Hi:
I think MacLeod ought to have done more to help the Hallway Hangers and the Brothers when he first made lots of money off the first edition of this book and came to do a follow up with these Clarendon Heights youths 8 years later, I think he ought to have helped them gain more connections in the academic and professional worlds. I think he ought to have started some sort of programs for these youth to do sociological interviews themselves and create their own books and get the books published, like MacLeod helped the Mississippi youth do. I think MacLeod could have done more to help Lincoln High and its programs become better through his monetary contributions from his book sales and from his guidance of the monetary gifts. I think MacLeod was wary to give money directly to these Clarendon youths because he didn't want them to use the money he gave them for drugs. I think MacLeod could have taught these boys how to invest money well or helped them in other substantial ways with the lots of money he made from these books. I was disappointed that he didn't invest more of the proceeds; royalties of his book to help these youths. I think he came up with good reform ideas for others to implement in the schools and communities to help these youths effectively yet he didn't implement any of these programs himself for the youth; for the community, after he made a lot of money off of them. I did appreciate MacLeod's honest assessment; description of the process he went through in creating this book and his candid portrayal of his strengths and weaknesses he experienced throughout. I liked following MacLeod's growth as a sociologist/researcher/interviewer and also youth worker briefly as well as friend to the Clarendon Heights kids. I liked hearing about his experiences living in the Clarendon Heights neighborhood and his quandaries about dealing with many new situations he found himself in by being a member of the Clarendon Heights community as well as the university community ie: having to decide how to handle Paddy's situation well. He always had to find ways to keep the trust of the Clarendon Heights community and the University community without compromising either, to the best of his ability, not always an easy feat, to say the least. In other instances he got really fortunate in not betraying the Hallway Hangers etc. confidences, like when parked in the parking lot of a supermarket, interviewing Boo-Boo about his life. He could've easily had the interview tapes confiscated by the police and the police could have some really incriminating evidence on tape against Boo-Boo and his drug involvement. I also thought it was an interesting position for MacLeod to be in as a researcher in that he wasn't provided the opportunity to legally be able to protect these kids confidentiality, as it is in being a doctor. MacLeod had to be even more careful to protect confidentiality's for this reason. MacLeod seemed as if he was quite mindful; consciencious in doing this. I think that MacLeod was indeed the man to do the research of the Clarendon Heights youth. I think he was very dedicated to his research and immersed himself in his field study well. I think he did an awesome job with this fieldwork. He seems to have the right resilient character to have been able to do this field research work. He seems very intelligent and quite articulate to boot. I am glad he fared alright in his studies and did not quit do to discouragement, fear, illness, or death. He has done a service to these youth and the world in exposing the truths of the lives of the persons he's interviewed from his first hand experience. I think he's made many good discoveries about how the socioeconomic structure more actually works. I also hope as MacLeod does that: "this book provokes further study and sparks a critical attitude toward the American socioeconomic system. Most of all, I hope it spurs readers to struggle for a society that doesn't trample on the aspirations of its people." MacLeod pg. 302
One portion of the book which I particularly enjoyed and found amusing was MacLeod's experience in having his Clarendon Heights persona overlap with his University persona. He had to keep these two persona's separate, and transpose from one to the other in each environment. However a couple to maybe a few times MacLeod used Clarendon Heights lingo and mannerisms to greet his university fellows. His Clarendon Heights persona was quite foreign to his university fellows who didn't quite know what to make of his Clarendon Heights persona overtures. I really got a kick out of these mini anecdotes. I think it really helped portray the differences in university class terms from the university class side of things as well as the Clarendon Heights youth side. It was a good anecdote to relay because it helped to understand MacLeod when he showed how Clarendon Heights youth have to learn how to assume different personas in the work world.

Another comment I have is, I expected to read that the school system; that the Lincoln High school which the Clarendon Heights youth attended (for the most part) was a crummy crummy school but instead I read that the Lincoln School was one of the best or the best one around. I was encouraged at first to read that Lincoln was actually an alright school, at least on the surface, filled with many progressive, hopeful school programs. Programs for everyone, to help each different student learn and grow in ways which were best for them. I quickly learned though, from further reading that these school programs were wrought with stereotyping and the way they legitimized the stereotyping was was placing students in tracks which was supposed to help in determining the students ability and placement in programs. It sounded like a good idea but I learned that this actually served to limit students, discriminate and frustrate students, not helping them instead of helping them, predominantly. I was a little surprised (I knew they still existed to a significant degree, I wasn't fooled into thinking otherwise, but I was alerted to the problems in more depth, statically supported,by this book, which helped me to see the problems more clearly) by actual big rates of class and race prejudices clearly outlined which still exist, they are still there big time, just in different forms and disguised subtleties, as exemplified by the notion of the American Dream, which is referred to in this book many times. The Brothers, by all reasonable accounts, ought to have excelled according to the American Dream, but they didn't!

I wondered when reading about the school programs, why there wasn't any real references to outdoor youth education programs. Programs which bring inner city youth to the country to camp, learn about the beauty of nature, with all it has to teach. Many of these outdoor ed. programs have good success rates in helping inner city youths, by giving them the vision,connection, perspective of the beauty of nature to refresh them and to hang their hopes, dreams on and build up their inner selves. Outward Bound programs, I've heard, help students build their strength, trust, and relationships with others. I wonder if someone sponsored summer camps for these kids, and the kids got out of Clarendon Heights for periods of time, that this may improve the kids outlook. I think implementing these types of programs may help some possibly, as would planting community gardens. Getting kids involved in growing food and flowers etc., to give kids and others in the community the opportunity to interact with creating and nurturing life which seems to have helped many of the Clarendon Heights kids. They developed their more nurturing, caring, and responsible sides when becoming parents. Perhaps community gardens etc. could also help kids develop their nurturing caring sides too, in some ways. Studies have shown that when the aesthetic aspects of an environment improve, often the well being of the persons in the environment improve. I also didn't read any reference to Boys and Girls Clubs or Big Brother Big Sister Programs which would pair a University student or successful professional etc. community member with a Clarendon Heights youth to guide them and get to know and come to truly understand and befriend the real humans at Clarendon Heights instead of just hearing about some negative reputation of Clarendon Heights and the people there.
These kids desperately need good role models in their life on a regular basis, consistently. I'm left wondering? don't people care about eachother enough to see beyond false stereotypes. Don't people care about kids. I know I do.
I wonder if some of the kids could have done better with their jobs etc. if they gave their potential employers an address other than Clarendon Heights, like their aunt's or friend's address and phone number, who lived uptown or in a part of the city considered more respectable. I don't know how much it would help in the long run, but may provide a bit more of a chance that the Clarendon Heights youth would get their prospective job. I know that the book did mention a couple of the kids had doctored their degrees to get jobs etc. and of course that social connections helped them to get jobs more than their education persay, of any amount.
I noticed that the youths who left Clarendon Heights at times got a different perspective on life, if only temporarily (I'm thinking mainly of Frankie, when he and his Mom left Clarendon Heights). I think Frankie "cleaning up" and finding a rich dedicated spiritual life happened when he left Clarendon Heights. I wonder, if there were more church programs for the kids to take part in, to find friendships and support, might this help the kids odds. I think these kinds need an infusion of hope, happiness, positivity, maybe more art and music for them to help express themselves in productive, constructive ways. Just some thoughts.....
I know I've grown up in a middle class environment predominantly. I've had experiences working with helping the people who lived in the "projects" in our community, where I grew up, and I had a door to door sales job in Oakland and Richmond Cali., where I got to meet, interact, converse with many of the working class/poorer communities there, as well as the richer, more upwardly mobile, middle and upper class communities. I found a lot of really great hard working family community oriented people in the working class/poorer communities. I found that the reputation these working/poorer class communities had, at large, was quite inaccurate to the actual realities of the communities; of the good phenomenal inspiring precious loving people who actually lived there. I think we on planet Earth are part of the global human family and ought to learn better how to treat eachother as such respectfully. I think each person could stand to reach for truths and resist lies, and break through ignorances.
The Clarendon Heights kids deserve better. The book shows how they keep striving and finding hope. The Clarendon Heights kids showed initiative, ability, motivation, and ambition. I wish they had all had good ways to exercise their abilities and talents. I wish they had more life chances. Maybe university students with money and connections, who read this book, can help provide these kids with more real opportunity. I can always hope and pray for them.
Shaunasi