The New Kids by Brooke Hauser

If you have ever wondered what it must feel like to arrive to the United States and be immediately immersed into the culture all while experiencing the physical, emotional, and mental trauma of surviving as a teenager, this book is a must read.  Not only is it based on actual students from Brooklyn’s International High School at Prospect Heights, but this book also goes into the histories of the founder of the international school, the teachers who work so hard to motivate these students to succeed, and the families inside and outside the United States who support these students on their journey to graduate from high school and pursue degrees in college. 

            I loved how emotionally invested in each of the students these teachers were.  There were certain students in the novel who would not have made it through the end of the school week, let alone the end of the school year, without the help and encouragement of these educators.  No matter what their cultural background was, these teachers valued the cultural capital that each and every one of their students brought to the classroom and sought to understand more about the culture of each of their extremely diverse students.  One of the teachers even decided to take on the responsibility of becoming a student’s legal guardian in order to bring the student closer to obtaining citizenship in the United States.  This was a slight point of disruption for me since I am not accustomed to the private and public lives of teachers overlapping with their students in any way, but at the same time I was touched by the actions that were taken to give this student not only a house, but a home. 

            The teachers also went out of their way to ensure that students had the right amount of social and cultural capital to succeed at school.  The cultural capital was provided by teachers on a daily basis in the classroom as well as by advisors who helped guide new students around the school when they first arrived.  These advisors also helped the students to develop social capital by making themselves available as a resource for students whenever students needed someone to talk to about academic or non-academic circumstances.  Each advisor was over a group of students and met with them as a group twice a week, allowing the students to also establish social capital with their peers, which is especially important for high school age students.  Social capital was also nourished as teachers made an effort to secure internships for graduating students in fields of work that students were interested in. 

            Issues with class and poverty were also addressed by the faculty of this school as they aided students in securing necessary school supplies or even prom dresses so that students could be not only functional in their schoolwork, but socially accepted by their peers.  The faculty knew the essential details of all their students’ lives, allowing teachers to provide assistance and support when needed before students disappeared through the cracks of the school system. 

            This book caused me to reframe a lot of my thinking about how involved I should be in the lives of my students.  Throughout this course, I have developed the conviction that I want to value each of my students as individuals.  However, I have begun to realize that it may be difficult to value my students as individuals if I know little or nothing about them and their lives outside of school.  I don’t want to overstep my bounds as an educator and try to be friends with my students in a way that overshadows my authority as a teacher, but I do want students to know that they can come to me at any point in time to talk.  Like the teachers in this novel, I want to truly care about my students and let them know that I want them to succeed and that I believe in them.  In addition, I also want to provide my students with as much social capital as I can as they prepare to enter the real world after high school.  I want to make them aware of scholarships, internship opportunities, and other experiences they may be interested in that will increase their chances of success and possibilities in their future lives.  By truly caring for my students and providing a means for them to obtain social capital, I hope that I can begin to become the type of influence that the teachers from this novel were to their students at the International High School at Prospect Heights.