Prompt 6: Johnson

Whenever walking through the halls in the Elementary school I’ve been tutoring in, the younger students, no older than second grade, are always accompanied by their teacher speaking Spanish to them. I have not seen a teacher of young students NOT speaking strictly Spanish to their students. This tells me that as the students enter in the school for the first few years the teachers of the younger grades speak their main language, Spanish, and teach them English throughout the year. My students are fifth graders, and no one would ever guess that English is a second language for some.

One day of tutoring I was working inside the classroom and observing the students working for a few minutes. There seemed to be some sort of emergency in another classroom because a voice came over the speaker telling people to refrain from using the back stairway until further notice, followed by an ambulance siren. Seconds later, four of five young children (my guess is first grade) entered the classroom and a young woman asked Mrs. Smith if they could stay there for a little while. All the children had a sheet of paper, so Mrs. Smith had them sit at some spare desks to do their work.

One little boy however didn’t have a sheet of paper to work on. Mrs. Smith said “Where’s your paper?” Silence. She repeated, “Do you have work to do?” More silence from the little boy. She gave up and said “Fine, go get a book and read it until your teacher comes and gets you.” The little boy stood there looking around with this confused, sad expression on his face. After a few more seconds of the boy not moving, talking, or acknowledging her, Mrs. Smith said “Jose, tell him to get a book and sit down.” Instantly Jose and about three other children from my class ran over and started translating for the boy. They showed him where a free desk was, gave him a book, and (I’d imagine) told him what the teacher had said.

This all happened within a few second, and at the time I had no idea why the boy was not answering. I haven’t had any experience in school where other languages are spoken, so I was slightly shocked and partially fascinated by the encounter. Mrs. Smith was used to her students speaking English, so she automatically assumed the boy spoke the dominate language in the classroom. I thought it was interesting seeing a middle aged woman needing to use a couple of 10 year olds as translators in order for her to communicate with this boy. After a bit of confusion, Mrs. Smith assumed the boy spoke Spanish and knew automatically which of her students would be able to translate. Mrs. Smith was very responsive to the linguistic differences with the students in her class and of the school.

Allan Johnson writes in Who, Me? What It Means to be Involved in Privilege and Oppression how everyone participates in social systems that give some people privilege and oppresses others. People are not necessarily “good” or “bad” who partake in this, but because they are involved at all keeps the existence of the social systems alive. By simply being involved in the game supports it’s existence. We may not directly affect the system of oppression for some and privilege for others, but because we are not part of the solution, we are part of the problem.
I feel that because the children in this school are taught English by their regular teacher (not a linguist specialist); it is good that it is incorporated into their everyday lessons. By teaching these children to speak English, and then never using their native language again in public school, shows how devalued their culture and language are. Because this little boy had not yet mastered the English language, he could not communicate with Mrs. Smith.

It is not Mrs. Smith’s, my, the school’s, the state’s, or the country’s fault that Spanish is not as valued as English. Instead the whole institution, the entire game- all of it is to blame! Spanish speaking students enter into this school, and (thankfully) have teachers who incorporate learning English into their study of other subjects. The oppression happens once the child learns English, and his/her native language is completely devalued and hardly ever (if not never) used again in public school again. Johnson wrote, “As long as we participate in social systems, we don’t get to choose whether to be involved in the consequences they produce. We’re involved simply through the fact that we’re here.” (pg3)

What can we do as a nation, a society, a community, a future educator, a student, or a parent to change our society to value different cultures, languages, ethnicities, etc? If you were taught (not directly) at a young age that your language is not used in school or many areas around the country, how would you feel about your linguistic differences? Would it be better to teach multiple languages to all children as other countries do (see video in “Dual Language Immersion- Goldenberg” blog)?