Big Dreams and Brave Journeys at a High School for
May 16, 2011
For a single school year (2008â2009), freelance writer Hauser tracked the staff and students at the International High School at Prospect Heights in Brooklyn, N.Y., whose particular mission is to serve "recent immigrants and new English-language learners." Hauser observes the counselors advising, the instructors teaching, and the students learning in and out of school, providing their personal histories as well as their day-to-day experiences. Among the students followed most closely at this public school are Jessica from China (made homeless "before the end of her first week in America by her stepmother"); Yasmeen from Yemen (who drops out and into an arranged marriage); and Mohamed from Sierra Leone (who "in so many ways has become a real American boy," but "still lives in fear of being deported"). Among the staff, Hauser focuses on English teacher Ann, art teacher Cindy, and the coordinator of special programs, Dariana. The school is an exciting, innovative place, and the students have stories both fascinating and emotionally touching. Nevertheless, Hauser's book becomes tedious with quotidian detail. The school, its staff, and its students, however, are well worth getting acquainted withâif the conversational clutter created by Hauser's desire for authenticity does not wear out the reader's patience.