Bad Kids:

An Essay
We dont like to think about our own privilege. It takes courage to reflect on
the possibility that one has had some sort of advantage in the world, some kind of
head-start. Thinking about privilege makes the privileged uncomfortable. It requires
us to confront and question parts of ourselves that we hold close. It requires us to
explore the idea that our personalities, our talents, our skills, our ambitions, do not
arise solely out of ourselves, but are shaped, in large part, by our surroundings.
Privilege, and lack thereof, shapes us.
One question Ive confronted in many forms throughout my time working in
high-poverty schools is this: why are we so eager to throw certain populations
away? In my time running a creative writing workshop at Journeys Academy, this
question returned with force. Why is it so easy for us and by us I mean all of us
to be content hiding disadvantaged populations right in front of our noses and carry
on as if they dont exist? I wonder if the answer might have something to do with
privilege.
What I mean by that is this: in order to confront the realities of my students
situations, I must first examine the reality of my own situation. I am white. I am
heterosexual. I am from a middle-class socio-economic background. I am educated.
I am a woman in a country that allows me to be educated. I do not have a disability.
English is my first language and I am fluent. In other words, I am privileged in many
ways and due to this privilege, I have not had to face many of the social and
academic barriers to learning that my students at Journeys struggle with every day.
Its natural that categorizing my privilege may make me uncomfortable but I
understand why it is important to do so. When we sweep issues of privilege under

the rug and try to pretend that they dont exist, lots of other things get swept away
too. And in the process of trying to ignore their own privilege, those who would do
so are eager to ignore external reminders of that privilege as well namely, the
disadvantaged populations that struggle due to the barriers placed in front of them.
Journeys Academy is a school for students who have faced behavioral trouble
in the past. The students there have threatened teachers, possessed drugs, sold
drugs, and been in more fights than even they can accurately count. This makes it
very easy for us to put these students into a particular category: bad kids. Its okay
that they attend a school that was once a Publix theyre bad kids. Its okay that
learning takes second place to behavior management theyre bad kids. Its fine
that there isnt any actual behavioral support to help the students learn positive
coping methods. Theyd just get into trouble again no matter what we do. Theyre
bad kids.
We can cover up almost any issue the students at Journeys face with that
label. Theyre bad kids, bad eggs, they decided to misbehave, they got themselves
into trouble, and its their problem now. The bad kids label, however, also makes it
incredibly easy to cover up the circumstances that form the undercurrents to their
behavior. Its easy to say that they made their choices and now they have to deal
with them. Its much more complex to say Maybe he got into fights because thats
how he usually sees conflict handled in his community. Maybe she sold drugs
because thats the only future she sees for herself. Maybe she threatened her
teacher because shes so frustrated by his lack of understanding that she couldnt
hold it in anymore. The former option leaves us free to judge. To say I never
would have made the choices you made. To blame the kids and throw them away
and forget about them and say its because they brought it on themselves.

The latter option requires us to question the very foundations of our culture.
To ask ourselves if we have a hand in the problems we ignore. To question the way
we deal with poverty and race and language in our country. To face our own
privilege and say I never had to make the choices you made. To explore the
possibility that maybe these kids these bad kids were at a disadvantage from the
start, and what we at large deem to be their misbehavior is actually just them
coping with their situations.
Labels are just ways for us to categorize and organize an unruly world. They
often do little for the population that has been labeled and once the label sets in,
the labeled sometimes find that they can do nothing more than accept it and
conform. These bad kids have been labeled as such from day one. They are very
often students born below the poverty line. They may be English Language Learners
at school and fluent speakers of a different first language at home. They sometimes
have a disability that makes school very difficult. They sometimes come from
cultural backgrounds that place very explicit expectations on them due to their
gender. And due to these circumstances outside of their control, outside of anyones
control, they are expected to play a certain role. We look at them with suspicion. We
assume covertly, subtly, because its not something we dare say aloud that
theyre bad kids from the day theyre born.
All things considered, is it any surprise that theyd eventually fulfill that
expectation?
The reality of the situation is revealed not from stepping back and viewing it
with a critical and sweeping eye, but from hurling oneself right into the middle of
the mess weve made. Entering schools that serve disadvantaged populations
whether they serve areas with a large population of non-English speakers, high-

poverty neighborhoods, communities of African-American, Haitian, or Hispanic

people, or behaviorally-challenged students allows us to confront, inescapably,
the reality of what our schools are like when we fill them with kids were ready to
sweep under the rug. Schools are the culmination of all of the problems we are
ready to ignore but that are also too large to solve. Issues of race, language,
immigration, poverty, social justice for all populations, all come together and mingle
within our schools.
Why do we not more readily discuss the fact that, right now, there is a class
of middle-class white high school seniors applying to college, only a few miles away
from a classroom full of minority students, also high school seniors, who see college
as nothing but an impossibility? Our schools were desegregated a long time ago,
but that does not mean that black schools and white school do not exist. Our
government has long since passed laws regarding the appropriate accommodations
for students with disabilities and for speakers of other languages, but that does not
mean that our schools readily build flexible curriculums. Instead, we build lessons
that are aimed towards a normal that does not exist, all in a vain attempt at
learning that is really just a prayer for raising test scores. What is the pattern? We
pass laws to address the problems we see in our schools, and then we assume all of
our rules and regulations took care of what was wrong. All it really means is that the
problems become more easily ignorable its easier to pat ourselves on the back for
coming up with ways to address issues than confront the fact that schooling is still
certainly not equal for all populations. That is the real problem.
So what could possibly be the solution? Were facing down a mess that may
be too large to solve; to even begin to repair the broken educational institution
weve built, we must be ready and willing to confront our own privilege to say, first

and foremost, that yes, there is a problem, that yes, we are all collectively
responsible, and that yes, it affects disadvantaged students who may not have
access to the privilege many of us so easily take for granted. I wont pretend to
have a proposed solution. Short of dismantling the school system and starting from
scratch, Im not even sure a complete solution exists. The problems faced by our
schools and our students go further than just the four walls of the classroom they
are just a reflection of the problems in our country and in our culture. They might be
too big to fix.
But I do know one thing. These problems come to light for us, really come to
light, when we go into the schools themselves and interact with the students as
people. Not as privileged or disadvantaged populations. Not as kids. Not even as
bad kids. Just people. Thats how we learn things, isnt it? Through personal
experiences. Through authentic interactions. That is how we gain an
understanding, an insight, on a human level. That is how we confront reality,
disperse labels, break down barriers. Maybe thats the only route to solving the
problems faced by our schools. Maybe the bad kids are the ones with the answers.
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Casey Briand, 2016