I was struck by these quotes:

"Those with power are frequently least aware of -or least willing to acknowledge -its existence. Those without the power are often most aware of its existence."
Teachers in urban districts need to be aware of the perceptions and feelings about power for parents and students. Parents often feel uncomfortable challenging teachers and administrators where middle class families are comfortable expecting and even demanding services or accommodations for their children. We need to work to empower parents to feel comfortable engaging in the school community

"Cbild-centered, whole language, and process approaches are needed in order to allow a democratic state of free autonomous, empowered adults , and because research has shown that children learn best through these methods."

Yikes. Whole language is dead in urban classrooms. Our children just do not come to school with enough background knowledge (real world and linguistic) to be successful. My students may hear as many as 8000 less words a day than students from higher income brackets and many are English language learners. They need more direct instruction, especially in vocabulary and writing. I have worked for the last two years with a Direct Instruction literacy program similar to what was referenced in the text and have found that more children are making adequite progress. It is not fun to teach but it did make accommodations for both slower and faser paced learners, keeping each child challenged. I am not saying that it is the answer either, but there are many valuable parts of the DI program. While a process approach can be valuable in some content areas (math and science for example) it has not been successful in Providence. We need work harder to keep our minds open to all types of programs and remember that many of our urban children really don't have the luxury of a process approach to all learning and be willing to keep trying until we find ideas that work.

" Teachers are in an ideal position to play this role, to attempt to get all of the issues on the table in order to initiate true dialogue. This can only be done, however, by seeking out those whose perspectives may differ most, by learning to give their words complete attention, by understanding one's own power, even if that power stems merely from being in the majority, by being unafraid to raise questions about discrimination and voicelessness with people of color and to listen, no, to hear what they say." These may be some of the most difficult discussions to take place in a school community but until we can find a way to begin we will continue to struggle to trust each other and waste valuable time to misunderstandings. It takes courage on all sides to even begin.