Cultures determine identity in that they prescribe the "food, festivals, and fashion" of their members; for example, rap music, baggy pants and gestured dancing identify the hip hop culture (recognizable to both "members" and "non-members"). Cultural identities are created and maintained by "literacy"--the ability to read and write the "texts" of a culture. Thus in this broad sense, literacy is a socio-cultural "tool," and mastering it means "success" within a culture. The purpose of this article is to explore the socio-cultural nature of literacy as it relates to identity both for teacher and student, and to examine the use of literacy as a tool for "success" in the culture of school. The article concludes by delineating four pedagogical choices: the "uni-cultural," the "unicultural 'plus'," the "multi-cultural as motivator," and the "multi-cultural as curriculum." These are available to all teachers who stand in their classroom doorways at the meeting place of multiple cultures--their own, the school's, the classroom's, and their students'.