Seems like Hicks must have been a fly on the wall as she described her rural upbringing. Her story parallels mine in so many respects. I too was taught to be a "good girl" and did color pictures of Jesus as a young child on Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, Bible School and so on. I was taught to sit and listen to the preacher intently with my knees together and legs not crossed. I wore white anklets and black patent shoes and a little frilly dresses with tights if the weather was cold. We had many gatherings at the church and many dinners under the trees with ice cream socials being planned. Easter, Memorial Day and Christmas meant new clothes and a nice hairdo. I was taught to say "yes Mam" and "yes sir", never ask why and to be quiet until spoken to. I memorized the names of the books of the Bible in order and many verses. I knew every song in our hymnal and could sing up to 5 verses without looking at the words. As I grew I managed to collect 17 years of perfect attendance pens to church and taught Sunday School Class to young girls. They colored pictures of Jesus and sang Jesus Loves Me. That cycle continues to this day.
I feared going to hell even after I was saved and was baptized in a creek down the road from the church. We swam their too and had our own family of leeches attached to our skin when finished. I felt like my family and church family were without reproach and knew as I got older that I needed to be in at a respectable hour or people would look out their windows and see me. At that point I would be a bad girl.
This is the only world I knew until later in my teens years. I had never had a pizza until I was fifteen. This type of environment was safe, very safe. This was so safe that it hurt me in many ways in that I had that small town girl attitude and was at the point of thinking all others lived in dysfunctional families. It took me years to grow out of the close minded discourse I was used to and I spent many years wanting experiences and diverse friends, however, the lack of exposure left me unable to follow my yearnings. I became defiant in many ways to my mother. I can really relate now to my students that haven't broken out of their circle of upbringing. Many of these students come from dysfunctional families in my opinion, however, this is all they know.
They lack experiences and are shunned by others. They struggle in their grades and bring no diverse experiences to the literacy table. They comprehend little because they absolutely cannot relate to the text.
As for Laura, I wonder if she had grown up in a different environment if she would have been a totally different girl. Was it the motherly role at home and the strong emotional outbursts that infected her natural emotional well being? Was it the bossy attitude and the anger that created her ADHD and ability to learn? Did the teachers do all they could to help? I fear not. She needed intense one-on-one instruction in Kindergarten for the entire year? Instead she found herself sitting in the first grade and behind. She would now be behind forever. I felt her anger and frustration as I read. She could not do the work. Outburst and misbehavior was the only thing that rewarded her with attention. She shut down on academics. I have been there in algebra in highschool. Individualized attention and tutoring would have helped. Being behind and frustrated is no joke. It became impossible to do the homework and classwork. I was angry and miserable. My teacher told me in front of the class that I had a mental block. Did Laura feel hopeless and angry? I'm sure she did. Eventually she found attention through being a good girl even though she was still very far behind. She found her attention and reward in this tactic now.
I again wonder if with an environment change early in her life if she would have been more academically and emotionally sound?
Comments (2)
As I reflect on my experiences as a fourth grade teacher, I think about all the students, with very "similar" socioeconomic backgrounds, who have sat in my classroom. I am really starting to see them in a different light. Over the years, I have had students whose parents would send a note almost every Friday giving permission for their child to go home with another child. In addition, I have had quite a number of students who were being raised by grandparents or other family members, and one year I had four students whose parents were all separating at about the same time. All these factors affected the discourses of these children. I have always known these factors affected children's home lives, but I never realized just how much they would impact their academic performance. While you and I may view these children's families as dysfunctional, I agree that "this is all they know. "It's part of who they are." In education, there is so much to consider. Hearing Laurie's story will make me examine those "good" children a little more closely in the future.
Posted by Holly Lawson | June 27, 2011 3:15 PM
Posted on June 27, 2011 15:15
Growing up in upstate New York in a nonreligious family, I had an extremely different experience growing up from both you and Hicks. I appreciate you sharing your experiences because I am learning a lot about what it’s like to grow up as a girl in the south. I also wholeheartedly agree with your questioning of what happened to Laurie. There were so many factors in just her home life outside of school that could have influenced the direction that she took. Her ADHD diagnosis could have been a direct effect of some of those home issues. This just further highlights the need for us as teachers to understand the whole student, where they come from as well well as who they are when they’re in our classroom.
Posted by Kim Strzelecki | June 27, 2011 7:51 PM
Posted on June 27, 2011 19:51