ABSTRACT
The question I pose in this chapter began as a personal quandary. It is a question I have thought about for my entire life, and one that I am still answering. If this is the case for me-a seasoned, self-confident, and highly educated professional-it is even more true for young people who frequently feel isolated and marginalized in schools because of their very identities. For them, “becoming American” very often means abandoning their families and forgetting their past. But as I make clear in this chapter, “either-or” responses can be limiting and destructive, not just for the young people involved but for our society in general. These are excruciating choices that we are asking young people to make. In the essay you are about to read, I ask educators to think of a better and more humane way to bring young people, and all newcomers, into the fold.
