The research reported in this article invites educators to rethink their assumptions about students and families. Using data from a qualitative, longitudinal teacher-research study, the author presents seven lessons that she has learned from the families of her students and challenges other teachers to seek ways to learn about the families they serve. These lessons include learning that many urban families own books and enjoy reading, recognizing the particular meanings that parents associated with computers and sounding out words, and the recognition that parents are often aware of the assumptions teachers make about them. The author maintains that it is important to recognize that characterizations of poor and culturally diverse families are not the result of individual prejudices. They reflect dominant discourses (Compton-Lilly, 2007) and cultural models (Gee, 1999) associated with diverse families and deep-seated beliefs that privilege particular ways of parenting, interacting with educational institutions, and supporting children with literacy tasks.