Aria & Collier

Public individuality versus private individuality…

Google defines individuality “as the quality or character of a particular person or thing that distinguishes them from others of the same kind, especially when strongly marked.”

Distinguishment.  Uniqueness.  Differences.  All characteristics that make up oneself.  Poor Ricardo.  Ugh, Dr. Bogad this was a sad one for me.  Having to compromise what makes him and his family a family.  Their heritage; their language; their close-knit-family- all taken away from them in order to make themselves fit in with society.  Ricardo’s parents are informed that they must start to speak English instead of their native language, so that their children can learn the language of public society.  Ricardo points out in this article that “they agreed to give up the language (the sounds) that had revealed and accentuated our family’s closeness.”  He speaks of his later developed confidence in himself to finally fit in with public society and expectations, but also recalls the despair he felt when surrounded by his now forever changed family.  The shyness that his father exhibited when surrounded by the English language, the memory of laughter and jokes replaced by utter silence at the dinner table.  How the “dramatic Americanization of their children,” had now somewhat made his parents a bit more confident living in this society.   

What stood out to me the most in this article was when Ricardo states, “I moved very far from the disadvantaged child I had been only days earlier.  The belief, the calming assurance that I belonged in public, had at last taken hold.”  How awful to feel as if you don’t belong.  How awful is it that we all just can’t get along and accept one another and adapt to others uniqueness.  How awful that at such a young age he noted that his language and heritage made him disadvantaged.

Collier’s article on “Teaching Multilingual Children” seemed to contradict a bit of what poor Ricardo had to go through.  It speaks of how demanding and challenging it is to be a teacher; especially to those who may not be proficient in the English language.  It encourages teachers to be aware, respectful and accepting of a student’s home language and to incorporate that into their learning.  It is important that the child does not lose sight of who they are necessarily, and that they “need to incorporate their own language to help them master the English language (pg. 225).”  Collier goes on to mention that children who are able to first master their own language {prior to being “forced” to learn English} are more academically successful in the future.  She later goes on to state (pg. 227) that “eradication of their language turns students off from education and never encourages school achievement of minority students.”  This brings me back to Ricardo’s mention that he would have “felt much less afraid if teachers addressed him in Spanish {his native language} and that he would have trusted and responded in ease.”  

I can’t imagine how incredibly challenging a bilingual classroom must be for both students and teachers.  I applaud both parties for the tremendous courage they have to be apart of these classrooms.  I believe that Collier argues that teachers need to be sure that children don’t stray away from their native language, but that they first learn {that} language and then work towards teaching them English.  She believes it is imperative for teachers to be respectful of children’s home languages and incorporate that into their everyday learning.  The respect and patience that teachers exhibit will lead to future growth for these children.

I thought that I would include a little added humor in this blog….and who doesn’t just love Joey!? :)