Resisting the Specter of Fierce Neatness

Having taught both mainstream and special needs middle school students and in an alternative high school, Ohanian resists the concept that all children are capable of doing the same work. “[F]or readers in crisis, extreme measure are needed.” She contends that we must teach students what they are capable of learning, no matter what book or assignment that might involve, and that when we bow to the dictates of Standardistas, we abandon our students to political abstractions.