“Poor, Black, Learning Disabled, and Graduating”

“A persistent theme throughout all of the interviews was that these young men and women had to forgo any, if not all, peer relationships within the context of school. This theme was so persistent that we felt that it represented a form of isolationism. Although we originally coded this theme as a risk because we believed a lack of peer friendships to be a risk factor, we later decided that it actually represented a somewhat disturbing protective process based on the fact that affiliation with deviant peer can contribute to dropping out of school (Battin-Pearson et al., 2000) along with the very real potential of exposure to deviant peers within this particular setting” (Murray and Naranjo 152).

I found this passage particularly interesting because relationships within the classroom and during other school activities—whether they are extracurricular or in the lunchroom—are pivotal to student development. However, in this study, Murray and Naranjo find that these youth often have to avoid their troublesome and perhaps rule breaking peers in order to succeed within school. By doing this, do these students miss out on the crucial stages of identity development that occur during adolescence?

While reading this passage, I immediately thought back to Michael Nakkula’s piece “Identity and Possibility: Adolescent Development and the Potential of Schools” in which he asserts the idea that many individuals experience an identity crisis during adolescence and that sports and other activities greatly promote relationship development and the growth of their identity. What exactly are these students that pursue courses of isolationism missing out on during their high school careers? Furthermore, what can educators do in schools such as the one studied by Murray and Naranjo to decrease the need for this sort of isolationism?