school and get to know their parent. Seeing you be outgoing with the parents of other children will encourage your child to be open and active in their friendships, too!
I didn't start writing until late high school and then I was just diddling. Mainly I loved to read and my writing was an outgrowth of that.
I kind of just lucked into and fell into the other profession. It was really just an outgrowth of the fact that when I was in art school, I had no money whatsoever.
How can a child adhere to school and the notion of secularism when they see their mother rejected from a school outing, stigmatized, left on the sidelines, just because she has a scarf on her head?
I met a girl when I was in third grade. Kids were beating her up - she was deaf - so I walked her home. Her parents were deaf and they gave me the alphabet on a card. I learned it and taught my friends how to do the alphabet - which was outlawed in our school because we used to talk to each other in class.
We want to believe that we live in a world where our daughters can do anything and be anything. And you'd think they could - they outnumber boys in college, graduate school, and the work force.
