Talking Point #2

Richard Rodriguez, Aria

1. "...I also needed my teachers to keep my attention from straying in class by calling out, Rich-heard- their English voices slowly prying loose my ties to my other name, its three notes, RI-car-do." (Rodriguez 35)

This quote reminded me a lot of a few discussions that we have had in class in regards to our service learning projects. I have always been really bad at learning names. When I started to teach dance classes a few years ago, I would often avoid using names because I was afraid that I would mess them up. The discussion that we had in class started to open my eyes to the importance of learning the names of students; not only what the names are but pronouncing them correctly as well. This author of this article also helped me to look at the importance of names differently. I have come to realize in the past that learning a person's name is an important form of respect and recognition. However, I now understand that the meaning of a person's name can be even deeper than respect to the individual; that taking the time to pronounce that person's name correctly can show respect to their culture as well. Rodriguez helped me to understand that loosing the culture behind a person's name is just one way that traditions are slowly lost throughout various groups and generations.

2. "I turned quickly and left the room. But I had no place to escape to with Spanish. (The Spell was broken.)" (Rodriguez 35-36)

This quote shows how difficult it was for Richard to transition from living in what seemed to be two completely separate lives to only one. Richard's home was a place for him to escape, and with that came speaking Spanish. Once his parents decided to speak English in the house in order to help Richard and his siblings learn English faster, he lost that escape. Not only did Richard loose half of this divided life, he lost the half that he was most comfortable with and drawn to. Everyone needs to have some kind of escape, especially during times of change, stress, and loss. I can not even imagine how hard it must have been to have to go through such a change while in the process of losing the one thing that helps along the way.

3. "...as we children learned more and more English, we shared fewer and fewer words with our parents." (Rodriguez 37)

This quote exemplifies the worst aspect to this article. As a result to Richard and his siblings learning English, his relationship with his parents suffered from the language barrier. This represents how important their language is to their culture as well as the closeness of their family. This also shows how much this family was forced to give up in order to assimilate to American culture. I think it is extremely sad that learning English caused the Rodriguez family to drift apart. Not only were these children faced with changes at school, they were forced to change their lives at home and give up relationships with their family in order to receive an American education.

This article was very easy to read. I really enjoyed that, like Kozol, Rodriguez wrote his article in the form of a story. It was very engaging and easy to relate to. I found this article very useful for future teachers to read in order to have a better understanding of how hard the transition is for ESL students. I think it is very important for teachers to be open and accepting of people from other cultures and help students to feel welcomed into learning English rather than afraid. Also, I feel as though it is equally important, if not more, for teachers to help students to feel as though they can learn things from the American culture, such as the English language, without having to give up the traditions of their own culture.

This article corresponds to many of the themes that have been discussed from prior articles. Delpit's idea of the "culture of power" relates very closely to this article. The overwhelming use and expectations surrounding the American culture made Richard's transition period very scary and difficult. If the culture of power was less prominent in school settings, it might have been much easier for Richard to open up to the changes. This article can also be related to McIntosh's article. Both articles show that change is not an easy process; that people tend to fight change and have a difficult process when it is actually gone through with.

Talking Point #1

Jonathan Kozol's Amazing Grace

1. "...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 the jungle gym while their mothers wait for needles." (Kozol 12)

Children's Park stands as a strong representation of how unbelievably traumatic the living situations are for the children of the South Bronx. This shows how the innocence of the children are completely demolished from as far back as they can remember. It is incredible that these people have reached the point of taking their children with them to get supplies to continue their, most often, fatal habits; that the children become so accustomed to watching people, even the people they look up to most, do drugs as well as many other harmful things.

2. " ...Lincoln and Bronx-Lebanon are generally considered better than another nearby institution, Harlem Hospital, which the minister of Harlem's leading church refers to as a 'cesspool' and which has also lost accreditation several times....A nurse who works there, according to one press account, carries a card in her wallet with the message 'Do Not Take Me To Harlem Hospital in an Emergency." (Kozol 15-16)

The fact that one of Harlem Hospital's own nurses refuses to be seen as a patient there proves how unsafe it must be. Nurses get to experience most things that go on inside a hospital. This particular hospital must be unbearable if she would choose no hospital at all over the option to be taken to Harlem Hospital; that they would do more harm to her than if she was not taken to a hospital at all.

3. "I believe that what the rich have done to the poor people in this city is something that a preacher could call evil. Somebody has power. Pretending that they don't so they don't need to use it to help people-that is my idea of evil." (Kozol 23)

This quote exemplifies Johnson's idea of taking the blame and being the change. This is the exact reason why we are being faced with problems of privilege; those who have the privilege are unwilling to give it up or even acknowledge that they have it in order to help those without the privilege. It is much easier for the rich to segregate the poor and live in oblivion than to have to face the hardships that the poor are faced with on an everyday basis and accept that their privilege is what put them there.

This is one of the most powerful articles I have ever read in my life. I believe every adult in the world should read this. It truly opened my eyes about how privilege, or lack there of, can set a basis for a person's life. There is no doubt in my mind that a child born in the South Bronx is provided less opportunities than a child born in a prominently wealthy location. This, therefore, makes Americans unequal. Whether we like it or not, privilege can predetermine the hardships that a people will face in their lives. It may makes things easier or harder, but either way it definitely has some kind of impact.

This article stands out in my mind much more clearly than any other piece of writing that I have read. The reading was easy to follow and the narrative approach that Kozol used really pulled me in as the audience. The realness of the article was overwhelming. The lack of innocence in the children, the amount of illness, the lack of care, and most of all the people who continued to fight on through horrific times had a lasting impact on me. I have heard stories of people in poverty before. However, Kozol created an entire scenario of each aspect of the South Bronx. The details were intense, the stories were real, and the facts were mind boggling. Reading Johnson's piece was very fundamental and important to read when understanding the idea of privilege. This article, though, took the idea a step further and truly helped me to understand how exactly the lack of privilege affects people.

Hi everyone! My name is Brittany and I am a sophomore at RIC. I live in New Hall, which is an incredible upgrade from thorp!! (even though I miss having two showers) I am an elementary/middle school education major with a math concentration and I am planning on going onto earn a masters in administration. I have been a dancer for my whole life. When I'm not in class, I am typically working as a waitress or a dance teacher. I am extremely close with my friends and family; I have a three and a half year old nephew and a niece on the way! This semester is going well so far...I can't believe the summer is already over though. The bright side is that this is my last semester of gen. eds. and I will (hopefully) be in the Feinstein School of ed in the spring :)