Remedial, illiterate, intellectually deficient - these are the the stigmas that define America's educational underclass. As a child in a Los Angeles ghetto, Mike Rose shared these labels; today he works with educationally underprepared children and adults in order to give them a fair chance at learning. In "Lives on the Boundary, " Rose describes his innovative methods of awakening untapped potential and initiating "problem" students into the world of language, literature, and expression. Challenging educators, policymakers, and parents, to re-examine their assumptions about the capicity of students, Rose offers a truly democratic vision, one that should be heeded by anyone concerned with America's future.