These Kids: Identity, Agency, and Social Justice at a Last Chance High School

by Kysa Nygreen

Few would deny that getting ahead is a legitimate goal of learning, but the phrase implies a cruel a student does not simply get ahead, but gets ahead of others. In These Kids , Kysa Nygreen turns a critical eye on this paradox. Offering the voices and viewpoints of students at a “last chance” high school in California, she tells the story of students who have, in fact, been left behind.

 

Detailing a youth-led participatory action research project that she coordinated, Nygreen uncovers deep barriers to educational success that are embedded within educational discourse itself. Struggling students internalize descriptions of themselves as “at risk,” “low achieving,” or “troubled”—and by adopting the very language of educators, they also adopt its constraints and presumption of failure. Showing how current educational discourse does not, ultimately, provide an adequate vision of change for students at the bottom of the educational hierarchy, she levies a powerful argument that social justice in education is impossible today precisely because of how we talk about it.

Genres: Education

208 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2013

Reviews

[Danielle Woolard · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am probably not qualified to give this book all 5 stars, but I'm going to anyway, not only because of how thoroughly researched and thought out the book is, but because our author explicitly tells us where she had things wrong and where her opinions and biases were harmful. It would have been so easy to leave those parts out, or to subtly put it all in between the lines. But our author doesn't do that, she allows herself to be an example of growth and learning.

Otherwise, as interesting as I thought this book was, and getting a peak behind the curtain at an alternative high school is very interesting to me, this book was not written for me and quite a bit went over my head, or I'll never put this information to use as it's not my career path. It's my career path adjacent and I wanted the information for my back pocket. I do not regret reading this book.

[Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really thought provoking and good