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

I'm going to be honest, this book is hard to read. I am struggling to follow. I really don't like how chapters 1 and 2 go from researcher to researcher! I am having to write them down just to keep them straight along with what they do. I am glad that Hicks has researched the children of the working class families. "The voices of people around me, the soothing rhythms of rural small-town speech, also became part of girlhood identity and imagination..." I think to be a great researcher you have to reflect on your own life! Hick's does just that where as many others lack such reflection.

Nearly every child that I teach comes from families just as these! I myself was one of them. Although it took my dad years of hard work and starting his own business he has helped family to go far. So far he has sent both my mom and I to college and currently has one enrolled. But, considering I live in a rural area (really small town) this was not uncommon. Therefore, teachers knew how to cater to their "students" needs. More than likely those teachers had come from the same family. Because of this I feel that I can be a better teacher to my students.

Before reading Deborah Hick's book I had never heard of the word "discourse." Thanks to Dr. Jackson's podcast the meaning of this word was clarified. But it is so true how we transition from discourse to discourse. I never really thought of having a discourse for church, school, work, family, community, and military. The military life really stuck out in my head when thinking of discourse. Being an Marine Officers wife makes a woman do a lot of "role-playing." I am not saying that I change who I am, but I definitely have to act a certain way. Also, I have a certain way I must speak to others and or can't speak with at all. Personally, I don't like the rules that can come with that because I don't view anyone as better or lesser than another. But, as Dr. Jackson had said in the podcast, "powers shift between each place." For children, our students, it is crucial that we incorporate every being of their culture into their not only their literacy, but their entire education.

While reading of Hick's observations among different children I was blown away! I could not believe how some of the children were allowed to act. The children I am talking about are Lee Ann and Jake and Sean and Terry. As gender does play a huge role in how people act, you can definitely see that the adults played the key role in how these children were to act. I can't believe Lee Ann was encouraged to go "jump" on Jake while in the box. I believe in children taking up for themselves but I feel there are more appropriate ways of doing so. But what really took me by surprise was the story of the boys in preschool, Terry and Sean. It is quiet obvious that those two have seen and heard their fathers acting this way towards women. I myself have seen this first hand among some of my students. But, I just really can't say I would have handled that situation as that teacher did. It was fine how she tried to blow it off at first as if they were only joking, but the comments just got worse. In this situation the teacher could have been the difference in the those young boys lives and showed them that because of your gender, boy or girl, does not make you better. More importantly, the children should not speak like that to adults, yet alone know to say those things! I guess the two discourse with home and school where combined seeing as if it didn't really matter what they said. I bet at home they can say things like that without getting in trouble.