Rose is speaking of a figurative boundary, a boundary that divides the poor and underprivileged from those with more resources. This book focuses on those who have been left behind, despite the huge amount of potential each one possesses, most times, simply, due to tests and evaluations that have assessed them as slow learners, problem students or remedial.
Testing is one of the boundaries he talks about over and again. In his book he mentions a Hispanic student who failed first grade and after testing was put into the "developmental" classes for slow learners for the next 5 years. She said she couldn't even read and write. When her cousins, who had been in the country for awhile and could speak well, came over and asked her to read for them, she couldn't and they realized there was a real problem. All because of a test, one test, she was dubbed as remedial and she stayed there because her true potential as a learner and/or literate person was never tapped into, never given the chance to grow and develop.
In regards to being "on the boundary," I think I have been privileged in being a student that, while we were typically struggling financially most all of my life, attended a great school. My dad made sure we were in one of the best suburban school districts in Central Columbus. I also am a Native speaker and I think because of both of these things I started off with an advantage in the school system. I am not sure that I really ever felt slighted or that I was "on the boundary."
I liked the book well enough but I think I felt pretty overwhelmed again. This is hard material to come face to face with. I think Rose is an encouragement of the potential that you can reach and that your ethnicity and socio-economic status shouldn't dictate your level of education because they don't affect whether a child has the capacity for learning.
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