FALLING IN LOVE WITH THE DREAMERS:

In Chicago, Discipline That Builds Dreams (George F. Will, September 14, 2008, Washington Post)

To work in the Sears Tower, a student must pass through something perhaps not encountered in his or her family's Mexican village or in Pilsen -- a revolving door -- and might have to change elevators en route to the tower's upper floors. Before going to work, many of the [Cristo Rey Junior High S]chool's 14-year-old ninth-graders, like their parents, have never been downtown.

The summer before beginning at CRJHS, ninth-graders go to a behavioral boot camp where they get what David Whitman calls "a dose of cultural imperialism" to inculcate bourgeoisie values, from personal hygiene to table manners. The school believes that some Latino traditions should be tempered: Many of the students had been raised to show respect by speaking quietly and avoiding eye contact while softly shaking hands. That is not how things are done downtown in the city of broad shoulders. Before long, the children are introducing themselves with firm handshakes and are introducing their parents to the Loop.

Cristo Rey is one of six "no excuses" schools around the nation that Whitman examined in a new book, "Sweating the Small Stuff: Inner-City Schools and the New Paternalism." Father James Gartland, now CRJHS's president, was back in America on a break from his work in Peru when he was assigned to walk Pilsen's streets and discover how the church might serve. He asked people, "What do you dream?" and "Why did you leave Mexico?" The answers pointed to what CRJHS has become.