In her first meeting with the principal, Marta could have challenged him by telling what she had overheard the two teachers saying. Why do you think she stayed silent? What do you think the principal would have said or done if she'd told him she knew the real reason she wasn't being given the jacket?

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Read The Scholarship jacket”, by Marta Salinties

In her first meeting with the principal, Marta could have challenged him by telling what she had overheard the two teachers saying. Why do you think she stayed silent? What do you think the principal would have said or done if she'd told him she knew the real reason she wasn't being given the jacket?

I think Martha stayed silent in the first meeting out of pure shock because she was not expecting such a horrible strategy. Maybe, she was so eager to get the jacket by any means necessary, even paying for it despite that being unfair.

Explanation:

However, if she had confronted the principal in that first meeting, he probably would have denied it and forced himself to defend the new policy, making the happy ending impossible.  

well stockyards mean a large yard containing pens and sheds, typically adjacent to a slaughterhouse, in which livestock is kept and sorted. and i'm assuming that by party you   mean a large group of people which does make sense because chicago is a very crowded place much like new york. stockyards tend to take up a lot of room due to needing the area for pens to keep animals in and the fact that stockyards are usually right by slaughterhouse where they process and distribute the product. so its much like a zoo but with some dead animal products close by.