BROOKE HAUSER: THE NEW KIDS

The International High School at Prospect Heights in Brooklyn is a school where students from forty five different countries, speaking twenty-eight different languages come together to learn English and become part of American society. By the time the students arrive at school, many have survived trauma and hardship that is hard for many of us to imagine. Though at times school life is chaotic and confusing, thanks to a very dedicated staff of teachers and administrators, this school often succeeds in teaching many students English.  Despite language, social and political differences that at first seem insurmountable, students also learn  how to integrate themselves into the wider global society . Tonight’s guest is writer BROOKE HAUSER, who spent years observing the daily life of the students at International High School and has written a wonderful, yet grittily realistic book about her observations: THE NEW KIDS: BIG DREAMS AND BRAVE JOURNEYS AT A HIGH SCHOOL FOR IMMIGRANT TEENS.