children out of school in america - University of Tennessee Digital ...

school. That's where I should be. The school should
have thrown the teacher out too, but they never do
. that. What it comes down to really is words. What
they're saying is swear words are worse than calling
my family Japs. They don't know how bad that word
is because if anybody said it to them they wouldn't
even hear it. They probably look around to see who's
the Japanese guy. "10
B. J., 10
B. J. Harris is a 10-year-old black boy who lives
in New Bedford, Massachusetts with his parents, two
brothers and four sisters. He had always done his
schoolwork as diligently as he could but with average
results. His teachers never complained about his
work, and when the school year finished, B. J.'s parents
were told he had done well enough to pass. In
September, B. J. returned to school, and everything
was all right for a week or two. Then he came home
one day and said he was not going to be in the same
class with his friends any more. "Did you flunk?"
his mother asked. B. J. said no, not exactly: "They
10 "Jap" is to Japanese as "Nigger" is to Negro.
got me in a special class. Just a special class with
different kids, not the fourth grade or the third grade.
It's a special grade."
B. J. had been put in one of the school's classes
for the mentally retarded and children with learning
disabilities. B. J. was disappointed and his mother
felt ashamed. "I thought everyone would think we
were hiding his problem, making believe he could go
to the same school with everyone else. But when I
asked the teachers, they said everything was fine."
After two months in the special class B. J. stopped
going to school. Each day there was less and less for
him to do. He would read with the teacher but then
she would have to attend to the others who needed
more help. B. J. found himself killing time. He sat
in the same comer of the room watching the teacher
and the other children and began to believe that
school was making him act like the really retarded
children in the class. His belief was reinforced by
his friends in the regular classes, who now avoided
him, assuming that if he had been put in a special
class, there must be something wrong with him.
But B. J. seemed as intelligent as any of the children
in his regular class. A psychologist from CDF
was given access to B. J.'s official school folder. The
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