WHAT’S CARE GOT TO DO WITH IT?

While reading this week’s readings I noticed myself stopping many times and self-reflecting. While reading Corinne McKamey’s Restoring “Caring” in Education, I began to read and ask myself the same questions she was asking the students she interviewed. I began to answer them myself and came to the same realization that every answer I had came with an accompanying story that would help me define what this caring or lack there of was. One story that really resonated with me was the narrative of Ruby. Ruby was trying to legitimize her knowledge of a word that she knew but no one else understood. She searched for teachers, family and other adults to help her show that she knew what she was talking about. In the end she had the dictionary in class to prove her knowledge to the rest of the class. I can recall the feelings of insecurity I’ve had when saying the “wrong” answer in class and how it made me feel. I can imagine what Ruby must have felt in that moment considering she had the right answer but because the majority did not know it, she was made to feel wrong. There are different types of English in the world and sometimes its just a difference in vocabulary, but because of the way’s schools are structured to have on language and that one language be “American English” any other form of speaking is out the window.

This idea of only one way of doing things made me look at ‘Caution, we have power’. This article talks about the way the systems of schools and society make it difficult for undocumented students to continue their education. Because of the way standards in schools are set, there is one “correct” way of doing something and if you cant do it that way then you are seen as less than even if you have an alternative that works just as well. This systematic failure creates that pipeline of “school-to-sweatshop” pipeline. Students that are undocumented can not continue their dreams and goals of continuing their education. DACA the Deferred Access for Childhood Arrivals has helped many children brought to the United States undocumented by family is one resource that due to the xenophobic culture of our Government is struggling to keep its doors open, without this many young people could face leaving the only home they have ever known. I can recall classmates in High School that were brought to the United States as infants, never knowing their parent’s native countries, fearing that they would one day might have to forced out. I remember the disappointment of classmates who could not afford tuition and had to hold off of school and work “sweatshop” jobs to earn money to afford a semesters worth of tuition. I did not have to go through those fears because I was “privileged” to be born in this country. I think back to these classmates and I don’t feel like I “deserved” this any more or less than they did. My mother just gave birth to be on this side of the border. Nothing else makes me any more worthy of being able to apply for financial aid than this and it angers me that my classmates deserving of high educations had to take a step back and do a job they didn’t want just because of where they were born.

Locating Yourself

I found this week’s articles relatable to my work. I always make it a point to identify myself to my students and their families. In my experience being open and telling my students and families that I am Hispanic has really helped create an immediate bond with them. Working in Central Falls, a predominantly Hispanic community, the parents felt at ease being able to communicate with me in Spanish and showing their kids that it is possible to go to school and get a job even if you come from another country. I become a role model for the parents to confide in and a friend/mentor to the students.

In Locating Yourself for Your Students by Priya Parmar and Shirley Steinberg on of the students in Steinberg’s class said “she had never heard a white person say they were White” and that made me think a lot to the conversation we had during our retreat around race. It is not often that a “white” person openly states that they are white. In my experience peoples of other origins, races and nationalities openly and happily express where they/their families come from. There is a sense of pride within their culture. I can not recall a time where a teacher told me they were “white” it was just something that was not spoken about/ needed to be address. As if it wasn’t important.

This spoke to Jamila Lyiscott’s videos. She speaks about how the classroom structure limits one’s diversity. She sees herself as “tri-tounged”. I saw this as her code switching between how she speaks around the different people in her life. Code switching is something we all do; we speak differently to different people depending on who we are around however as students when we hear codes that are not “articulate” in schools it is deemed as wrong. We should celebrate this ability but also learn from the diversity it brings into the classroom.