Book Club!

For Book Club I read "The New Kids: Big Dreams and Brave Journeys at a High School for Immigrant Teens" by Brooke Hauser.

          The biggest disruption for me while reading this book was the realization that so many of the students at International had few no provisions or support. Of the five main characters in the book; Muhammad Bah, Yasmeen Salahi, Ngawang Thokmey, Jessica Tan, and Chit Su, only two live with their parents or have parental support. There’s nothing for them to lean on except for the school, and I’m confused as to how they found their way there to begin with. Especially for undocumented students like Muhammad, the fact that they’re at school at all is impressive. The disruption comes because I always assumed there were resources available; I never realized how little many immigrants, especially children, have to support their success.

          Another disruption came in Muhammad’s story to America. Unlike many of the other students, his is not a clear black or white moral dichotomy, he came to International High School by deceiving a group of well-meaning but misguided church goers. His experience, and especially his reluctance to tell it, challenges the ‘noble immigrant’ caricature that rest of the book. The story of Jessica Tan’s father is something similar, though instead of just making me uncomfortable, his actions made me downright angry. I know I can’t judge from a place of privilege, and I in no way mean to condescend, but I was surprised at the feats many of the characters will go to in order gain a fraction of what I have as a natural born citizen.

          The first and most obvious example of ideas we’ve been discussing in class, and which I found reading New Kids is the discussion of the immigrant experience, particularly in regards to language learning. Since every kid who attends International High School in Brooklyn has to ‘fail’ an English language test, all of them share the experience of trying to learn English together, and the book documents the terror, frustration, and triumph that can be a part of that process. But because the students that Brooke Hauser follows come from all over the world, their primary languages of discourse are all different. Chit Su is a Burmese refugee who shares her native language with literally no one else at school. I’m reminded of the Portes reading we did in class, which focused on the benefits of bilingualism in such a way as to suggest that all students should learn a secondary language in high school and by making no one language the primary language of power in the school (I can’t remember at this point what was the reading and what were my own thoughts based on them) so that all students learn the benefits of bilingualism without unfairly privileging those whose 1^st language is English. I imagine International high school would need to have something similar, where because there was no dominant language all language learning is privileged the same way.

          Another idea prevalent throughout the book was the idea of maintaining cultural integrity in the students, and I thought this was especially interesting considering International High School’s Prom. I read my copy of New Kids digitally, so I don’t know if other copies have photos, but later, while trying to find more information on Hauser’s writing career, I found an article she wrote about International’s prom, including a picture of one of the students, Hasnahena Happy, an immigrant from Bangladesh wearing a Saree to prom. Reading about the prom in the book was interesting because it was a very American experience that very few of the students really knew about or understood, and it felt at first like the Americanization of the students was a threat to cultural integrity, but from the look of Hasnahena, International High School was able to balance the preservation of cultural integrity with helping them adjust to American culture. Or, since the prom was a student led effort, simply supporting them in their own cultural exploration.

Hasnahena Happy at Prom, Bess Greenberg, The New York Times

          If I had one idea to take from this book, it’s that students are amazing, capable human beings. I don’t want to romanticize the immigrant experience, or teenage experiences in general, but the capability these students had for diplomacy (the delicate truce of Tibetan and Chinese students), leadership (Mohamed’s brief but impressive reign as president of the African club), responsibility (Yasmeen’s difficult choice to marry in order to care for her little brother and sister, Jessica living alone in a private rented room) and excellence is astounding given the right resources and school faculty with their best interests in mind. Another important idea to take away from this is that we have no idea the range of experiences our students have gone through, even more for those students who may be reluctant to share.