When I first began reading this article all I could think was how bad I felt for these people. The fact that Noll had to go before a committee simply to work with these students. I was also shocked by the sentence, “some of the parents expressed concern about the term literacy, which they regarded almost as a euphemism for illiteracy” (Noll) I was bothered by the fact that a group of parents could view the two the same way. As I read though I realized that neither Daniel nor Zonnie were unintelligent students. I still don’t understand why Daniel never turned in his homework or why Zonnie didn’t have better grades. The only thing I could think of was that Daniel and Zonnie did view school as a job. I grew up in a home where there was a large emphasis put on school work so I can’t relate to a family putting as much emphasis on other activities such as a powwow or music. As I continued to read I couldn’t help but think that this article could have been written about any number or races, genders, and socio-economic classes. Students in high school are trying to find themselves and figure out where they belong and who they are. Anyone who has gone through high school, especially if they were a minority, could probably relate. We were probably all be much more interested in literature that pertained to our interest or heritage and we probably put forth more effort in areas that we felt a connection with. I do think that there are obviously a number of prejudices in our minds about Native Americans in terms of their intelligence, but as far as the article is concerned you could do the same type of research in just about any area where there are high school students who are in some way a minority. In fact I would think that the research was more legitimate if Noll had gone and conducted this study with African American students, Hispanic students, Asian students, and then written this report.
Katie Templeton
Comments (4)
I agree with most of what you said. I do feel this study could've been done on any number of different groups of students. I also was confused by the facts that Donnie didn't complete his work and that Zonnie didn't have better grades. I took the statement about how the parents view literacy/illiteracy in a different way, though. I think these words are not familiar enough to the parents for them to be able to differentiate between the two. They sound similar, especially to people who have a "first language" different than English. I could be wrong...it's just my interpretation of the statement.
Marsha Warren
Posted by Marsha Warren | June 9, 2010 11:28 PM
Posted on June 9, 2010 23:28
I agree with your curiousity about the family placing more emphasis on a powwow than on schooling. I, too, came from a family where a great deal of energy was focused on school. But as I pondered this, I came to the conclusion that maybe the emphasis we place on education is a cultural thing?
Posted by Sarah Hutson | June 10, 2010 8:33 AM
Posted on June 10, 2010 08:33
Sarah -
Is the emphasis Daniel's parents put on pow-wows any different than the emphasis some of our rural county parents put on football? I think they are one in the same.
Posted by Jennifer Wagoner | June 10, 2010 9:25 AM
Posted on June 10, 2010 09:25
I felt the same way as I read I even ask some of these questions at the end of my critique. I read how the parents were putting forth much greater emphasis on their cultural events than they did when it came to school work. Why was it not addressed when Daniel did not do his homework. Why did Zonnie’s talents go unencouraged without her teacher helping her to make a connection between improving her school studies, and how this could help her become a better writer? This was a huge miss by her teacher.
I also agree that this particular research study could have been performed using other races of people with very similar results.
Posted by Tracy Icenhour | June 10, 2010 7:55 PM
Posted on June 10, 2010 19:55