Act One

Barbara Clinkscales grew up in Chicago's public housing projects, had her first child when she was 15, and is now—over two decades later—struggling to get her teenage son to finish his senior year of high school. Barbara is a working mom, with a network of close friends who look out for her. She is so fiercely insistent that her son graduate high school that she personally takes him to his first class every day. This remarkable look at daily life on Chicago's south side was assembled from Barbara's tapes by producer Alix Spiegel with funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. (33 minutes)