RES 5530: Race, Class, and Gender in Literacy Research (Spring 2009)

From the beginning of the section, I was very intrigued by the reading. The 1917 Speech Week Pledge immediately put thoughts of Stepford wives in my head, with its insisting that people “speak pleasantly.” Then I started to think about what today’s version of that 1917 pledge might look like. It would definitely have to be amended. Instead of just “no yehs or uh-hums,” it would have to include a section on no “LOLs, IDKs, or any other messaging lingo.” Since the dawn of text messaging, these abbreviations and others are constantly being included in the vocabulary of today’s youth. This is one of things that separates my generation from the generation that I teach.

One constant theme that I discovered throughout the reading was the idea that a person can happily exist with two (or three) “languages,” and educators should encourage, rather than insult, a person’s “home” language. Without an appreciation for their students’ identity, a teacher can never fully reach that child--in effect, they cannot encourage them to learn “proper” English. Children will never forget the language that they most identity with. As the reading suggests, we must make school an inviting place for children. I thought that it was fascinating that the author intertwined hair into the Middle School curriculum. There’s probably no better way to reach the kids than through cosmetics.

Language, as mentioned in previous posts, has a way of connecting a culture of people. Have you ever been to a restaurant and sat next to a group of Hispanics (for example) that spoke very good English to the waiter, but immediately switched back to Spanish when addressing each other? Until now, I don’t think that I fully understood why. Their language sets them apart from everyone else. It allows them to connect with each other in a way that I can’t relate to. This same phenomenon happens with children in school. Whether they are speaking Ebonics, Spanish, or Mandarin, their language allows them to identify with a group. Even when Carter Forshay got his fourth grade class to write a story, within it were elements of their vernacular (“dissin,” for example).

Before reading Judith Baker’s essay, I had never considered the idea of “trilingualism.” It is absolutely true! For example, an educator uses jargon on a daily basis that the majority of the world would not understand--PEPs, ASD, EOGs, EC, IEP, AYP, just to name a few. However, are kids supposed to learn their “technical” language while still in school? As a Senior in High School, I had no idea what I wanted to do as an adult (much less in Middle School). The way that high schools track kids is a little upsetting. The majority of these kids have no clue what profession they want to enter.

The story of Donny and Jenny was very upsetting for me. I couldn’t imagine growing up with parents who could not read and write. As sad as it is, I have heard several teachers react to parents in the same respect that Jenny was treated. Although she was correct that Donny should have been held back, they ignored her because of her Appalachia dialect. A lot of teachers think that kids who do not speak proper English have no chance of succeeding in school. But, as Victoria Purcell-Gates pointed out, even upper middle class kids do not talk like they write. She explained that learning how to talk in church, school, or court comes with experience, just like knowing how to write a letter, story, or book report. Honestly, this completely changed the way that I thought about kids and their ability to learn. The reason that middle and upper class kids knew more about reading than Donny, was the fact that they had experience with it. They knew that a person’s mouth moved when they read aloud. They knew that a person read left to right. The reason that Donny was not proficient, was because he had no experience with literacy. I think that more teachers need to realize why some students are not as successful. Instead of just giving up and accepting that they will fail, they need to demand success.

Heather Coe