66 pages • 2 hours read
Miles CorwinAnd Still We Rise: The Trials and Triumphs of Twelve Gifted Inner-City High School Students
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2000A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
School as a Refuge
Many of the students whom Corwin profiles in his book have lives marked by trauma. For example, Olivia was beaten so savagely by her mother that she ran away when she was 13 and placed herself in the custody of the county. Since that time, she has lived in different group homes, many marked by fighting and turbulence. For her whole life, school has been a refuge for her. She is bright and receives kind attention from her teachers. While many students dislike being at school, for Olivia, it is the only place of calm and safety. Similarly, Sabreen was also beaten by her mother and ran away from her father’s house. For Sabreen, school is a place of refuge from living in group homes. Most of the other students also experience a similar homelife, either marked by drugs, domestic abuse, gangs, murder, poverty, teen pregnancy, or imprisonment. For each of these students, school is a symbol of freedom, second chances, and a hopeful future.
School is a place for the gifted students to learn, excel, and receive meaningful recognition of their academic achievements. The gifted students at Crenshaw do not take school for granted. Sometimes, they disrupt the lesson with inappropriate or unrelated comments, but they are excited about what they are learning. The works of literature in the AP English class speak to the students and encourage them to reflect on their past, present, and future. The students are invested in their learning and eager to forge a successful life path for themselves.
The Advantages of the Rich over the Poor
At every step of their educational journey, the students at Crenshaw are at a disadvantage. While other students have parents who read at home or subscribe to newspapers, most of the students at Crenshaw do not. In some classes, they don’t even have enough books or seats, and their school, the site of a larger program, is often the scene of violence.
The students do not have the advantages of wealthy students who can afford SAT tutoring that can cost several hundreds of dollars. Instead, the Crenshaw students take the test without preparation. In addition to lack of funds for tutoring, the students also lack time—they are often working to support themselves independently or to help their parent(s) make ends meet. Some of the students are often in school all day and at work all night, with only a small amount of time left for homework and sleep. Most of these students are forced to juggle responsibilities like an adult before they are 18 years old.
In the year that Corwin attended the Crenshaw AP class, Proposition 209 also put an end to affirmative action in the state of California, meaning that the students lost a systemic way to make up for some of the educational and other disadvantages they faced.
The Power of Literature
Though the literature in Little’s class seems far removed from the students’ lives in South-Central Los Angeles, the students find that all of the works are very personal and relevant. For example, when Latisha reads James Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, she relates to Stephen Dedalus, the protagonist. In particular, she relates to the way in which he considers his childhood lost. Reading the book prompts her to write about her own painful past in which she was sexually abused. In this way, literature connects people from different time periods, age groups, locations, and life circumstances through relatable emotions and struggles.
The discussions in Little’s class are usually enthusiastic. Unlike most high school students, the students in her class always interact with her and discuss the literature. They are filled with opinions, and they are eager to read the works aloud. As they read and analyze the literature, the students discover that it helps to define and make sense of their own trauma-filled lives.
