The following is a somewhat sensitive subject, and I have a feeling this may get me into trouble with some parents, and possibly some teachers.
Cultural currency is a child's marketability in the classroom with regards to peer relationships.
It includes, but is not limited to clothes, shoes, sports, electronic equipment, music, and anything else deemed valuable at that precise millisecond. Her world, at least for the day, was centered on those shoes, she literally could not think about anything else. The possible future value of vocabulary words was lost upon her as she sat, tears brimming, with her head down. Granted, this was a pretty exclusive private school, and they placed an inordinate amount of importance on wearing the right things, but the point was not lost on me. Fitting in often provides a freedom to pursue an education that a student's mere presence in a classroom cannot.