[NT!]

colin,

looking back on your post i think you are right. i was conflating your post with my own experience in urban schools, which is in fact that they often do emphasize sit down, shut up etc. above almost all else. part of that is that they are often so crowded, troubled and understaffed that they can't even accomplish this relatively simple task.

i have my own beliefs about the schools, but they are not agenda driven. i haven't proposed much because i don't have many good ideas about the school system. i have very little agenda because i'm really not sure how to solve the problem. i'm just talking about existing research and my own experiences. i am certainly not trying to bend your words.

what you originally said was that you don't see how asking people to follow basic rules is enforcing whiteness, is that about right? (and i don't think being able to behave appropriately is a bad thing... however i think good classroom manners are needed not as an end, but as a means to teach children critical thinking and writing skills, etc, which is not what is happening). i guess in short, my response is, if that's ALL you do (or are able to do), it says a lot about what you expect of your students.