Classroom Voices on Education and Race: Students Speak from Inside the Belly of the Beast by Daniel Frio

★★★★

I picked up this book because I have close ties to Wayland High School, the school featured in this book. I believe many of the issues Mr. Frio describes in the book have continued and remain unaddressed.

The first two chapters serve to provide a background of Mr. Frio's teaching experience. Starting in the third chapter, class and race relations at Wayland High School are discussed in depth. Mr. Frio compiled student quotes and journal entries from over 30 years of teaching at WHS, but many of the student voices he shared very well could have been attributed to current students.

Especially insightful are his observations about the METCO (Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity) program, the Boston-based voluntary school desegregation busing program. Interestingly, the book talks at length about the "accommodations" black and Latino students in the METCO program have to make in order to fit in with Wayland's predominantly white student body, but the phrase "code switching" is never used. Presumably this book was written just before the term became prevalent.

I was pleased to see a chapter dedicated to Asian Americans. Too often, conversations about race are limited to black vs. white perspectives, but in a town where 16% of the students are Asian, it's critical to include Asian Americans at the center of any discussions about race.

Notably, there is an entire chapter focused on white students' ignorance about racial matters, their sense of guilt, and how those conditions prevented them from openly discussing and exploring race. A white teacher able to model how to talk about race, and one who sees the importance of teaching white students how to be social justice allies, is invaluable.

The book helpfully offers up lessons learned as well as recommendations. I feel like Mr. Frio has provided a diagnosis with all the supporting evidence, and now it's up to the school - WHS in particular, but other schools as well - to move forward and actually address these issues by making systemic changes in curriculum, teacher training, and administrative policies.

In the end I gave this book 4 stars because something about the writing style tripped me up. I just found myself frequently re-reading a lot of sentences.

Below are a few quotes that I found particularly informative or instructive.

"When tough issues are left unaddressed by the adults, the students' education on these issues, by default, enters into a school's hidden curriculum, which produces significant learning outcomes... which generally contradict the formal curriculum." (pg. 1)

"Students who live in two worlds, particularly non-whites, need their primary identity affirmed as a foundation for academic confidence and success." (pg. 23)

"The grade and college competition, in conjunction with the social pressures to live a trendy lifestyle, tend to mimic the stresses of the adult world, a world that has increasingly encroached on kids before they are emotionally equipped to cope." (pg. 29)

"If the racial issues that continue to divide the United Sates are to be overcome they must be addressed early in life, and the public schools should welcome the challenge." (pg. 45)

"Although all students had been exposed to 'great black leaders,' their education had not explicitly provided them with whites who had also led the fight against racism. Nor could they generally identify such people in their immediate world. This significant gap in the formal curriculum, if left unaddressed, will reinforce the feeling among whites that the fight for racial equity is a non-white issue." (pg. 53)

"No real education would actually take place [after a racial incident] since each event would be attributed to individual aberrations, rather than the conspicuous signs of deeper, systemic problems." (pg. 78)