Parents, like Jill, have a mismatch with the school expectations for supporting their children's learning. Jill feels it is the teacher's job to identify problems that her son is having and that it is then the school's responsibility to initiate the appropriate remedial assistance as might be required. She does not see a role for herself in her son's education beyond arranging a suitable spot for him to do his homework.

As another example, Andrea often keeps her daughter home from school simply to keep her company. The school staff try to impress upon Andrea the importance of regular school attendance and how she is jeopardizing her daughter's chances for success by keeping her at home periodically without a valid reason, like an illness.

For lower class children who are accustomed to the use of direct orders, when they arrive at school often they do not understand the indirect requests made by the teachers. Snow et al (1991) point out that the working class tend to be direct in their requests using keywords that specify what the child is to do. In contrast, the middle class may be more accustomed to responding to indirect requests at school as direct commands since they have experience with decontextualized language with no immediate context at home.

Heath (1983) outlines that when lower class students hear indirect requests at school they may not have had much experience with them and may not understand how they are supposed to respond. According to Delpit (1995), this is precisely what these children need to be taught in order for them to understand the culture of power and not be labeled as having a behaviour problem. She suggests that teachers avoid taking on a gate- keeping function, by taking responsibility for teaching students about indirect requests, while still respecting that those from different cultures maintain their own culture.