"Becoming Something Different"

COLLEEN M. FAIRBANKS
PENNY MASON CROOKS
In this article the authors Coleen and Penny did a study on girl named Esme from the sixth to eleventh grade. the purpose of this study was done to see how the education system is helping or failing students who are of a different culture and if/when/how these students are conformed over time by the interactions that school entails. they believe that school practices decides a students' path and at time limits their potential.



 Esme who was a Latina student went through several changes. both academically and socially. Esme was a english language learner and instead of putting her in the appropriate class for this she was placed in a remedial reading class from the sixth grade through some parts of high school. this can be seen as the school limiting her. Just because she wasn't able to read and write the english language fluently  it doesn't mean that she was incapable of performing at the level of the other students. there was just a communication barrier. Esme considered this to be helpful at the time because it helped her to read and communicate the english language better. which in returned helped her to come out of her shell because she was always intimidated when it comes to taking part in class due to the fear of embarrassment. However, after becoming more fluent she began to find her tasks monotonous and tedious. she also found this type of class in high school to be more disruptive. she would get distracted by the commotion caused by her classmates when she was trying to concentrate on her work. this  depletes the quality of her education because she didn't belong there to begin with. some students might be deterred by this and may not want to return to school. luckily, Esme knew the value of education and continued with her studies.