Schooled: Chapters 7–12

by Gordon Korman
What happens when a homeschooled hippie suddenly has to navigate public middle school? Find out as you learn these words from Gordon Korman's funny and heartwarming novel.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapters 1–6, Chapters 7–12, Chapters 13–18, Chapters 19–24, Chapters 25–31

Here is a link to our lists for Ungifted by Gordon Korman.
40 words 1735 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. authority
    persons who exercise control over others
    For someone who rejected all forms of authority, she was a major tyrant in the classroom.
  2. ordinary
    lacking special distinction, rank, or status
    “Yet socially—in my entire teaching career, I’ve never met a student who knows so little about ordinary everyday living. Have you worked with any other students from this Garland Farm?”
  3. adjustment
    the process of adapting to something
    Adjustment is one thing. But Cap is like a space traveler who just landed on Earth and left his guidebook on the home world!
  4. common
    of or associated with the great masses of people
    “What’s really awful is that you’re a social worker—with power over kids’ lives—and you have no clue about what’s common knowledge at that school.”
  5. isolation
    a state of separation between persons or groups
    It was hard enough for him to come out of total isolation at Garland without having to be dropped into the snake pit that was middle school.
  6. consolation
    the comfort you feel when soothed in times of disappointment
    My sole consolation lay in the fact that he would have to suffer this abuse only for a few weeks more.
  7. merciless
    lacking pity, compassion, or forgiveness
    Anyway, deep in my heart I believed that a genuine school, nasty and merciless as it could be, was still better than Garland Farm.
  8. nasty
    offensive or even (of persons) malicious
    After school, Cap had to come home to my house, where Sophie was there to demonstrate the true meaning of nasty.
  9. deserve
    be worthy
    “When you’re unkind to others, it’s usually because you don’t believe that you, yourself, deserve kindness.”
  10. wisdom
    using knowledge and experience with common sense and insight
    Rain said the trip was the purest form of education—learning by doing. I sure could have used that kind of wisdom now, with so much going on in my life and so many things I didn’t understand.
  11. torment
    treat cruelly
    So I looked it up in the encyclopedia, and I figured out why Mrs. Donnelly was so upset. Bullfighting is a cruel sport where innocent animals are tormented, tortured, killed, and have their ears cut off.
  12. mentor
    a wise and trusted guide and advisor
    Without Rain as my mentor and guide, I was lost.
  13. dubious
    fraught with uncertainty or doubt
    Hugh looked dubious. “Well, you probably shouldn’t go by me. I’m not exactly Mr. Popularity around here.
  14. advance
    being ahead of time or need
    Something tingled directly beneath the peace sign I wore around my neck. I was developing a sixth sense for when trouble was coming my way. But what good was advance warning? Advance warning of what? I wasn’t going to understand it anyway.
  15. analyze
    consider in detail in order to discover essential features
    Maybe in a place as complex as C Average Middle School, it was impossible to analyze every single thing that happened.
  16. negativity
    a disagreeable tendency to deny or oppose suggestions
    I know complaining is a negativity trip, but it was hard to stay positive about the floor of a school bus.
  17. filthy
    disgustingly dirty
    It’s a collecting place for the filthy, smelly, sticky, and often sharp and jagged castoffs of a society run wild.
  18. rowdy
    disturbing the public peace; loud and rough
    It was crowded, noisy, dirty, rowdy, and uncomfortable.
  19. refugee
    an exile who flees for safety
    Still, never in my wildest nightmares could I have imagined myself living with a refugee from Bizarro World.
  20. compassion
    a deep awareness of and sympathy for another's suffering
    “Don’t be unkind,” she told me sharply. “The way those kids are teasing Cap is inhuman. Have a little compassion.”
  21. faze
    disturb the composure of
    That idiotic Zen-hippie style of his turned out to be just right for a driving instructor. No matter what mistakes I made, it didn’t seem to faze Cap—not even when I thought someone’s driveway was a side street and turned onto it.
  22. serene
    not agitated
    “There’s no almost,” he lectured serenely. “Only ‘happened’ and ‘didn’t happen.’ This didn’t happen.”
  23. philosophy
    any personal belief about how to live
    “This is a philosophy Rain passed on to me when she taught me how to drive our truck.”
  24. mysterious
    beyond ordinary understanding
    There was something inside him that nobody else understood, something mysterious and strong.
  25. meditate
    think intently and at length, as for spiritual purposes
    Not muscle strong or fighting strong—a kind of strength that gave him the self-control to meditate instead of falling apart, or to ignore what other people thought, and find meaning in a dead bird.
  26. harass
    annoy continually or chronically
    You could harass him; you just couldn’t upset him.
  27. outcast
    a person who is rejected (from society or home)
    He had no way of knowing that the person he was using as a guide was an even bigger outcast than he was.
  28. martial
    suggesting war or military life
    And every morning, he was out in the school yard, performing these slow-motion, dancelike martial arts moves. Zach called it hippie ballet, but I thought it was kind of graceful and athletic.
  29. ridicule
    subject to laughter or mockery
    No longer did I feel the ridiculing eyes boring into me as I walked the halls of C Average.
  30. victim
    an unfortunate person who suffers from adverse circumstances
    If I had the power to control Zach, Lena, Darryl, and those vipers, then I wouldn’t be a victim. Victims have no power. That’s what makes us victims.
  31. technique
    a practical method or art applied to some particular task
    The Winkleman Encyclopedia of Bullying Techniques identified it instantly.
  32. raucous
    unpleasantly loud and harsh
    The raucous clamor of the bus died as if someone had pulled the plug.
  33. terrorize
    frighten greatly
    I would have enjoyed the sight of so many people who had terrorized me being terrorized themselves, except that I was twice as scared as they were.
  34. discontent
    a longing for something better than the present situation
    It started off as a rumbling of discontent, bubbling over into a chorus of outrage on Cap’s behalf.
  35. sanity
    normal or sound powers of mind
    “I’m getting stronger every day. In no time at all, we’ll both be back to the sanity of Garland.”
  36. awareness
    state of elementary or undifferentiated consciousness
    She explained that if you concentrate to the point where your mind and body become one, all outward awareness melts away.
  37. extremity
    an external body part that projects from the body
    “Extend your fingers,” I whispered. “The energy should begin in your core and flow out through your extremities.”
  38. assume
    take to be the case or to be true
    I assumed she was going to give me directions to the journalism lab. Instead she said, “Watch out for Zach and Lena. Watch out for all of us. We’re not as nice as we pretend to be.”
  39. qualified
    meeting the proper standards and requirements for a task
    Back in the sixties, when Garland was a working commune, the biggest jobs went to the people who were best qualified to handle them.
  40. thrive
    make steady progress
    A community thrives when each member does what he or she is best at.
Created on Wed Jun 14 16:53:39 EDT 2017 (updated Mon Sep 24 13:29:44 EDT 2018)

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