Pride. Cedric's 4.02 grade point average virtually ties him for first in the junior class with a quiet, studious girl named LaCountiss Spinner. Pride in such accomplishment is acceptable behavior for sterling students at high schools across the land, but at Ballou and other urban schools like it, something else is at work. Educators have even coined a phrase for it. They call it the crab/bucket syndrome: when one crab tries to climb from the bucket, the others pull it back down. The forces dragging students toward failure - especially those who have crawled farthest up the side - flow through every corner of the school. Inside the bucket, there is little chance of escape. (p.17)

They lived frugally. The girls were in school, and Barbara and Lavar took buses to thrift shops in low-rent strip malls. She'd buy him books there and sometimes clothing. She'd prowl through...