There are times in life when the question of knowing if one can think differently than one thinks, and perceive differently than one sees, is absolutely necessary if one is to go on looking and reflecting at all.
Michael Foucault
This quote really speaks to me because to be a good teacher, that is what we have to do. We have to be able to see things from our students’ points of view. We have to be able look at things through our students’ eyes. I have always held close to the idea that our experiences color our perspective of things. I think most of our readings really underline that. We all have our own little worlds, experiences, biases that make it difficult for us to imagine there is a world outside of our immediate world. One of my friends once said that she was shocked when she talked to her mother in Michigan and heard about all the snow her mother had in Michigan when we were having weather in the 70s. She said, “I keep forgetting that the whole world isn’t getting Catawba County weather.”
I think we all have moments like that, and not just about the weather or what it looks like outside our window. It is difficult for us to put ourselves in another person’s place. I do not teach at a school whose students have backgrounds similar to mine. My school has a population of students from lower-socio economic/working-class families. Most of the students represent minority racial groups. Most of the students have parents whose highest level of education is high school though not all completed high school. A majority of our students come from single parent homes.
As a white female who grew up in a middle class family and who has parents who have been married to each other for over 40 years, while I might be able to understand how and why they do certain things, I will never be able to truly understand how they feel. I do not know how it feels to wonder where my father is, or if I am going to be able to eat during the weekends, or if the power is going to be turned off when I get home from school in February. I do not know how it feels to have to wear the same clothes three days in a row, or to not have the medication I need, or how it feels to go visit a parent in prison.
The readings did emphasize that most parents love and want what is best for their children. They might not always know the best way to go about making sure their children d what they need to do. What is valued by families – the amount of education, language, literacy, culture – varies not just from race to race or culture to culture, but family to family.
As teachers we have to bridge the gap between home and school. We have to be willing to get to know our students not just as students, but as members of their families. We have to be willing to go to their homes if their parents will not come to school. Not all parents feel comfortable coming or are able to come into schools for whatever reason – whether it is their own bad experiences in school settings, or their work schedule – so we have to be willing to come to them. At my school we say, “If you feed them they will come,” and we have put that into practice for parent meeting by offering pizza.
Even before I became and ELL teacher, I learned about other cultures. I had to learn about these cultures in order to be an effective teacher at my school. So many people think of culture as food, dances, and clothes, when it is so much more. Culture is history, tradition, literacy, education, and so much more. The readings really emphasized the need, the importance of looking outside of myself, my world, my comfort zone and to try to see school and the world from their point of view. We have to know that as educators we can have such a profound effect on the way our students and their families view education and school. If we can welcome them and make them feel safe and comfortable it can have an impact on not only their performance in school but their futures as adults.
Going outside of your comfort zone is not an easy thing for any of us, but for a child it is terrifying. School is outside their comfort zone for many of our students and their families. We have to make sure that children see themselves in the literature and images that we have in our classrooms.
Children know if they really matter to you. They can tell if you are just saying the words or if you really mean them. Adults are a whole lot easier to fool about that sort of thing than children are. If you take the time to learn about students, their families, and cultures they will know that you truly care about them.
We can learn a lot from our students and they can learn a lot from each other. One thing we do is to talk about traditions they have in their families – whether it is going to Grandma’s house every Sunday, or attending Hmong New Year celebrations, or attending Las Posadas, or even birthday parties, dance recitals, and/or ballgames.
The idea of “trilingualism” was not new to me while the term was. We have long known at my school that the language/grammar we us at school is different from the language/grammar most of our students use at home. We have been teaching our students the idea of code switching. I tell them that it is just like the way I talk to them is not the way I talk to my mother or my friends, and the way I talk to my friends is not the way I talk to my principal. We have a teacher who “grew up rough” who explained this concept to our staff a decade ago because of our population of students.
Some of the readings were difficult to understand and I found myself having to reread certain sections because I had no idea what I had just read. Some of the readings taxed me and I there were times I had to put it down and come back later. I hate that I started off behind due to technological issues, but I did get caught up and learned a lot. I would have liked to have met at least once so that we could have real conversations on this subject and about the readings. All in all I am very happy that I took the course and did learn a lot.
I saw many of the children I work with or know from school – former and current students – in the children in the readings. They come to us with rich, colorful histories and stories to tell. We must allow them to share and to teach us and each other. We must do what we can to make sure each child gets the education he or she needs, the education he or she will embrace and the one that will help the child grow. I hope as I enter the 2009-2010 school year, I can take the readings and what I have learned from them, to be a better teacher and to help my colleagues be better teachers. Our students deserve that.
Caroline Walker