RES 5535: Race, Class, and Gender in Literacy Research (summer 2010)

By Christy Findley
When I first started reading the articles and listening to M. Obama, I was sort of offended. I am southern and not african american, but the articles made it seem as if the two are synonomous. I speak southern and I am not african american. I understood what was being said about the mother and grandmother trying to get her to speak properly. I also understood how that made her feel. However, I think in the long run, it was a benefit for her life. She is a published author. I feel the same way about what Michelle Obama went through. I think it is a shame that her friends made fun of her, but I think for any person to make it in a professional arena (white, black, yellow), he or she has to be able to speak proper English when it is appropriate.
When I was in high school, I had a teacher who always told us "you are what other people think you are." It offended a lot of people, but he explained it well. He said you can wear long hair, leather, have tatoos, whatever you want. You can be whatever you want. But in life, your job, livelihood, spouse, and treatment in public will be based on how others view you. So you can look like an outcast or hoodlum, but don't get offended when people treat you like you are. I think this also applies to how we speak. When we are with our friends, we can talk like they talk, but when we are at church or on the job, we must speak how it is expected. Or don't be upset by the consequences.
I don't remember ever thinking that I sounded strange or ignorant. I always did well in school and could write well with good grammar and syntax. The year I graduated from high school, I took a trip with a friend to San Diego. We visited the sister of a friend and her family laughed and laughed at the way we talked. I asked for "ice" in a restuarant and her husband cracked up because he said I asked for "ass". It was an eye opening experience. It was the first time I began to worry about sounding ignorant. It was the beginning of my OCDness with language. I will listen to my principle on the intercom or the student teacher in my classroom and hear every grammatical mistake they make or every mispronunciation. It makes me cringe because I think it makes them sound unintelligent even though I know they are not.
In my first grade classroom, we do phonics of course. We often discuss how we say things and how they are supposed to sound by their spellings. We say "fawn" and it is "phone" with a long o sound. We say "hin" and it is "hen" with a short e sound. My kids find these discussions interesting, funny, and it often helps them learn the spellings that we, as southerners, find hard to "sound out". We do the same thing with noun-verb usage. For instance, in the south, we say "I seen it" but we should say "I saw it". We just discuss those kinds of things so they know the correct way, but we don't say negative things about how our parents or grandparents talk.
In my school, there are almost no ELL children, so my frame of reference for that area is limited. However, I learned about code switching long ago. I think it is very easy for children to learn which "language" to use when. I think it is easy for the same reasons it is easier for children to learn a second or third language than it is for adults. My own children talk differently with their friends than they do with me or their teachers. Even as an adult, I do not speak with my professors or boss, the same way that I speak with my family or friends.
I think I would be able to relate more to these articles if I taught high school or middle school. First graders just don't struggle much with these issues. I am just beginning to touch on these issues with my own children. My oldest son has begun to use phrases that I don't understand or don't like. Some I let slide, others I do not. He and his friends say "that is so gay" and I have told him he is not allowed to say that. They also say "what the?!" which I don't like but I let it slide. I want to let him express himself within reason and without prejudice.
Christy Findley