Sunday, February 21, 2010

Aria-Richard Rodriquez

  • "Without question, it would have pleased me to hear my teachers address me in Spanish when I entered the classroom. I would have felt much less afraid. I would have trusted them and responded with ease. But I would have delayed--for how long postponed?--having to learn the language of public society. I would have evaded--and for how long could I have afforded to delay?--learning the greatest lesson of school, that I had a public identity."
Being a Spanish-speaking student in the American school system, it must have been difficult and nerve-racking to try to learn in an Americanized setting. But what Rodriguez recognizes is that while he might have liked and felt more comfortable with Spanish speaking teachers, it would not have benefited him as much in the long run. He needed to learn the Engish language fast and efficiently if the goal was for him to be able to survive in an English -speaking country, which I assume the goal ultimately was since his parents moved them to America. In this way, Rodriguez and his siblings were thrust into the world of English.

  • "But I couldn't believe that the English language was mine to use. (In part, I did not want to believe it.)"


Rodriguez did not feel a proper connection between his Spanish heritage and the American world in which his parents had brought them to live. He knows and feels ownership over his Spanish identity. It is a comfort zone that he and his family share with each other. So he expects to embrace his Spanish culture and to live within the parameters that encompass it. However, he does not feel so comfortable with an English identity and he does not understand how he can come to own a part of an English identity when it seems not to belong to him. He may feel like an outsider to the English world. But most of all I think he is just afraid to embrace something new, especially if it may mean turning away from his beloved Spanish heritage.

  • "Again and again in the days following, increasingly angry, I was obliged to hear my mother and father: 'Speak to us en ingles' (Speak.) Only then did I determine to learn the classroom English."
Rodriguez did not like hearing his parents request for them to speak in English. He may have been trying to retain the familiarity that they had between each other using Spanish to communicate. He also probably wanted to keep the two worlds that he was living in separated-English from Spanish. But finally his parents stated to impress upon him the importance of him learning English; clearly this is what they wanted for him. This also brings up another important point, that it wasn't until after his parents starting stressing the importance of learning English that Rodriguez finally decided that he was going to learn it. This shows how very important it is for parents to support what their children are learning in school. This is what helps the children to actually want to learn.


Rodriguez's piece was not a difficult piece to read, but it held a certain insight into how multicultural children learn. It seems as though the children have a certain resentment to learning a new language because they are reluctant to give up their own private language in which their family shares their intimate feelings with each other. They are afraid to lose that special bond that they share as a close-knit family. This article especially illustrates how even more important it is for the parents of these children to get involved in their education in order to help them learn in a more efficient way. Not everything can be pressed upon the teacher. There has to be a cooperation between the school and home settings in order for the children gain the most out of their education.






Sunday, February 14, 2010

Amazing Grace-Jonathan Kozol




  • "The 600,000 people who live here and the 450,000 people who live in Washington Heights and Harlem, which are separated from the South Bronx by a narrow river, make up one of the largest racially segregated concentrations of poor people in our nation. Brook Avenue, which is the tenth stop on the local, lies in the center of Mott Haven, whose 48,000 people are the poorest in the South Bronx. Two thirds are Hispanic, one third black." ~p.3
    This is a huge population of extremely poor people. It is mind-boggling that so many people in the United States can be so poor. What ever happened to the American dream? What are the factors that add up to these people being so poor and having to live in such terrible conditions? And it's even more intriguing that at such a level of poverty there is still segregation. Is it segregated because they are poor? Does this prove Johnson's theory of white privilege and power in that the majority of people living in poverty seem to be nonwhite?
  • "Depression is common among children in Mott Haven. Many cry a great deal but cannot explain exactly why. Fear and anxiety are common. Many cannot sleep." ~p.4
It is one thing for an adult to be poor and struggling, but it is a completely different ballpark when it concerns children. Children are born innocent and have no control over the world in which they are raised. It is very unsettling to know some of the conditions in which these poor children grow up. It is these underprivileged children whom it is most important to educate. For without an education, how can they ever hope to escape from the hell within which they are forced to live? This links directly to Delpit's point about white teachers needing to understand the differences between the children they teach in order to effectively educate them. A white teacher from a suburban neighborhood could not walk into a school in the South Bronx and use the exact same teaching methods and expect to deliver a quality education to the students there. These children need to be understood and to be shown compassion in order to reach them at a level that can affect them in a positive way.

  • "The pastor tells me that the place is known as "Children's Park." Volunteers arrive here twice a week to give out condoms and clean needles to addicted men and women, some of whom bring their children with them. The children play near the bears or on a jungle gym while their mothers wait for needles." ~p.12

I can't even begin to describe how sad and disgusted I felt when I read this. I think the sentence pretty much speaks for itself. Children should not be subjected to such conditions ever. Children who are brought up in such a way are automatically at a disadvantage in terms of living in a white-privileged society and learning or knowing the codes of this society. Delpit argues that children need to be taught the rules of the culture of power, but how can children who are brought up in this 'other world' be taught the rules of middle class white society?


This article turned out to be very difficult to read, not in terms of vocabulary or my ability to comprehend the material, but because of the horrifying graphic descriptions of the violence and conditions of the neighborhoods described. When I started reading it, I got about one and a half pages in and then I had to stop. I just could not keep reading about all those terrible things that had happened. I didn't want to read it. Eventually I got through the entire article, but not without being emotionally affected. After I finished the reading, I was unsure about how it related to education or any of the topics we'd covered in class. I mean, it was a good reality check about the real and devastating conditions in which many poor children are living in. But I still couldn't figure out how that could be linked directly to issues of education. Then I started writing this and I started to see some connections.
In the beginning of the article Kozol talks about one of the poorest neighborhoods in the nation, made up entirely hispanics and blacks, no white people. So there is segregation not only in middle-class America, but in the most impoverished communities as well. Or is the reason why there are no white people there because of the privileged aspects of the white race according to Johnson?
The conditions of these children growing up in the poorest neighborhoods are bound to have an effect on the education of the children. Many of these children have home lives that are not only not conducive to learning but often unstable. According to Delpit, it would be their teachers' responsibility to teach them all not just the normal curriculum, but also the codes of the privileged white society. But how can these children learn such skills when they can barely walk down the street without getting shot?

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

A Little About Me

My name is C'Sondra and I'm from Woonsocket, RI. This is my second year at RIC studying chemistry for secondary education. It's been and continues to be a challenge so most of my time is spent trying to understand calculus and physics and doing other homework. When I do get free time I hang out with my girls from Suite K! I like to read and sing, and just have fun! I am in the RIC Programming crew. We plan a ton of events for RIC students that are all free! Our latest event was RIC Idol, which was a success! So check out some of our events! :)

The best thing about this past summer is that I got a new baby sister in addition to a 18 yr old brother and a 8 yr old sister. She's now 9 months old and the most beautiful baby I've ever seen! I'm new to this whole blogging thing, but it seems to be pretty simple and perhaps useful. I think I'm going to enjoy this FNED class.