“The way s of living, eating, sleeping, worshiping, using space, and filling time which surrounded these language learners would have to be accounted for as part of the milieu in which the processes of language learning took place” (22). This sentence sums up what most of the reading was about. Children come to school with a lot of learning already done. They have a way of doing things and saying things and understanding things that may not be the way that others in school are comfortable with. Children learn a lot about literacy in this sense before they ever enter a classroom or open a book. They are socialized into the values and beliefs of their culture and everything they face thereafter is affected by this socialization. The reading also mentioned the idea of shifting locations and moving between discourses. This idea reminded me of the Delpit article we read about code switching, which is to use the appropriate way of speaking with the appropriate audience. This shifting between discourses seems to be much the same but to a greater degree. Switching discourses seems to include much more than language but also beliefs and values. After considering this reading on socialization and culture and the way children express literacy, I can’t help but wonder a few things: Isn’t it part of teaching to socialize children? And if so, whose cultural reality are we socializing them to? Is this detrimental or beneficial?
The other part of this reading that stuck out to me was the, although it was difficult to understand, was on page seventeen. The author is discussing Code’s work and he says that “a practice that locates itself on the “rough ground” suggest alternatives to learners marching, like good soldiers, toward independent mastery”. This seems to imply to me that if we are considering literacy to be all of the things included above then we cannot expect uniform mastery to happen in our classrooms. Things will not happen for every child at the same time, and mastery may not look the same for every child. How we make this happen in a classroom: I have NO idea. But, I do like the individuality that is considered for each child and the acknowledgement of the background they are bringing to the school experience.
I would like to make one last comment on Jake and Lee Ann and their fight in the yard. I was shocked by the reaction of the mother and grandmother, and to me this proved much of what this reading said to be true. I was not socialized in that way, and I do not understand why you would allow a small child to take revenge. However, it opened my eyes a bit to the notion that some of my students may have been socialized in this way. That leads me to consider how these children might react to discipline or teasing by peers in the school setting. I, or other teachers, may think a child is acting out when they are simply doing what they were taught to do!
Shannon Keough