vely about the students in the Asian Corner Group, who only gathered with Asian students and tended to exclude others. Zullie described, ‘There [They] are like quiet and just by themselves ... They are nice people but I don’t feel like welcomed when I pass by there.’ The girls in the basement also scru-tinized the students in the Asian Corner Group who mostly dated Asians. Mino articulated, ‘The girls only date the Asian guys.’ The girls in the basement who dated boys of different races and ethnicities seemed to think that confinement to intra-racial dating was a loss of opportunity to learn from other cultures.5 They also disassociated themselves from the Asian Corner Group for their limited interest in consuming Asian popular culture. Mino stated, ‘They don’t really talk about Asian things like how we do.’ The girls’ ‘othering’ of the Asian Corner Group did not fit into the labeling of ‘FOB’ (too ethnic) or ‘Whitewashed’ (too assimilated) described in Pyke and dang’s (2003) study of second-generation Vietnamese and Korean immigrants. rather, it was a complex rejection of a lack of racial and ethnic diversity (e.g. racial homogeneity and intra-racial dating) as well as a lack of enthusiasm about engaging in Asian popular culture. While these two elements seemed to be contradictory, the girls selectively singled out characteristics o

confidence in students. Look up the word educator in a dictionary and you will find definitions that include teacher, instructor, and mentor. I want to teach all my students that they are no less (and no more) important than the other kids in class and that everyone they come in contact with deserves their respect, just as they deserve to be shown respect. I aim to instruct them on standards-in writing and reading, math, science, and social studies-but also standards such as valuing diversity. I mentor students by caring for what's best for them and showing interest in their lives. I do this in an attempt to provid

Helena provides an example of how Asian Americans are often classed together by others. Some white classmates did not bother to find out that she was Korean. When discussing such events, Helena, like other respondents, is still in pain from them and has a difficult time making eye contact. She keeps her head down and speaks softly, crying a few times as she recounts painful memories. She was not accepted for being the smart, high-achieving youngster she was, but was ostra-cized for her intelligence and identity

are gradually introduced to racial socialization in peer groups. Young children’s racist behavior is often excused by adults on the grounds that children are naïve innocents and often slip and fall in the realm of social behavior, yet the assumption that children’s racist comments and actions are innocuous is incorrect. Based on extensive field research in a large child-care center, Debra Van Ausdale and Joe Feagin concluded that the “strongest evidence of white adults’ conceptual bia

White Americans may prize Asian Americans relative to African Americans in certain limited ways so as to ensure white dominance over both. Whites may sometimes place or consider Asians “nearer to whites,” a relative valorization, because of Asian American achieve-ments in certain educational and economic areas. Yet this middling status is possible only because other Americans of color, such as African Americans or Mexican Americans, have been allowed fewer opportunities by whites. Whites’ use of Asian Americans as a measuring stick for other Americans of color is highly divisive, for it pits groups of color against each other, as well as isolates Asian Americans from white Americans.Kim underscores well the price paid

social science

Billings, 1994). Conclusion Schools such as Seguin High School are faced with a special challenge. To significantly alter the stubborn pattern of underachievement, they need to become authentically caring institutions. To become authentically caring institutions, the'y need to at once stop sub-tracting resources from youth and deal with th~ effects of subtraction. Although it is up to each school to determine what a more additive perspective might entail, my study suggests that an important point of departure is a critical examination of the existing curriculum. The operant model of schooling structurally deprives acculturated, U.S.-born youth o

tried to talk to as many of them as possible and to incorporate their voices and experiences into this ethnographic account. Although my study makes use of quantitative data, the key modes of data collection are based on participant observation and open-ended interviews with individuals and with groups of students. Group interviews enabled me not only to tap into peer-group culture but also to investigate the social, cultural, and linguistic divisions that I observed among teenagers at Seguin. Before elaborating my framework, I will first address relevant survey findings that pertain to parental education, schooling orientations, and generational differences in achievement.~ First, students' parental education levels are very low, hovering around nine years of schooling completed for th

part of her pedagogy. Teachers must not merely take courses that tell them how to treat their students as multicultural clients, in ocher words, those that cell them how co identify differences in interac-tional or communicative strategies and remediate appropri-ately. They muse also learn about the brilliance the students bring with them "in their blood." Until they appreciate the wonders of the cultures represented before them - and they cannot do chat without extensive study most appropriately begun in college-level courses - they cannot appreciate the potential of those who sit

earcher Harry Morgan documents in a 1990 study what most of us who have worked with African-American children have learned intuitively: that African-American children, more than white, and boys more than girls, initiate interac-tions with peers in the classroom in performing assigned tasks. Morgan concludes that a classroom that allows for greater movement and interaction will better facilitate the learning and social styles of African-American boys, while one that disallows such activ

also reflected in Orange County schools. Consider two high schools chat "input" measures (see Table 4.1) suggest are sur-prisingly similar: Troy High School in Fullerton and Santa Ana High School. Spending per pupil at the two schools is comparable, for exam-ple, as are the student-teacher ratios, the number of guidance counselors, and two standard measures of teacher quality: formal education and experience. Troy offers a richer menu of extracurricular activities than Santa Ana, but, as we shall see, private fund-raising explains chat differ-ence, not unequal investment by the school districts. On the measures most obviously controlled by school systems-spending

Most Latinos in Orange County live in the impoverished cities of the inland valleys of the northern half of the county, among them Santa Ana. A 2004 report by rhe Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government identified Santa Ana as the Most Troubled City in America because of its high unemployment, high poverty rate, undereducated population, and crowded housing. Latinos in Orange County are more likely to live not only in poverty bur also amidst street violence and gang activity. Santa Ana alone is home co 29 street gangs.

ules. In this way I was raised to be compliant, one element of the hidden curriculum in our schools. This insistence on compliance is also one aspect of schooling that keeps some students from feeling they can challenge the very structures that repress them. They often feel silenced and alienated from public education at an early age. In my household, we did not have many books. I believe my lack of books contributed to my below average reading test scores. In third grade I was read-ing at a second-grade level. Research indicates that social class can influence cognitive abilities because a lack of money results in fewer experiences at muse-ums and traveling, fewer books in the home, and less access to preschool educa-tion (Bowles & Gintis, 2002; Good & Brophy, 1987).

students rarely out themselves as being poor. You could not tell they struggle financially by the papers they turn in to me or by what they say when we discuss things in my sociology classes at the University of St. Thomas. During office hours, however, students reveal to me that they grew up poor, and often they tell me that they are the first person from their family to go to college. They talk about the social distance they feel from their peers who have money. They tell me t

Research has shown that economic capital, that is, the w~alch and income of parents, is one of the primary factors influ-ep.cing student achieveme11t (Coleman and others, 1966; Roth-stein, 2004; Farkas, 2004 ). Student achievement is also influenced _l,y more subtle resources sud; as social capital-the benefits derived from c<;mnections to networks and individuals with power and influence (Coleman, 1988; Stanton-Salazar, 1997, 2001; Noguera, 2003 )-and cultural capital (Bourdieu and Wacquant, 1992)-the t~sces, styles, habits, language, behaviors, appearance, and customs c.hat serve as indicators of status anJ privilege.

BHS). Our exami-nation of school structures also includes a focus on the organization of the school-the decentralized nature of decision making within departments, the distribution of authority and responsibility among administrators, the accountability (or lack thereof) anJ funcrion of special programs (such ::ts English as a Second Language, Ach-anced Placement, and Special Education). We examine how these struc-tures shape and influence the acad

The Hart and Risley study is a sobering reminder that it takes more than money to promote young children's development.28 Parents from higher-income families appear to offer their children language advantages that would persist even if their annual incomes rose or fell by $10,000 or even $20,000. Research has shown that maternal education and IQ levels, not family income, are most closely associated with parental use of lan-guage. 29 So while money matters, other family factors do too. Lareau's detailed look at the lives of the children in her study revealed other striking differences between high-and low-income families, includ-ing the degree to which middle-class parents "managed" their children's lives, while working-class and poor parents left children alone to play and otherwise organize their activities.

study of children who entered kindergarten in the fall of 1998 allow for a more detailed look at income-based gaps as chil-dren progress through school (figure 3.1).1 As before, a 100-point difference in figure 3.1 corresponds to one standard deviation. Each bar shows the relative size of the gap between high-and low-income childre

their efforts to say that they could accept the need for change, but were uncertain about the implications o f the changes. This reminded us that it is difficult for individuals to shift paradigms and that there must be a setting for folks to voice fears, to talk about what they are doing, how they are doing it, and why. One of our most useful meetings was one in which we asked professors from different disciplines (including math and science) to talk informally about how their teaching had been changed by a desire to be more inclusive. Hearing individuals describe concrete strate-gies was an approach that helped dispel fears. It was crucial that more traditional or conservative professors who had been will-ing to make changes talk about motivations and strategies. When the meetings concluded, Chandra and I initially felt a tremendous sense of disappointment. We had not realized how much faculty would need to unlearn racism to learn about col-onization and decolonization and to fully appreciate the neces-sity for creating a democratic liberal arts learning experience.

es that have shaped the way knowledge is shared in the classroom. It forces us all to recognize our complicity in accepting and perpetuating biases of any kind. Students are eager to break through barriers to knowing. They are willing to surrender to the wonder of re-learning and learning ways of knowing that go against the grain. When we, as educators, allow our pedagogy to be radically changed by our recognition of a multicultural world, we can give students the education they desire and deserve. We can teach in ways that transform consciousness, creating a climate of free expression that is the essence of a truly liberatory liberal arts education. 4 Paulo Freire This is a playful dialogue with myself, Gloria Watkins, talking with bell hooks, my writing voice. I wanted to speak about Paulo and his work in this way for it afforded me an intimacy-a familiarity-I do nat find it possible to achieve in the essay. And here I have found a way to share the sweetness, the soli-darity I talk a bo ut. Watkins: Reading your books Ain 't I a Woman: Black Women a nd Feminism, Feminist The!Yfy: From Margin to Center, and Talk-ing Bach, it is clear that your development as a critica! thinker has been greatly influenced by the work of Paulo Freire. Can you speak abou~ why his work has touched your life so deeply? hooks: Years before I met Paulo Freire, I had learned so much from hi s work, learned new ways o f thinking a bo ut social reality that were liberatory. Often when university stu-45

Despite the focus on diversity, our desires for inclusion, many professors still teach in classrooms that are predominant-ly white. Often a spirit of tokenism prevails in those settings. This is why it is so crucial that "whiteness" be studied, under-stood, discussed-so that everyone learns that affirmation of multiculturalism, and an unbiased inclusive perspective, can and should be present whether or not people of color are pre-sent. Tr

of the most popular college entrance exams, as part of my GAT program in the seventh grade. We were told that this was a very important test that would prepare us for another · . d k. de Tak-very important test, and 1f we scored well enough, we coul s 1p a gra · . ing the PSAT early and being aware of the SAT, ACT, and standardized_ teSttngf · f · 1 h t neither 0 requirements or college entry were vital pieces of class capita t a my parents could offer. Like so many other children in first-generation col_lege f ·1· tered in a

Lack of access to health care and, more specifically, to prenatal health care plagues far too many women in poverty and, consequent!~, their chil~ren a~d future public school students. Inadequate nutrition, und1~gnosed d1fficult1es prior to childbirth and treatable in vitro illnesses all contnbute to the poorer health of these fut~re scholars. And because so many poor neighbor~oods are veritable "food deserts" where fresh produce, meats, and healthy items are

Racial minorities (better phrased, "global majorities") are dispro h f . d. d por-tionately represented in poverty. T ere ore, an mor mate an overwhelmingly fewer number of people of color have access to ~enerational wealth based on their recognition as only three-fifths of a human bemg and the subsequent denial of property ownership as a direct result of being property themselves. Masses of people of color who have been denied personhood, rights to stolen lands citizenship, and any number of basic human freedoms based solely on race hav; also been denied generational access to wealth in the form of inherited property and assets

morrow are particularly concerned that even after all students h been offered "12 years of free schooling," they are unable to "lift themselv::~ out of poverty. In short, they genuinely wonder how such dismal outcomes f poor children could persist when the great equalizer undoubtedly works andor poverty-ending solution is clearly at hand. Year after year, I continue to observ: that as a result of this flawed, deficit thinking, both pre-and in-service teachers have come to develop and staunchly cling to their disgust at what they perceive to be squandered opportunities. Poor children fail in schools because they are not taking advantage. Poor people exist because they wasted a good, free educa-tion. The poor themselve

Public schools are essential to make the American dream work, but schools are also the arena in which many Americans first fail. Failure there almost cer-tainly guarantees failure from then on. In the dream, failure results from lack of individual merit and effort; in reality, failure in school too closely tracks structures of racial and class inequality. Schools too often reinforce rather than contend against the intergenerational paradox at the heart of the American dream. That is understandable but not acceptabl