When asked about the controversial ‘gay neutrality policy’ that occurred in the AnnokaHennepin school district, Ngo remarks, “I’m a firm believer that refusing to acknowledge certaincommunities is the first step to creating policies against those communities” (Ngo, 2022). AndNgo’s statement can never be truer. In order for certain school-sponsored or student-ledLGBTQ+ programs to work, we must first address the issue of neutrality, and how teachers andschool administrators could address their own personal biases. It’s impractical, or rather,simplistic for schools to leave queer and gender identity conversations to its students, all thewhile censoring the adults who are supposed to be role models for these kids.

“Being queer in school was almost like an S-tier level of networking. ‘Are you gay? Ican’t say that though. Do you like Steven Universe? Is that a pink pin?’ If you grew up in acommunity that refuses to acknowledge that you exist, then you’re gonna feel like shit” (Ngo,2022). As mentioned earlier, Ngo spent a majority of his middle and high-school life within theprogressivist areas of Silicon Valley. Unfortunately, Ngo didn’t have the privilege of enjoyingthose queer-accepting communities. Being brought up in a charter school that was built uponchurch grounds, life in San Jose as an LGBTQ+ youth was very different from that of his peerswho attend schools outside the conservative bubble. According to Mayo, LGBTQ+ students haveproblems living in a vastly heterosexist society and believe that heterosexism reinforces acts ofhomophobia. Mayo remarks

African American from a low-income family-should be placed in the lowest-level math class, prealgebra, even though she had taken it already.

Many professors have con-veyed to me their feeling that the classroom should be a "safe" place; that usually translates to mean that the professor lectures to a group of quiet students who respond only when they are called on. The experience of professors who educate for critica! consciousness indicates that many students, especially students of color, may not feel atall "safe" in what appears to be a neutral setting.

This gives them both the opportunity to know that diffi-cult experiences may be commou and practice at integrating theory and practice: ways of knowing with habits of being. We practice interrogating habits ofbeing as well as ideas. Through this process we build community.

When the meetings concluded, Chandra and I initially felt a tremendous sense of disappointment. We had not realized how much faculty would need to unlearn racism to learn about col-onization and decolonization and to fully appreciate the neces-sity for creating a democratic liberal arts learning experience.

When I first entered the multicultural, multiethnic class-room setting I was unprepared. I did not know how to cope effective!y with so much "diflerence." Despite progressive po li-tics, and my deep engagement with the feminist movement, I had never before been compelled to work within a truly diverse setting and I lacked the necessary skills. This is the case with most educators.

I have found through the years that many of my students who bitch endlessly while they are taking my classes contact me ata later date to talk about how much that experience meant to them, how much they Jearned.

Students taught me, too, that it is necessary to practice com-passion in these new learning settings. I bave not forgotten the day a student came to class and told me: 'We take your class. We learn to look at the world from a critica! standpoint, one that considers race, sex, and class. And we can't enjoy life anymore."

Multiculturalism compels educators to recognize the nar-row boundaries that have shaped the way knowledge is shared in the classroom.

Despite the contemporary focus on multiculturalism in our society, particularly in education, there is not nearly enough practica! discussion of ways classroom settings can be trans-formed so that the learning experience is inclusive.

I didn't know anyone. I was from a poor family. None of my relatives owned businesses or knew anyone. We didn't have physicians, or attorneys, or engineers in our family because we were deliberately kept out of those spaces. There was no legacy. No one to open the door, leave it cracked, and let us in. I looked around, and people were dying laughing. I was dying. I cried.

Lack of access to health care and, more specifically, to prenatal health care plagues far too many women in poverty and, consequent!~, their chil~ren a~d future public school students.

Why are people poor? Most notably, why do the same groups of people te~d to endure poverty from generation to generation? And ultimately, why do chil-dren of the poor predictably perform poorly in public schools?

Does every middle school in economically blighted districts have highly qualified teachers who can teach college prepara-tory courses? Does every middle school employ counselors who can set each student on a trajectory toward college? No. Even less so in schools that serve poor children. This is how schools limit college admission for poor students and, in turn, mass social mobility much earlier than we realize. This is how schools structure inequality.

The middle grades are where the rubber meets the road. This is where college-bound freshmen and all the rest are separated like oil and water. Here the issue of school funding and the deleterious effects of how we fund publi~ education in this country becomes an obvious barrier to students' academic suc-cess and their ability to move upward in the social classes.

Irrational policymaking can be explained by the fact that public official have made their choices at least partly on the basis of claims that pursuing col~ lective goals of the American dream could endanger or has endangered the in-dividual achievement of privileged children. Under pressure they have been willing to sacrifice the wider objectives or put them at risk for the sake of the narrower ones, whether or not there was good evidence that the objectives re-ally were in conflict.

Public schools are where it is all supposed to start-they are the central institutions for bringing both parts of the dream into practice.