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Like eboch, I felt uncomfortable with Picano's statements about education and the class system.  He said "in America, the class system is the education system." This is a naive and incomplete perspective, and given the high stakes of the issues, it is a dangerous one.  The education system extends and legitimizes the class system.  The two are highly interconnected but they are nowhere near interchangable.  It is really important to understand the way these systems of oppression work in order to fight against them.  Viewing the education system or the class system as a self contained unit obscures the pervasive ways those systems influence our society. 

This same shortsighted perspective appeared in the documentary "Born Into Brothels."  The protagonist (Zana?) behaved as though gaining access to a boarding school would solve all of the problems that the children were facing; that it would save them.  She doesn't consider how children are processed within the education system.  She wasn't sensitive to how a child might feel after being dropped into a boarding school far from home.  Particularly when that child comes from a section of society that is discriminated against and frowned upon.  Moreover she neglects to consider how those conditions might act as obstacles to the student's success in school.

I just think that the education system can't be looked at as a meritocratic bubble.  So many factors influence a student's performance and class is definitely one of them.  In turn that performance influences economic capital. Therefore, as I mentioned earlier, the stakes are very high. 

For the most part, I really enjoyed Felice Picano's visit.  I might have enjoyed what I read of his book a bit more.  He was a little show-offy although I guess that came through in the book as well.  I thought his stories were really interesting though.  I noticed thought that he sometimes didn't seem to be listening to what people were asking.  He would respond about something kind of unrelated.  He also seemed closed off to suggestions.  I don't know if you guys saw that in him.  Maybe I am being hypercritical.