In the first chapter, titled “Don’t believe the hype,” of her book author Ann Ferguson confirms my belief that students live up or down to the expectations placed on them by the school system and larger society.  I remember from my days in school that there was a group of male students whose accomplishment was having the longest rap sheet in the school and had “made their mark on the school” in a negative way (Ferguson 9).  I do not think though that this glorifying of delinquent behavior can be blamed solely on the educational system.
Ferguson delved deeper into the societal issues that make good black boys into bad men when she was invited by her protégé to participate in his young black culture of hip-hop and “gangsta” lifestyle.  In listening to the music that Horace, the protégé listened too, she was able to gain a better insight into the world view of her target group that went beyond the stereotypical  view of hip-hop music.  She found that embedded in the “misogynistic” lyrics was a “heroic figure” that voiced the plight of “urban poverty” and posed an interesting view of authority and law(Ferguson 16).  She had to become a participant in the observation because she would not have arrived at the same conclusion if she had listened to the music through Horace as Percy would have preferred.  In “The Loss of the Creature” Percy argued that one could not look directly at the subject and see it.  In writing that I think I need to correct myself and say that Ferguson was better able to see the young black male when viewing him indirectly through his musical choices.  Finally, an example of the creature that I can understand.
I know that as educators we can have a direct impact on our student attitudes.  I do not think though that society and the schools are the only ones to blame.  When I was a teacher at a continuation school I found that the students that were able to overcome having trouble in school were the ones, for the most part, with parental figures that were actively involved in their lives and educations.  Ferguson lightly touched on the students home life when she described the make-up of the students family.  I wonder if research would show that students arrive at school with these rebel attitudes already set in place and schools simply perpetuate them.  I went to school with the same basic group of kids from kindergarten to eighth grade and the rebels that were rebellious in my eighth grade year were the same rebels that were in my kindergarten class.