Teachers' pets, troublemakers, and nobodies

The observations made in the classrooms and homes of black children attending the elementary grades in a midwestern elementary school system were undertaken to understand more fully and at firsthand the educational experiences of black children during their initial years of formal schooling. The schools in this border-state metropolis were segregated -- all the members of the student body and the school staff were black. The school district was located in part of the city's large racial and social ghetto. - p. 128.