It’s a Sunday afternoon at my Grandparents’ house. We sit on the front porch, sip on lemonade or sweet tea and chat about the latest small town gossip. My aunt, a woman who has obtained her Ph. D in Molecular Biology, my grandpa, who repairs car bodies for a living and who never finished the 8th grade, my grandmother, who worked odd jobs her entire life and is now the owner of a greenhouse, and me, a 1st year graduate student and 2nd year elementary school teacher all have one thing in common: our roots. I find it tough sometimes to sit down with that side of the family and have a “full on” conversation. I reflect back on the idea of “discourse” and how everyone who is literate, in Hicks’ eyes, has been shaped this way culturally and socially not necessarily academically.
Going back to our Sunday afternoon conversation, of all of the topics that my family and I can discuss, it seems that gossip and small talk, if you will, are two topics that are applicable to all of us. Although we have all grown up and lived in the small town atmosphere, we have all had different life experiences that have shaped us in some way or some how. My grandpa can tell you anything you’d ever want to know about repairing a car’s body. He can describe each and every detail and process that it takes to carefully prepare a car for priming, sanding and painting. On the other hand, my grandmother could make anything in your garden grow. She is a “green thumb” with her head constantly in a gardening magazine, or sharing stories with other gardening enthusiasts at local markets or greenhouses. She shares the best advice for how to rescue every plant imaginable. As for my aunt, she can discuss how to regenerate the tissue of a kidney or other organs in the human abdomen. She’ll share her thoughts on the ethical procedures of why businesses complete these tasks and will have a very valid argument for her discussion. And I can bring my knowledge of teaching to the table. I could share some of the topics that we’ve discussed from this class. In a nutshell, we all have important things to say, and it might not always make sense to everyone else in the conversation, but our culture, backgrounds and the “shifting location or identity” that was described on page 21 plays such a huge role in the way that we share our experiences.
To apply this to a classroom setting, I would like to share a story from my 2nd year of teaching. I had a student this year that had a PEP (Personal Education Plan) written for her by a teacher in 08/09. As I reviewed her PEP, I noticed it was written because she did not use proper grammar when she spoke. I remembered this in the back of my mind as I began to observe her in the classroom, and realized that in my opinion, her PEP was written for a cultural difference, not necessarily an academic quality. Her patterns of speech were reflective of Ebonics. Now that I have read through other articles such as the “Ovah Dyah” I can really think about and relate how I need to embrace these differences in speech patterns, not necessarily correct them. I feel like this instance falls under the idea of her speech being “labeled” and not appreciated. If I applied Hicks’ ideas to this situation, I feel that the justification of this students’ pattern of speech reflects her culture, her upbringing and her background. This pattern of speech also crosses over into her writing. I saw this emerge primarily in free journaling time, and never tried to correct her grammar. I suppose that I am lucky enough to have the opportunity to study about research and reasons why a student can bring so much cultural based ideas to the table.
Renee Hennings June 21, 2010
Comments (2)
Renee,
Thank you providing the example of you and your family members trying to have a conversation by finding a common topic. When I was writing my post, I was trying to convey the same idea in one section, but I wasn't really satisfied with what I wrote and felt that I wasn't getting the point across. Your description of having the commonality of small talk and gossip with a diverse group of family members is exactly what I was trying to get at when talking about my experiences in having conversations with people from my hometown. In Greensboro, I feel I can converse with others who are of a similar mindset and can talk of other things besides the weather, gossip, etc.
Clyde Rice
Posted by Clyde Rice | June 21, 2010 12:25 PM
Posted on June 21, 2010 12:25
Renee, I had an upbringing similar to yours. My great grandmother, grandmother, and great aunt worked in the cotton mills. They had no more then an eighth grade education. My mother is a nursing administrator and my father, whose mother was a nurse's assistant, is a mortician. I guess, like you, I have had a taste of both worlds. I wonder if that's why it's easy for me to adjust my social discourse to many different situations. For example, last night I was sitting on the front porch stringing green beans like I'd done a hundred times as a child. I was talking about the weather and the fate of my few tomato plants. The night before, I was drinking Pinot Grigio and discussing the decline of public education with fellow colleagues. I was equally comfortable in both situationss. I often question why more students can't do this and the only determining factor that I feel they are missing is the experience. Could it be that students need to be put in different social situations in order to create new discourse? Or should they just have the experiences in order to re-shape their existing discourses? These questions all deal with social discourses, but, I find the literary discourses much more challenging. When dealing with literary discourses you have to know each of your students completely in order to make allowances for these discourses. That is one tall order.
Posted by Sally Elliott | June 21, 2010 3:03 PM
Posted on June 21, 2010 15:03