Teaching Bilinguals

 The two articles this week have two differing views on the same topic, and come from very different perspectives and places of power. The first article, "Aria" is a fascinating glimpse into the thoughts of "Richard"/"Ricardo" a man who remembers his youth as a Spanish speaking child of immigrants who is lost and overwhelmed at his English speaking school. The teacher sees his lack of progress and speak with his parents to convince them to begin speaking English at home to help their children succeed in school and life outside of their tight family community. The family follows their advice and Richard sees changes wrought because of their chosen assimilation. It is confusing and difficult, but ultimately he thinks he was better prepared for the world because of this choice his family made. 

"...But the bilingualists simplistically scorn the value and necessity of assimilation...they do not realize that while one suffers a diminished sense of private individuality by becoming assimilated into public society, such assimilation makes possible the achievement of public individuality"

This quote reminds me of Lisa Delpit's article which pointed out the frustrations of those within the system being told the "right way" to do things by predominantly white academics who would "listen, they don't hear". Richard offers his perspective as a learner that he needed to leave his Spanish behind, and follow the example of his parents to welcome the English language into their home lives. 

The second article was a very direct article to guide teachers who are teaching Multilingual children. The recommendations were:

1. Be aware that children use 1st Language acquisition strategies for acquiring a second language.

2. Don't consider yourself a remedial teacher.

3. Don't seek of challenge of eliminate the first language.

4. Teach standard English

5. Don't forbid code-switching.

6. Provide literary development specifically for English Language Learners.

7. Provide a balanced and integrated approach using all 4 skill areas: listening, speaking, reading and writing.

The conflict I see, is between 2 well meaning ideals: multiculturalism and assimilation. Multiculturalism may ignore the idea Lisa Delpit expounded; that "success in institutions - schools, workplaces and so on - is predicated upon acquisition of the culture of those in power."

The lenient view of code switching and openness to utilizing the primary language to assist in learning is against the recommendations of the first author, Richard. He finally found success when he embraced assimilation even though it meant leaving behind his first language and some of the cultural safety he had felt in his family home. 

I was once a new immigrant (though English speaking) in the USA, and it reminded me of the citizenship website here. Most countries will have a cultural guide to their culture and society, and it can be very interesting to look through it!

I think every person's language learning journey is unique. Richard was the son of immigrants. He was a US citizen who did not speak English as his first language. His success in his home country would rely on his choice to lean into his idea of public individuality, even at the expense of his private individuality. He needed to be taught the 'codes' and cultural norms of the public at large, even when it seemed to be at the expense of his family culture. The second article was a general article about language acquisition, the first was a article by a man who understood the culture of power, and showed how he understood that, in this country, power was accessed through the English Language

Service Learning with Compassion

The word "patronizing" is an interesting word.

To be "patronized" is to be looked down upon. Someone is showing their superiority and/or wealth to 'help' you, but you feel small and judged instead of being lifted higher.

But "patronized" comes from the word "patron" which has a much more uplifting meaning. To summarize from Merriam-Webster here, a "patron" is a 'supporter...one who uses wealth or influence to help a person, institution or cause". The article Getting to the Why:  Social Learning for Social Justice, read here, brings up the difficulties of encouraging service based projects in schools with grace and humility, and not superiority and judgement. 

Community Service in schools is rising, perhaps partially because of a trend in college admissions to place value on community service projects when considering applications. In Rhode Island, schools can apply to become a "Feinstein Leadership School", and to quote the patron of this program  "It means that you've committed your youngsters to reach out to do good deeds for other people. ... This is, I think, an extremely worthwhile program for the youngsters because it empowers them, it teaches them that they can reach out to help other people, that they make the world a better place, and they respond." Both the middle school my girls attend, and the school I work in, encourage community service. At the middle school, community service hours are a requirement, and at my elementary school it is encouraged through food drives.

My family had already started volunteering at a local Community Market, and we were happy to realize this would count towards the children's community service hours. I had mixed feelings about my children being helpers as people came for their free groceries. I did not want them to be spectators to other people's hardships, and I didn't want their help to be muddied with superiority. I arranged our time slot to be the last time slot of the day. We are the clean up crew who put the food back in the pantry and freezer, and break down the tables at the end of the day. But we still have late comers, regulars whom we have had a chance to meet and get to know over the years. They are all different. Some old, some college students, some people are retired, some are out of work and have moved back home for a while. Some work and still can't afford groceries. Men. Women. Disabled. Able. Black. White. Asian. Immigrant. Local. My children have made me proud. They see everyone as people first, and people who need help second. It is a difficult line to adhere to, but in the article it was explained very well:

David Kirkland of NYU wrote that, in some cases, “service learning has come to mean something equivalent to an extended and sustained field trip for privileged learners who often imagine their roles in communities as agents of salvation as opposed to agents of service.”

This notion of 'service' is such an important idea to return to. As humans we do things that make us feel good, and helping others can be a great way to feel good about yourself! However, if making yourself feel good, look good, sound good, overrides your commitment to serve others it stops being service and becomes self aggrandizement. You stop being a patron, and start becoming patronizing. 

I enjoyed this article as a real world look at teachers who were committed to community service projects, but who were also willing to analyze their experiences and share their learning. One group had gone for a walk in the neighborhood surrounding the school and the students had noticed all the trash. The students decided that focusing on the trash in the neighborhood would be a good project. Later, the teacher reflected: 

 “The walk was useful because the issues they identified are so tangible. But if I did it again, I’d start with listing the great things about the neighborhood because there are so many,” he reflected. 

That balance; seeing the good with the bad, being of service but not patronizing, seeing the need but also the person; that balance should be the goal of everyone wanting to help others. 

Cultural Conflict in the Classroom

 In Lisa Delpit's writing "The Silenced Dialogue: Power and Pedagogy in Educating Other People's Children" she asserts that in the classroom there is a culture of power. The dominant culture in society sets the tone and the rules in the classroom. While children who come from that dominant culture are likely to be unaware of this power and privilege they hold, those with the least power are most aware of it. Kids will either be aware of the expected language, or behavior, or clothing standards, or they won't. Those who "know the rules" aren't aware it is anything special, it is just the rules they are used to at home. Those who don't know the rules of the dominant culture may flounder, wonder why they are getting in trouble, and push against new expectations.

There had been a liberal push in a variety of places to "accept" the differences out of respect for the minority culture, but the reality that a lot of minority parents felt, was that this did not set the students up for success in the real world. Allowing children to come barefoot to school (common in rural New Zealand) is not teaching them that certain places require shoes. Teaching black students through "Dialect Readers" isn't teaching students the formal language expected in work situations. A parent objected to the dialect readers by telling researchers "Don't teach us what we know. Teach us how to be successful". This parent knows there is a code out there. The code is implicitly understood by the dominant culture, and must be taught to everyone else if there is to be a chance at success and equality. 

Pretending that people aren't judged by what they wear, how they speak or how they write is fundamentally setting children up for failure. Lisa Delpit writes "Success in institutions - schools, workplaces and so on - is predicated upon acquisition of the culture of those in power". 

I experienced blundering through cultural faux pas when I first moved to Japan. Some things I learned by observation (be quiet and respectful on the train), other times I knew something was off but I couldn't pin it down. Luckily I had a kind teaching colleague who wasn't afraid of offending me and told me the truth. I had worn a sleeveless shirt to work (it was still collared and a business shirt) and showing my shoulders was slightly shocking to the rest of the teaching staff and students. I had a guide to help me learn, and I was an eager learner because I was conscious of being in another culture's territory. I imagine it is much harder to stomach guidance and correction when it is in the country you have been raised in. However, "pretending that gatekeeping points don't exist is to ensure that many students will not pass through them". p. 39

The attempts to modify expectations in the classroom are often at odds with the reality students experience when they leave the classroom.  The author heard from many non-white educators who said "they listen, but they don't hear"...and "they only want to go on research they've and other white people have written" with regards to policies that don't explicitly teach what is expected in the successful work culture at large. Cultural differences must be explicitly taught. When answering the phone at a business you don't say "what's up?". When attending an interview, you wear formal clothes. When writing as a part of your job, you don't write "LOL". Your searchable social media should be free from bad language and inappropriate images. Unkind and bigoted opinions should be kept inside, even if you feel they are true. These are general standards in the workforce (and polite society!) that are different to informal experiences outside the working environment.

By not giving students the keys to success, they may find themselves knocking on doors and wondering why nobody ever lets them in. This video is made up of many people's ideas of what "American Culture" is, which goes to show you how difficult it would be to "learn" it without explicit instruction. Even American's don't have one common explanation. Interestingly, the white male said "Freedom. I'm free to do pretty much anything I want". (0:34 and 5:13) No person of color said the same thing. 

This reading urges teachers to acknowledge the power structures that exist in the classroom and in the world outside it. We must teach all students to navigate these spoken and unspoken rules in society if we are to help them be the best they can be. A cultural norm may not be the norm for all students so , as Delpit writes "students must be taught the codes needed to participate fully in the mainstream of American Life".p45 

During my previous study of Color Insight when I realized the sheer number of white females in the teaching workforce, I wonder if we are equipped to teach these students to navigate these Cultural Gatekeeping standards? Many of us will "know the rules" because we grew up with them. These are not necessarily rules to us, just basic expectations. How many students from different cultural backgrounds get in trouble for not "following the rules" when they haven't been taught them explicitly? Have we been assuming knowledge instead of teaching expectations? Have we been frustrated by the 'rudeness' of a lack of eye contact, when it is simply a feature of that students culture, and they must be taught it instead? Have we given ambiguous directions "It would be great if you finished this reading tonight" and been frustrated when students took it as an optional assignment? 

Understanding how to teach expectations in a non-judgmental way might be our easiest path to success.

Understanding that cultural expectations are not the same for everyone might be our biggest challenge. 

Colorblindness is the new Racism

Armstrong and Wildman assert that "Colorblindness in the new Racism" in their article, and follow Johnson's argument that society cannot just ignore a problem and hope that it goes away, especially a problem that elevates different sections of society over others. To provide a path away from willful ignorance they propose a term "Color Insight."

"Color Insight recognizes that a racial status quo exists in which society attributes race to each member"(p68) and this happens automatically. You might be the "black friend", your teacher might be the "Asian one." People categorize others constantly and often innocently,. Being aware of the negative impacts of that categorization is essential for change. 

The authors propose a number of exercises to do in a school environment to increase "color insight" and move away from the "color blindness" model. They suggest students make racial observations over a 24 hour period to bring awareness to their own lives. I decided to do this myself and this is a summary of the results:

COLOR INSIGHT NOTES

I teach in an elementary school (K-5) and every teacher and aide is a white female with 2 exceptions. We have 1 white male aide, and the Principal is also a white male. 

On Friday I taught 72 students and of those students 4 were black.

The Janitors are both non-white. The male has the Supervisor role, the female is the assistant. 

My 3 children attend school. All their primary teachers are white females. One school has a white female as the Principal, one school has a white male as the Principal.

All my immediate neighbors are white. 

That was it for 24 hours (I don't lead a very exciting life, so I have no night life observations to share), but it is worth noting that I have lived in New Zealand, Japan (locally, and then later on a military base), Nevada, and Washington State. South Kingston Rhode Island is the white-est place we have ever lived. I blend in well until I open my mouth and identify myself as a foreigner by my accent. My difference is not immediately visible.

When I first lived in Japan I lived in a Japanese neighborhood which was similar in it's homogeneous nature - except there I was the White Person, the outsider...the Japanese language had a word for me "GAIJIN". It literally means Outside Person. Japan was the first place I was truly aware of my own race. I was visibly different to my community, my body didn't fit Japanese clothes, my hairdresser asked if I had dyed my hair, and I was a minority. In Japan however, I generally had positive cache attributed to my Otherness. I was treated well.

In her TED talk, Mellody Hobson, recalls her mother asking if she was "treated well" when she attended the birthday party of a white classmate and was the only black girl there. I recall my Grandparents asking me the same thing after my first year living in Japan. They were both part of the Occupation Forces in WW2 and actually met in Japan. While they remember the cherry blossoms and the early days of a romance, they also remember going past a bombed out Hiroshima in a train. They remembered the burnt out remains of Tokyo after the firebombing. Their interactions with a recently defeated nation was wildly different to my interactions a mere 60 years later. I was treated well. Even in a country where our Grandparents had been war time enemies I was treated well. My white privilege protected me still. 

Mellody Hobson proposed the term "Color Brave" to describe being willing to identify and talk about these issues. She points out that "Numbers Do Not Lie" as she recounted out the significant inequalities that cannot be ignored with regards to household wealth, income, job opportunities and healthcare between racial groups in America. The Pew Research center has the Median Wealth of Americans broken down by race here. This is your no-surprise summary: Black Households are twice as likely as White and Asian Households to be in the lowest income tier.

These readings and videos spend a lot of time encouraging America to have "Color Insight", be "Color Brave" and to quote Alan Johnson again "to name it" in order to make progress towards equality. I wonder how many frustrated minorities want to rage at all the academics writing articles extorting people to name something that they have been living their whole life?

Are we still trying to name it?

Can't we try to fix it?