Transcript A Tribe Apart Patricia Hersch C&I 430 Book Report 5/25/2016

A Tribe Apart
Patricia Hersch
C&I 430 Book Report
5/25/2016
Lucas Allen and Michael Sacks
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Introduction
Patricia Hersch
“America’s own adolescents have become
strangers. They are a tribe apart, remote,
mysterious, vaguely threatening.
Somewhere in the transition from 12 to 13,
our nation’s children slip into a netherworld
of adolescence that too often becomes a
self-fulfilling prophecy of estrangement. The
individual child feels lost to a world of teens,
viewed mostly in the aggregate, notorious for
what they do wrong, judged for their
inadequacies, known by labels and statistics
that frighten and put off adults.”
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Introduction
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Background—why?
Methodology
The students
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Charles
RACISM
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Charles
“They took away from me anything I could
use as a projectile—my stick, my gloves,
my helmet. The kid tried to seriously hurt
me—first what he said, and then by him
hitting me—it was like him spitting in my
face.”
“I have always been taught you don’t let
someone say that to you. Now it is going
to stick with me the rest of my life. I was
wrong for taking it out on him the way I
did, but if I hadn’t done anything, it would
have been saying it was all right. I said to
myself, whatever he does, I can’t let him
do that.”
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Charles
RACISM
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Lacrosse Incident
Failed retaliation
creates unity
Pressure to stand up
for his race
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Jessica
REBELLION
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Jessica
“Rachel was high that night and her parents knew.
They look at her bloodshot eyes and said, ‘Rachel!’
then started laughing. They were like, ‘Don’t leave the
house because you are high.’ If my parents ever found
me high it would be like go up to your room, all your
friends are leaving, you are grounded forever.I mean,
parents are grown-ups and grown-ups are supposed to
be responsible.”
“I wanted to see him again. It wasn’t until I looked
back on it that I saw it as dumb, and wondered why I
went into that room with him because I knew what he
wanted. It is like, when you got to a party and get
drunk, you get horny. That is just what happens and
you hook up with people. Most people have sex. I
didn’t. He was just someone to be with, he was
leaving, and I wanted him back. I thought I was in
control of the situation, but I really wasn’t.”
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Jessica
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REBELLION
Wants to “be good”
Wants to fit in
Parents need help
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Jonathon
CONFORMITY
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Jonathon
“People aren’t comfortable in school, so they
never learn the joy of putting everything they’ve
got into learning. We don’t even introduce
ourselves. Teachers just say ‘Okay, you’re in
physics.’ Everybody’s looking around thinking,
That person’s cooler than me, that person’s not
as cool as me.”
“There’s really no room for being honest. It just
breaks your spirit. You get farther and farther
down in a hole. I spend all my time trying to
make up for the losses I get in school. It is
devastating to self-esteem. Everything there is
awkward. It takes off all the edges.” How does
that work? You don’t ever answer that
question. High school takes ninth grade kids
and turns them into a metal pole.”
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Jonathon
PRESSURE TO CONFORM
 Nature—real life
 School—artificial life
 Wants genuine friends
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Conclusion
“Theories abound on how to manage them,
fix them, and improve them: just tinker with
the educational system, manipulate the drug
messages, impose citywide curfews, make
more rules, write contracts, build more
detention centers, be tough. Maybe if we
just tell adolescents to say no, no, no to
everything we disapprove of, maybe then
they will be okay. But the piecemeal
attempts to mend, motivate, or rescue them
obscure the larger reality: We don’t know
them.”
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Conclusion
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We don’t know them
What next?
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