Personal Dictionary

Jose Luis Ayala Iniguez

Breadwinner (n)
Context: “In the 1920’s, after two centuries of child labor and income insecurity, and for the
first time in American history, a bare majority of children had come to live in a family with a
male breadwinner, a female homemaker, and a chance at a high school education.” (Coontz
27)

Guess: The family member with the highest authority

Def. :A person who earns money to support a family

Importance: This word is important because Coontz uses this word throughout her text. This
word was used mainly to describe the father of households, giving the concept of the father
was suppose to be the only family member that needed to work, resulting in higher authority
in the household.
Visualization
This picture is clear representation

of what the breadwinner in 1950’s

households looked like. The Father

had the higher authority which is

why all of the family member are

surrounding him.

ther
Chronological (adj.)
Context: “Instead, playing to our understandable nostalgia for a time when things seemed to
be getting better, not worse, they engaged in a tricky chronological shell game [..] (Coontz 37)

Guess: A specific pattern or order of things

Def. : (of a record of events) starting with the earliest and following the order in which they
occurred.

Importance: This word explains the “game” that politicians were playing. It helps you better
understand what the author is trying to say about how politicians played with families in the
1950’s.

Visualization: The picture shows a book from start to end. For the most part books follow a
chronological order.
Visualization
Idyllic (adj.)
Context: “We now know that 1950’s family culture was not only nontraditional; it was also not
idyllic” (Coontz 37)

Guess: Not functional; it wasn’t working

Def. : (especially of a time or place) like an idyll; extremely happy, peaceful, or picturesque.

Importance: This word is important because it described the 1950’s families. This is a claim
from the author, so it gives you an insight of what her perspective is on the 1950’s families.

Visualization: This picture shows a family which is arguing which is what Coontz was saying
about families in the 1950’s. That they were not harmonial or happy.
Visualization
Fictive Kin (n)
Context: [...] Anthropologist Carol Stack (1947) found that the reciprocal patterns of sharing
with kin and ‘fictive kin’ forged in order to survive hardship often made it difficult for poor
Blacks either to move up economically or to marry.” (Gretzel & Sarkisian 50)

Guess: Relatives that are not blood related

Def. : individuals that are unrelated by either birth or marriage, but have an emotionally
significant relationship with another individual that would take on the characteristics of a
family relationship.

Importance: It gives you better understanding that those individuals didn't just receive
support from their blood family but from those whom they considered family.

Visualization: This shows a picture of friends but are family

Visualization
Affluent (adj.)
Context: “Whether they are parents in an affluent suburb or parents whose children attend an
expensive private school, they expect their children to have much, much more than training in
basic skills.” ( Ravitch 107)

Guess: Wealthy, expensive

Def. : (especially of a group or area) having a great deal of money; wealthy.

Importance: It tells the reader about how families from affluent backgrounds expect from
their children to have in school.

Visualization: Money
Visualization
Inordinate (adj.)
Context: “They don’t show any regrets if a school spends inordinate amounts of time and
money on test preparation materials.” (Ravitch 106)

Guess: Time being wasted, not important

Def. : unusually or disproportionately large; excessive

Importance: It gives us the perspective on the author's thoughts about test preparations.
Showing she is not supporting.

Visualization: Kids taking test for hours in classroom. Showing that they don't need this
inordinate amount of time.
Visualization
Global Competitors (n)
Context: “They speak of children as future global competitors.” (Ravitch 109)

Guess: Employees for big competing companies

Def. : is the services or products provided by competing companies that serve international
customers.

Importance: To show what politicians expect from children in the public education.

Visualization: Big companies that produce products that compete with other companies.
Visualization
Fungible (adj)
Context: “They sometimes refer to children in rather ugly terms as ‘human assets,’ forgetting
that they are unique people and they are not fungible.”(Ravitch 109)

Guess: replaceable

Def. : able to replace or be replaced by another identical item; mutually interchangeable.

Importance: it shows how schools treat kids. They don’t see them as unique important
people but rather than assets or capital.

Visualization: It shows a teddy bear being replaced by another exactly same teddy bear.
Showing how fungible they are.
Visualization
Provincialism (n)
Context: “ They should broaden their knowledge of the world so that they recognize that
other people think differently; by doing so, they may abandon narrow provincialism and get a
clear understanding of other culture.” (Ravitch 109)

Guess: Being judgemental about things

Def. : the way of life or mode of thought characteristic of the regions outside the capital city
of a country, especially when regarded as unsophisticated or narrow-minded.

Importance: It shows how students are being conditioned in schools. It tells us how they
affect them negatively.

Visualization: Showing different cultures. This is what is being prevented from students to be
informed about.
Visualization
Pedagogy (n)
Context: “ The examples were gathered as part of an ethnographic study of a curricular,
pedagogical, and pupil evaluation practices in five elementary schools.” (138)

Guess: Performance evaluation

Def. : the method and practice of teaching, especially as an academic subject or theoretical
concept.

Importance: This word is important to understand because the author goes into depth about
how each schools has their way or methods of teaching. She goes into depth about how
they affect them in the future.

Visualization: A teacher bause every teacher has a different teaching method.

Visualization
Fixed Mindset
Guess: Someone who only believes in one thing or way

Def. : people believe their basic qualities, like their intelligence or talent, are simply
fixed traits

Vis. : a mindset that is locked

Growth Mindset
Guess: Someone who is open to new things

Def. : people believe that their most basic abilities can be developed through
dedication and hard work

Vis. : Someone whos mindset

who is ready to grow like a plant

Mediocrity (N)
Guess: Something that is mediocre

Def. : the quality or state of being mediocre

Context: “You were expected to make peace with mediocrity”(Baldwin 3)

Importance: It shows the stance of the author upon racism and his nephew.

Vis. : It presents the choice of being the best or just the option of average
Impertinent (Adj.)
Guess: Someone that is not patient

Def. : not showing proper respect; rude

Context: “There is no reason for you to try to become like the white men and there
is no basis whatever for their impertinent assumption that they must accept
you.”(Baldwin 4)

Importance: It tells what Baldwin's nephew should feel against society's stereotypes
and reassures him he must not care how people look at him.

Vis. : A girl who is being rude by sticking out her tongue

Banality (N)
Guess : being violent

Def. : Unoriginality

Context: “But this banality can never excuse America, because America makes no
claim to the banal.”(Coates8)

Importance: It shows that Coates believes that america are not the best because
they steal idea from other nations.

Vis. : The girl is bored because the work is so ordinary

Superlative (adj)
Guess : a drug

Def. : of the highest quality or degree

Context: “And destruction is merely the superlative of dominion”(Coates 9)

Importance : Coates compares the two word to make the readers understand the
emphasis of the word he repeats

Vis. : The ice cream is the superlative of all the other ice creams because it has the
most
Brandished (V)
Guess : state of being scared

Def. : wave or flourish (something, especially a weapon) as a threat or in anger or

excitement.

Context: “There the boy stood, with the gun brandished [..] “ (Coates 19)

Importance: This describes what the boy was feeling when pulling out the gun on
Coates, giving you a better understanding of the situation.

Vis. : It's a “gun” which is oten waved around flashed or waved around with anger
Anthology (N)
Guess: The study of something

Def. : a published collection of poems or other pieces of writing

Context: “and they can tell you the names of all the captains and all their cousins
and offer an anthology of all their exploits”(Coates 23)

Importance: He uses this word to give emphasis of how much gangs did in his past

Vis. : A collection of books

Hyperbolic (Adj)
Guess : something that is hyped up

Def. Exaggerated

Context: “This is not a hyperbolic concern”(Coates 26)

Importance : Coates writes this to represent how America feels towards the
destruction of black bodies

Vis. : The person exaggerated the size of his head it was hyperbolic
Hielera (N)
Guess: Refrigerator

Def. : refrigerator. Slang term for the space immigrants are put in at detention
centers

Conext: “You're going to experience the hielera,’she told me , referring to the cold
cells [..]” (Blitzer 2)

Importance: It lets the readers know the condition immigrants are put in

Vis. : literal refrigerator

Enmeshed (V)
Guess : to be compacted together

Def. : cause to become entangled in something

Context: “The gangsters and their victims live together in the same towns, go the
same schools, and vie for the same jobs; their lives are thoroughly
enmeshed.”(Blitzer 4)

Importance : Gives you a better understanding of what the author is trying to show
you

Vis. : the man is entangled in the spiderwebs

Labyrinthine (Adj)
Guess : Something that is very precise

Def. : irregular and twisting

Context: :The building’s labythrine architecture is, in a way, a replica of the US

immigration system.” (Luiselli 33)

Importance: Luiselli is describing how the immigration system is in her perspective

Vis. : Everything is twisting and crazy pattern

Dissuade (V)
Guess: to persuade someone

Def. : Persuading

Context: “How do we get rid of them or dissuade them from coming?” (luiselli 44)

Importance: Luiselli writes a question the US government ask themselves over the
problem of the incoming unaccompanied minors

Vis. : The deer is persuading the other deer to not go into the house
Elegy (N)
Guess : something that is sad or tough

Def. a poem of serious reflection, typically a lament for the dead

Context: Miguel Hernandez has a poem called ‘Elegy’ about the death of a
childhood friend.” (luiselli 75)

Importance: This poem resonates a lot with the unaccompanied minors

experiences

Vis. : a poem
Congealed (V)
Guess : To conceal something

Def. : solidify or coagulate, especially by cooling

Context : “During our first encounters the ten students in the class looked at me
silently and with a sort of congealed bewilderment,[..]”(Luiselli 91)

Importance: Describing her encounters with her students

Vis. : A brick wall is very congealed

Rural (Adj.)
Guess : underground

Def. : in, relating to, or characteristic of the countryside rather than the town

Context: World Bank studies have highlighted the importance of improving the
quality of education and diversifying sources of rural income given that most of the
country’s poor live in rural areas (research)

Importance: gives an understanding of the place hondurans live in

VIs. The landscape of the countryside