ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a powerful journalistic account of a school year at West Side, an alternative high school in New York City. Students traveled, mainly by subway, from some of the poorest neighborhoods in New York City to get to this alternative school, described by the principal as the last possible link with formal education that many would have. The chapter provides a sojourn into the lives of several students, which serves to demystify while heightening awareness of their reality. It focuses on the students and principal, based on a full academic year spent hanging out in the school. On the Outside Looking In is helpful in humanizing all the players, particularly the principal and the students. The chapter identifies the students at West Side as saving face—in their own words, "keepin' it real" and "representing"—in an uncontrived manner, gently describing a reality with hefty demands.
