I can never understand the challenges of being a minority student but I do know she had opportunities at Taft that less fortunate children and their parents would die for. Which brings me to Kendra's complaints at Taft.

I was envious of my elite, entitled students who did not appreciate the rarified education they were receiving. My own background is that of coming from a blue collar, single mother family, myself graduating from a state university. I was a teacher from an east coast private prep day school. It was at a summer workshop for teachers held at the school where I met my husband forty years ago. Some parts where witty, some parts were heartbreaking and some parts were hopefully.īitter much? I have a tenuos connection to The Taft School. I would have found that part to be much more fascinating and engaging. Pretty much very little was included about her job being a admissions officer, specializing in diversity recruitment for independent schools. But even these issues were scratched on the surface. The second half of the book delves more into the important issues such as racism by other students, daily verbal insults, derogatory or negative attitudes towards students of non white ethnicity. Pretty much all the same stuff any teenager would worry about. Who was wearing what? Who had money? Who didn’t? Who was wearing their hair how? Who came from where? Etc etc. First half of the book felt like “coming of age” biography. Honestly I was expecting so much more from this book. The whole book is pretty much about her experiences during the three years she studied there. Kendra (his daughter) is a legacy student attending the same school. It’s about an adolescent Black girl who’s father was a graduate of a very elite, predominantly White private school in Connecticut. I really really wanted to love this book.It ended up being an OK book for me in the end.

Admissions kendra james book review