Summative Self-Critique-Candace Barnes
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.
Michel Foucault
When reading over the quotes at the beginning of the semester, even before knowing I had to choose one to write about, this one by Michel Foucault spoke to me. Through this course I have been made me realize how important it is to continuously consider different views, beliefs, and values of others and to steer clear of close-minded thinking. The goal in life is to always strive to learn something new and enjoy what may come along with it.
Throughout this class I have grown and am on my way to becoming the woman I want to become. My eyes have been opened to the way different cultures are viewed in schools, along with the communities that they are a part of, down to viewing my own life as it is now. As a teacher I need to know the issues that cultures or minorities face on a daily basis. Most importantly, how it will affect them as people who are experiencing life like everyone else. More times than not, it seems as if they have to carry more “baggage” than the rest. The readings that opened my eyes most were those that I read by Noll, “Experiencing literacy in and out of school: Case studies of two American Indian youth,” Perry, “From storytelling to writing: Transforming literacy practices among Sudanese Refugees” and Reading Lives: Working-Class Children and Literacy Learning by Deborah Hicks.
Briefly, I will highlight why these selections spoke to me as they did. Beginning with Noll, “Experiencing literacy in and out of school: Case studies of two American Indian youth,” I learned much about the American Indian community and how they view school or others view them at school. What I remember most of this text is how teachers did not interact with these students as they did with the majority population. As a teacher I just cannot understand how another teacher could allow their own student to slip away through the cracks of their own hands! I am always trying to be in my students “business.” I want to know everything about them. What makes them happy, what makes them sad or extremely ticked off (this is good to know working in the middle schools), what their interests and hobbies are, etc. Without knowing such things how can I expect them to succeed? The last thing I hope for are my students thinking school is a job that they go to five days out of a week, where they do mindless and senseless work. Those teachers should have seen what they do outside of school and then they would have seen their students as anything BUT lazy American Indian youth. I would call the teacher lazy for not taking the time to care. Also, while reading I continually reflected back to the book, Curely, my professor, James Bryant, wrote of his own Native American family. Going to his class was like not going to class at all. Through his class I began to value the learned and unlearned things of life.
Second, I want to discuss Perry, “From storytelling to writing: Transforming literacy practices among Sudanese Refugees.” Throughout this entire reading my heart ached for this group of people. I know they do not want us feeling sorry for them, intead they want us fight for change. I cannot imagine having my heritage and everything I am stripped from me, yet alone my people’s assistance. Reading this made me think of how I always want to me that kid sitting at grandpa’s feet listening to stories that have been passed down throughout generations, along with the new ones. I still chuckle when hearing of my grandpa’s moon-shinning business, even though I have heard it a million times. But, I also cherish the ones that tell of life’s struggles and over comings. For the Sudanese people they have had to change who they are and how they tell stories which were only told among the communities/culture in which they lived. By being separated from family and elders they now have no way of passing stories down, except through a way that is still foreign to them—writing. I am not sure of others, but this makes me value family and stories that are passed down even more.
Lastly, I want to touch on Reading Lives: Working-Class Children and Literacy Learning. In a way I am comparing my life to Hick’s. Reading how she grew up singing Jesus loves me, coloring pictures scenes depicted out of the Bible, attending Vacation Bible School, growing up in a small town, and how you have to be a “good” girl or else, sounds a lot like my own life. Many times throughout life I have questioned what is right and wrong? Are the things my parents told about really the only right or wrong way? Until college and the man I am married today, I never really questioned things. I just did whatever made them happy. But why live if you are not going to figure things out for yourself? Is it really worth going through the motions to make others happy? No, it is definitely anything but that. What many parents do not realize in these small southern towns is that you cannot mold your children to be little mini-me’s. They have to allow for risk to be taken, along with failure so that children can become who they are supposed to be. They have to find their “discourse” in this world.
I have realized that sometimes the closest you ever get to the absolute truth is by considering the things that you have learned in seeking that truth. I have truly enjoyed reading text that are typically out of my comfort zone, forcing me to view things as a “certain” other does. Without that we would never know how others think and feel about anything.