Let Change Begin With Me
“ 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.”
When I first signed up for this course, I had no idea what to expect. The very word, “research” sent shivers down my spine. There was no way that I was able to anticipate the changes that would occur within me throughout this class. Beginning with the first reading, “Ovah, Dyuh” and “No Kinda Sense” my mind started the process of going through what I thought I knew versus what I had no clue about. I was raised a middle class white girl. My parents taught me to accept everyone for who they were and that no one was any better than anyone else. I thought I knew everything I needed to know about other cultures, races and gender to accept the various needs of my students. What an eye opener! Accepting these differences and understanding how these differences affect those of other cultures, races and genders as it affects literacy learning are two different animals. Getting involved in the lives of these people through the readings was a very intense process for me. I was able to somewhat feel what they were feeling, walk in their shoes so to speak even if only for a few steps. These readings were powerful, full of hope and dignity. The Lost Boys gained tremendous strides in their literacy journey by simply transforming their storytelling for the purpose of keeping their culture alive and to tell the world about the injustices occurring in their country. Daniel and Zonnie just struggled to be who they were while trying to fit into a society that was strange to them. Jake and Laurie had a wealth of successes where they came from but oh how difficult it was to mesh their home life with the demands of the middle class school setting.
The most important thing I will come away with when this class in finished is the tremendous need to know where the students in my class come from. This involves knowing the parents, finding out about their belief system, what’s important to their culture, their family and especially to them. How can I understand why one child reacts a certain way in a situation at school or why he feels a certain way about something he encounters at school if I’m not willing to take a risk, to dig deep and truly understand everything I possibly can about a child? What a challenge that will be but one I feel will have a huge pay off in the long run. I will be an advocate, a mentor, an understanding and caring individual that will strive to help these sometimes “lost children” to find their way, a means to express themselves .
Having been made aware of the many varying forms of literacy, I will diligently try to find the ones that enable my students to express who they are and what they are feeling, to build on what they know and where they come from and are comfortable with, helping them to feel like they truly belong in school, and are indeed a vital part of the literacy process within them. Did this child come from Roadville or Trackton, a world of princesses or a world of poverty. If we are to make a difference in the literacy learning of our students, everything matters.
Literacy involves so much more than simply reading and writing. Storytelling, Art and music are powerful forms of literacy that might just reach those hard to reach children we meet everyday in our classrooms. Heath states that, “ Conflict occurs, however, when the ways with words of communities and classrooms differ to the point that school language practices are unfamiliar, foreign to children at the margin of middle class instructional structures.” This quote could apply to any of the wonderful people we have met in our readings. We have to help make the conflict “less” by using what we have learned to bridge the gap. As Foucault says we must think and perceive differently to be able to go on looking and reflecting. In the mirror of my life, change must begin with me—to help one child at a time to bridge the gap, to be able to succeed in all the many discourses they will encounter every day, to become all they can be despite any obstacles they may encounter.
Linda Bohland