It is lunchtime. The students are herded through line, picking up their cardboard trays of chicken nuggets and milk. Eating must be done in silence. Misbehaving children face a "three-strikes-you're-out" policy." The same policy that puts many neighborhood men in jail is also used to deny chattering children recess. A teacher bends over to help a girl open her ketchup. An administrator reprimands her for being too soft with the child. "You are enabling her dependency," he chides.

This doesn't happen at all schools--it is primarily occurring in schools in the inner city, heavily populated with minorities. What message does this end? Is it any wonder that in 2000, there were 188,500 more African American men incarcerated than in higher education, according to a Justice Policy Institute report?

...the link between how we treat children of color in schools and current statistics must be noted. We provide these children with the bare minimum of resources, in dilapidated facilities, surrounded by communities that have been abandoned by the city. We then fill the children up with the language of criminality. Children will rise to the level educators ask of them. By using such language and adhering to such policies are schools simply creating a self-fulfilling prophecy?