Most street youth had negative experiences of schooling. Although many were extremely bright, their formal education was often limited, and was reflected in low levels of literacy. For some, the school system was perceived as overwhelmingly racist, resulting in alienation and producing a lingering sense of failure.

tu, 22 year-old vietnamese-australian
the first week i am here i go in school at fairfield
special english they call it
i very scared
my brother take me there and then he left
i'm there by myself
i just stay in one place and don't go anywhere
cause i'm scared

katty, 21 year-old laotian-australian
it was hard for me growing up here
like at school
sometimes i'd come home with no school bag
they'd steal my school bag,
steal my lunch
say things to me
even though i didn't understand what they were saying
i knew it wasn't nice

i hated school
i cried every day for the first two weeks
my bag and my lunch was getting stolen every day
i never had lunch for the whole two weeks
finally i went and told the teacher
she said she can't do nothing
because no-one's at home
like my mum can't bring my lunch up for me

i still remember the day they cut my hair
these girls came up and they were pulling my hair
i'd gotten used to things like that
they would walk past
run into me
bump into me
pull my hair
nudge me

this day i thought they were just pulling my hair
but they were snipping my hair off
i was just sitting there
with other people sitting round me
they wouldn't even tell me  [top]

phuong, 20 year-old vietnamese-australian
the hardest thing was
the teacher speaking english
trying to understand what she is trying to say
before you can try to learn it
you go out in the playground at lunch
and kids would be teaching you a few words
saying it is good and you know,
helping you and you use those words
and you cop trouble from the teacher
they say, "look, it is a swear word"
you don't really understand what she is trying to say

loco, 19 year-old chilean-australian
when i was at school, i had a lot of problems with aussies
like i was a wog and that, so i hung out with the asians
they showed me respect
i couldn't get that from the aussies
the asians i used to run with
they backed me up
so i backed them up
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