What's In A Name? Cultural Assimilation

 

This week's readings included excerpts from “Teaching Multilingual Children” by Virginia Collier and “Aria” by Richard Rodriguez. The most important message that I took from both of these excerpts was the importance of recognizing and honoring the cultural identity of students. In Teaching Multilingual Children, Collier uses 7 guidelines to discuss how important a child’s native language and culture is for teaching and learning English as a second language. In the excerpt “Aria”, Rodriguez writes about the difficulties of assimilating into a new culture and learning a new language, as well as the sadness and loss that came from leaving behind his native culture to fit into a new one. 

What’s in a name? Few things are more important and thought-provoking than choosing a name for your child. It is one of the most identifying pieces of information that your child will carry for the rest of their lives. In many cultures, names are chosen and combined to represent the melding of two families. Before the birth of my first child, I spent months searching/ discussing/debating with my husband over the name of our first daughter. Do we choose a family name? Something to honor our culture? A meaningful name from my childhood? A name that brings me joy? So many thoughts and ideas to consider, undoubtedly a huge task. Finally, you settle on the perfect name for your beloved child, a name that means a great deal to your family, one that both you and your child are proud of, and you move to a new country. With heartbreaking sadness and frustration, the name that you’ve chosen with such care, is now mispronounced, shortened, and unrecognizable. Worse, your child wants to fit in so badly, and/ or doesn’t have the English language skills to correct the mistake, that they allow others to “Americanize” their name. Talk about losing a piece of your cultural identity! This happens every day in the school I work in. 

Although the readings for this week focused more on learning English as a second language, they kept bringing me back to the importance of saying our newcomer’s names correctly. I think about how good I feel when someone I’ve just met remembers my name at the end of our conversation. I feel seen, heard, accepted, and important. Imagine how amazing these students feel when we make the effort to learn their names, learn to pronounce them correctly, and then use them. In a school that has a high population of newcomers, the least I can do is make it my goal to learn and pronounce all the students’ names correctly. 

A worthy watch: Getting it right; why pronouncing names correctly matters | Gerardo Ochoa | 

Video: Your name is your crown, so wear it | Toluwanimi Obiwole

Universal Free School Lunch.

 Hunger is a political issue, and there are several things politically that are keeping people hungry - not funding food stamps adequately, not funding school lunches adequately. So there is a political solution to the problem of hunger.

Tom Colicchio

    The article that I chose was “How School Lunch Debt Causes Shame and Inequality- And Our Fight To Abolish It”, by Melissa Duvelsdorf, Elizabeth Lester-Abdalla, and Nick Marcil. The authors of the article argue that school lunches should be a basic right and considered part of free public education, without consideration of income, and that creating lasting change comes from conversations and advocacy at all levels of government. The article reports that over 1.5 million students incur school lunch debt each year, disproportionately affecting students of color and working-class families. It also states that approximately twenty percent of households that do not meet the criteria for free or reduced lunch report being food insecure. The government has declared that funding for school lunches is the responsibility of individual families. Districts, cities, and towns rely on donations from corporations and private parties to pay their school lunch debt. Although this is helpful in the short term, it does not provide a solution to the problem.

The article lists numerous barriers to accessing free school lunches, both for the students participating in the National School Lunch Program and those whose household incomes are above the threshold for free and reduced lunch. The paperwork required to participate in the program is cumbersome and relies on parents being able to read the forms and provide income verification. This also includes newcomer families whose first language is not English or Spanish.  There is a stigma surrounding both participation in such programs, as well as the debt incurred by those students whose parents cannot afford to pay. Shame and guilt are common feelings from both parents and students who are incurring debt and/or participating in the NSLP. Parents feel guilty for not being able to provide for their families, students feel guilty that they are eligible for the program when others are not. Providing free school breakfast and lunch for all removes the stigma. 

It also mentioned the shame students felt when they were singled out for having school lunch debt when they were given alternatives to a hot lunch. 

Lastly, the article highlights the importance of advocacy at the district, city, state, and Federal levels to facilitate change. Having frequent conversations at school board meetings, city council meetings, and with state representatives will keep universal free lunches and debt abolition on the minds of those in power.

Universal school meals as a basic right. It seems obvious, but why isn’t it? Using  “The Culture of Power”, as a point of reference, it would seem that for the white, middle-class families in America who have determined the status quo, there’s no need for free lunch; they have financial stability on their side. Public school is paid for by taxpayers, and the majority of transportation is paid for, as well as sports equipment, textbooks, and other classroom necessities is included. Why then, are the meals in school not paid for? If I had to guess, it was the easiest thing to pass off to individual families. Also, items like equipment and textbooks can be reused, unlike meals.

Funding is a huge barrier to universal school lunches. Who will pay? What incentive does the Federal and local government have to begin paying, when so often private companies and organizations step in to pay off lunch debt? In the article, the authors reported that free universal meals during the Pandemic cost approximately 11 billion dollars annually. While I was reading this article, I kept thinking about how many billions of dollars oil companies receive in profit each year. In 2023 Exxon Mobil had a profit of 36 billion dollars, Shell’s profit was 28 billion dollars, and Chevron had a profit of  21 billion dollars. The article “Oil and Gas Companies Cash In Tens of Billions” describes this in detail. Imagine if some of that money was used to subsidize universal school lunches. 

I see the direct impact of costly school lunches every day in the school that I work in. Students are hungry, but not eating or if they are eating, it’s not enough and they cannot afford more. I always keep snacks and juice in my office and am visited daily by hungry students. Some come in complaining of belly pain and my first question is always “Did you eat breakfast?” So often, the answer is no. Hungry students do not learn well. 

Culture of Power

 In “The Silenced Dialogue: Power and Pedagogy in Educating Other People’s Children” by Lisa Delpit, Delpit argues that a culture of power within the classroom puts students who are not participants in the culture at a disadvantage. She believes that these students need to be explicitly taught the skills/ code needed to successfully participate. Delpit also argues that each student must be encouraged to recognize the value that their culture has, as well as how to participate in the mainstream culture of power.

Delpit lists five aspects of power that make up “the culture of power” within the classroom. 

The first is the issues of power are enacted in the classroom. Delpit lists several beings that hold power; the teacher, curriculum writers, state/ government who enforce the teaching, and lastly the power of the group that fits within the culture of power. 

The second is that there are codes or rules for participating in the culture of power. To fit into the culture of power, students must speak, dress, write, and interact in a certain way.

The third is that the rules of the culture of power are a reflection of the rules of the culture of those who have the power. Delpit writes that students who are from middle-class homes do better in school than those not from the middle class because the culture of power is based on the middle and upper classes. 

The fourth aspect is that if you are not already a participant in the culture of power, being told explicitly the rules of that culture makes acquiring power easier. Members within a culture learn the rules implicitly, leaving those who are not members at a disadvantage and often unable to communicate clearly.  By explicitly teaching the rules, students can learn the ‘cultural norms’ more easily. 

Lastly, the fifth aspect is that those with power are frequently least aware- or least willing to acknowledge its existence. Those with less power are often most aware of its existence. Someone within the culture of power may not know another way and may not have had any reason to question the status quo, since it has always worked for him/her. Whereas, someone not within the culture of power may want and/or value something different for their child.

The biggest takeaway I have from Delpit’s article is that all students, regardless of culture, have value and that students need to feel heard, supported, and included.  Teachers need to find ways to relate to their students and recognize the importance of students’ cultures in learning.  I immediately think of meeting students at their level. The movies “Criminal Minds” and “Freedom Writers” come to mind. The teachers in both of these movies use non-mainstream methods and themes to teach outside of the culture of power to appeal to the students to teach them the skills they need to be successful in the mainstream culture. In both movies, the students initially resist their mainstream teacher’s attempts to earn their trust and only when she proves she’s willing to make be uncomfortable and learn about her students, do they respond. The movie clip below is of Michelle Pfeifer attempting to engage her students with a sentence on the blackboard. She is attempting to get the students to identify the verb in the sentence. Only when she changes the sentence to something the students care about, do they respond to her. 

 We choose to die - Grammar scene from Dangerous Minds (1995)

Color Blindness vs Color insight

 In “Colorblindness is the New Racism", Armstrong and Wildman argue that colorblindness,the idea that ignoring or overlooking racial and ethnic differences promotes racial harmony, perpetuates racism and privilege instead promoting change and equality. They say that before any change can be made, we must understand and include privilege in conversations about discrimination. This is similar to Alan’s Johnson’s point, that we must make an effort to recognize it, give it a name and then be willing to talk about it. 

Armstrong and Wildman go further and introduce “color insight” as the way to begin having conversations about privilege, race, discrimination. Although they make clear it is not the antidote to racism, it does offer ways to have useful conversations and social interactions that are insightful. Within the chapter, Armstrong and Wildman outline a process for introducing color insight into education and list 4 steps in their process, including a classroom activity for step. 

Step one is to create an environment where race and privilege can be discussed. The observation exercise offers an objective way for students to observe others, increase awareness of their own privilege, and then reflect and share with the class. 

Step two is to examine the systems of privilege and the classroom exercise is to create a power line. Becoming aware of one’s own privilege, even when also experiencing discrimination, helps us to realize that it isn’t always one or the other. Although we all belong to a system weighed down by institutional oppression, individually, our identities often place us in both privileged and unprivileged categories and not recognizing this further masks our ability to have thoughtful conversations. The power line exercise highlights the overarching systems of privilege and how it relates to identity categories.

Step three is unmasking perspectivelessness and white normativeness. Armstrong and Wildman suggest purposely adding race to hypothetical situations, as often times the people pictured in these ‘hypothetical situations’ are thought of as white. By doing this, students become aware of and understand the the privilege and racial implications of specific events.

The last step is to combat stereotyping by looking for the ‘me’ in each individual. Recognizing that we all share space in categories of identity that allow us to find ourselves both privileged and not privileged, helps us to see that it affects all of our lives. The classroom exercise about sharing information about one’s maternal grandmother highlights the importance of our own histories in understanding ourselves and appreciating the commonalities and differences of those we interact with.

Mellody Hobson’s Ted Talk about ‘being color brave, not color blind’ further discusses the importance of talking about racism. Hobson, Armstrong and Wildman agree that color blindness is ineffective in challenging racism and discrimination. They also agree that difficult conversations, self-awareness, as well as the awareness of others, are ways we can begin to deconstruct the systems of oppression around us. Hobson’s ‘color brave’ is Armstrong and Wildman’s ‘color insight’. When Hobson says “invite people into your life who don't look like you, don't think like you, don't act like you, don't come from where you come from, and you might find that they will challenge your assumptions and make you grow as a person…” She is speaking to one of the most simple things we can do to promote change. 

This website has great ideas for teaching about race https://www.learningforjustice.org/classroom-resources/lessons