Notably missing in Lave and McDermott are examples to illustrate
some of the ideas presented in the text. Nevertheless the paper
is rich and provocative and it calls to mind multiple experiences
of estranged learning that I had witnessed over the years as both
a student and a teacher.
Among the most vivid examples I can cite is that of West High
School in Denver. I was a young substitute teacher in the mid
'70s, called to cover for a Hispanic teacher who had been ill
for several weeks. This was 1974, only five years after the
famous "West High Blowout". In 1969 Denver's Hispanic
students had organized a walkout from the neighborhood secondary
schools in reaction to incessant prejudice and racism. The protest
became violent and it was to become Denver's entry into the saga
of civil rights wars of the '1960s.
As with the riots in Watts, Newark, and Detroit, the liberal
establishment responded with immediate reforms. In Denver,
those reforms were embodied in curriculum changes with the
introduction new classes to address the "Chicano Experience".
I walked into the classroom on my first day at West High to find
a group of twelve students. The roster showed an enrollment of
thirty-five. "Where are the others?", I wondered as I began to
preview the day's lesson. I don't recall the name of the textbook
which centered on topics around minorities, but I vividly recall
the first chapter which asked, "What is a Minority?" The chapter
profiled four people: (1) John F. Kennedy, the first Irish Catholic
President; (2) Edward Brooke, the Republican African American
Senator from Massachusetts; (3) S.I. Hayakawa, the Japanese
president of San Francisco State University; and (4) Raul
Castro, the Hispanic Governor of Arizona.
With the exception of Castro, these "minorities" had nothing in
common with my West High students. None had ever gone to school
hungry. None had ever experienced eviction from their home.
None had ever known the day to day stuggles that depict the
normal life of inner-city children. Yet the lesson of the
chapter was clear: "These minorities have made something of
themselves in our great country, and you can too!"
The chapter immediately offered an answer to my question,
"Where are the others?"
Martin Ryder
http://www.cudenver.edu/~mryder/martin.html
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