Helping Everyone Else Understand Your Students
ATTITUDES MAKE THE DIFFERENCE: RACISM AND XENOPHOBIA
The attitudes of the teachers and administrators are at least as important as those of the students. While racism and xenophobia are not as pervasive as some of the more radical education writers have suggested, they do exist and they can do a lot of damage to an ESL program. Klansmen will not be burning crosses at your classroom door, but some people in your school hierarchy may be making decisions that hinder your students’ progress. For the most part, teachers and administrators want their students to succeed, but there are exceptions. I can recall a few teachers and administrators who actually became hostile when they saw recent arrivals becoming too successful.
Several years ago I applied for a position teaching ESL in a west Texas high school. It was midterm, and the class had been taught by an uncertified, nondegreed substitute for an entire semester. The principal told me that until recently they had managed to keep “those kids” in the city’s other high school. The students were taught in a separate classroom, apart from the mainstream, but they had no ESL materials. I did not get the job, but neither did anyone else. The school finished the year with the substitute.
This is, of course, a worst-case scenario. In my 25 years of working with English learners, I have encountered serious bias against my students only three times, but my students have had their share of petty problems.
I’M HERE, SO SHUT THE DOOR ALREADY
When asked his thoughts as he took the oath of U.S. citizenship, Russian immigrant and comedian Yakov Smirnoff replied, “I was thinking about those damned foreigners who come here and take jobs away from us good Americans.” This typifies the attitudes of many of us. We are proud of our immigrant roots, but we’re here, so why hasn’t somebody closed the door?
You cannot assume that attitude problems necessarily end when students deal with those of their own ethnic group. Minorities are individuals with their own view of the world, and not all hyphenated Americans are comfortable with recent arrivals. A huge cultural gap exists between a monolingual English-speaking Chinese-American and a recent arrival from Beijing, or between a fifth-generation Mexican-American from the suburbs of Dallas and a farm worker from Oaxaca, Mexico.
A few times each year someone suggests to me that we should not even be letting “those people” in the country, much less providing their children with a quality education. If you encounter such an attitude from a barfly, just let him rave. If you encounter it in someone who has any control over your program, do as much damage control as you can. If you encounter it in yourself, engage in some serious reflection.
You cannot change attitudes easily. You can explain reasons for immigration: It has brought vibrancy to our culture and prosperity to our economy, and it has helped us maintain peace on our borders. As our population ages, immigration brings us the workers that will sustain the economy as the baby boomers retire. If that doesn’t work, try this: Remind detractors that a school can rot from the bottom up. Poor readers who see non-English speakers getting passing grades will demand the same. Literate but mediocre students will want B’s because illiterates get C’s. Adequate students then demand A’s. When children learn English and go on to succeed in honors classes after three years or four years, there may be some resentment, but the effects of the competition that these successful students bring will benefit all students, and they will be part of a rising tide that lifts all boats. If English learners fail to learn year after year, that failure will become part of a rot at the base that will bring down the entire structure.
EXPOSING OTHER STUDENTS TO YOUR STUDENTS’ CULTURE
If students in regular classes are exposed to your students’ culture(s), everyone will benefit. It is, however, important to not be heavy handed when presenting the culture of your students to the other students of your school. Remember that xenophobia does exist, and you do not want to create the impression that your school will be forcing elements of your students’ culture on everyone else. It will be useful, however, to expose your school’s students to your students’ background through regular academic study.
AVOIDING TRIVIAL PURSUIT AND SUPERFICIAL MULTICULTURALISM
A young Dakota woman at my alma mater once ran out of a lecture hall in tears during a sociology professor’s lecture about poverty and social problems on reservations like the one that the young woman called home. The professor thought he was expressing a politically correct viewpoint, but he came across as condescending. Chances are that none of your students will flee your class in tears, but a trivial treatment of their culture, even if the intention is to celebrate it or to express sympathy, may cause resentment.
It is important that you not trivialize your students’ culture, but sometimes well-meaning educators do just that. Unfortunately, a lot of phony multiculturalism exists in our schools. Merely ordering take-out lunches from Taco Bell on the Fifth of May or wearing a silk robe for the Chinese New Year or a pair of lederhosen during Fasching will neither educate nor inspire. Although there is nothing wrong with eating ethnic food or wearing national or regional clothing, your lessons should be based on knowledge, not just gimmicks.
Knowledge is the key that will allow you to enlighten rather than trivialize. If you lack requisite knowledge, use the knowledge of the great minds of the past. Literature is a great window to the culture. American anthropologist Ruth Benedict, who wrote The Chrysanthemum and the Sword: Patterns of Japanese Culture, had never visited Japan. To do so would have been difficult, since she wrote the book during World War II at the request of the Bureau of Overseas Intelligence of the Office of War. Her book was so accurate that some scholars in Japan insisted that it was really written by a Japanese turncoat. Benedict’s knowledge of Japan was based in great part on what she had learned by reading history and literature.
ILLUMINATING WITH LITERARY CLASSICS FROM OTHER TRADITIONS
When I told a group of my acquaintances that I was taking a Latin American literature class, one person commented, “I didn’t think that they had literature. I thought they just made velvet paintings and wood carving.” Clearly this fellow was not particularly enlightened, but his attitude and his shallow knowledge of the world beyond our borders is not uncommon.
All cultures with written languages have large bodies of literature, and you might want to work some of that literature into your school’s English or reading curriculum. A great many Spanish-language works are universally held to be masterpieces. Don Quijote is the most influential book ever written in the Spanish language and is considered by scholars throughout the world to be among the most important works of fiction ever written. It is too large a work to be read in its entirety in a high school course, except perhaps in a very advanced honors class, but selections from a translation of the work could be taught in any high school literature class. An abridged version could be taught as well. The Wishbone Classics series has a version written on a fourth-grade level that catches the spirit of the work as well as any children’s version I have ever seen. Miguel de Cervantes is also known for his Exemplary novels (which are really not novels but long short stories) and his hilarious short plays, any of which are well worth reading or viewing. Of course, Cevantes’s era, referred to as the Golden Century, produced many other fine writers whose works are also worth studying.
Latin America has produced its share of great literature as well. Pedro Paramo, a short novel by the Mexican author Juan Rulfo, is arguably the best ghost story ever written and is steeped with Mexican culture and history. The Argentine author Jorge Borges produced some of the finest short stories of the twentieth century.
Advanced students in high school literature classes could read translations of novels of the Latin American Boom by writers like Gabriel Garcia Marques, Carlos Fuentes, and Mario Vargas Llosa. For younger readers, there are a great many collections of children’s stories from many different cultures available.
LIVING SOCIAL STUDIES
The presence of your students can enhance your school’s social studies programs. Again, you do not want to inflame feelings of xenophobia by creating the impression that you feel that your students’ history is more important than that of our country, but the presence of students from other places justifies special emphasis within social studies classes. Your students’ parents can be wonderful resources. Some of them might be willing to address geography and history classes. These subjects come alive when students meet people who have lived in the lands and experienced the events described in their books.
GRAPHIC ART AND MUSIC
Art, including folk art, from your students’ home nations can be presented and studied in art classes. Some works of art like the murals of Diego Rivera, Jose Clemente Orozco, and David Alfaro Siqueiros depict historical events and are therefore appropriate for history classes. Classical, folk, and even popular music can be worked into the music curriculum. Music can be played in the background in any classroom, and copies of paintings can hang on any wall. The teacher can speak a bit about roots and circumstances related to the works when the class has some free time.
MUTUAL TUTORING AND DUAL IMMERSION
If your school offers your students’ language as a second language, some of your students who were tutored by student volunteers could return the favor by helping in foreign language classes or conversing at meetings of foreign language clubs. Mutual tutoring will not only help students understand each other’s languages, it can also help them understand each other.