9

So, I've been doing some zooming lately, trying to find trends as I'm reading Nakkula and Toshalis.  I'm reminded of a "disclaimer" Dr. Horwitz mentioned about the set up of the chapters in Understanding Youth-- how they are compartmentalized and address each aspect of youth identity development separately, but in reality these aspects overlap one another in complex ways in each adolescent. N&T have interwoven narratives of individual students throughout to give a broader context and to show just how complex the interactions among these varying identities really are. 
It seems to me that N &T develop each chapter in a similar way.  They introduce the topic (gender, racial, ethnic, and sexual identity).  They emphasize how distracting it can be for students to deal with the topic, leaving them less than fully present as learners in the classroom.  They then make an apology for attempting to present a generalization of such complicated and multi-faceted issues.  This is followed towards the end of each chapter by the presentation of a fairly neat, tidy, and general version of identity development as it relates to the topic. 
I think overall N& T do a good job of offering educators multiple lenses through which we can view our students, and at the same time remaining humble about the fact that they are not offering a panacea for educating all students in our classrooms ("This is not a 'how to' book" -preface xiii). 
I only mention this progression that I have noticed within the chapters of Understanding Youth because we are getting further into our case studies and it just kind of hit me that the resolution of identity issues could help a struggling student more than any conventional remedy.  Today I sat in a parent conference with a student.  The result of the meeting was an extra help schedule that the student would have to follow--it included Tuesday and Thursday after school, Saturday school, and study halls.  Now this is nice, but I got the impression that the root of his struggles were more related to some of the issues N & T have discussed in recent chapters, as opposed to ability to comprehend academic content.  Maybe during these extra help sessions the teacher and student will build a relationship that might ultimately help the student, but I'm really afraid they won't and the student will become apathetic. 
Regarding Chapter 9:  I'm pretty much with everyone else in that I have no idea how I would start a conversation with a student about sexual identity or sex in general.  BUT I think that maybe that's up to the student.  It is our job to provide a space where a conversation about sexual-related issues could happen...
It's chapters like this that really help me put into perspective what students (including those in the culture of power) go through during a school day.  The things they must be preoccupied with.  The confusion.  In some cases the doubt and fear.  I think of how much energy all of that consumes--energy that is not being put into their learning in the classroom.