Those who are Self-Taught

Having background knowledge in the Spanish Language, I picked as a first choice En Los Dos Idiomas: Literacy Practices Among Chicago Mexicanos, an article by Marcia Farr. I thought this article would be interesting because I thought it would talk about the discourse of spanish speakers in Chicago. The article talks about much more than that. It describes more deeply how many Mexicans travel back and forth to earn money and make a living. And with that being said, it talks about how their literacy is poorly affected as a result. These specific Mexicans (as case studies were conducted) only went to school for a few months learning acquiring very few literacy skills. However, these very determined Mexicans find ways to teach themselves, a point that I find very inspiring. This finding also expells myths of previous authors studied, such as Kozol, which generally would find that illiterates can't teach themselves/learn, let alone funtion.

Dwindling Memories

Wow! I am actually posting a blog for my first reading of Walter J. Ong's article Writing is Atechnology that Restructures Thought (not having realized what the date was and that I was still one behind for the blogging assignment but having had the in class discussion prior to reading really made me aware of what I was reading for; thus, making the article more insightful. The knowledge I gained from the class discussion allowed me to make better sense of the first section than I would have alone. Ong uses words and phrases such as "imperious [and] tend[ing] to arrogate to itself supreme power by taking itself as normative for human expression and thought" to describe literacy (Ong, 19). His use of these words is to say that overall literacy is powerful and should be viewed as more than a "mechanical skill" but the context of writing should be understood.

Furthermore I took great interest in the article when he spoke of Plato's theories of why writing is "an intrusion" (Ong 21). I actually agreed with Plato in his idea that "writing destroys memory"(Ong 21). I can directly relate to this when it comes to my skills in math. Throughout elementary and middle school I was on the advanced track in mathematics and we were never allowed to use calculators; thus, I was very sharp with my mental math (addition, subtraction etc). But slowly as I progressed through school, although I remained in upper level math classes, the usage of calculators was much more heavily implemented. I then began utilizing my mental math much less than before which made me become rusty on even the simplest equations (even now need a calculator to multiply by 11 and 12 which I never needed).

La Lengua de los Chicanos

Wow! I did not realize how many different types of spanish there are although I did know that there are many (from what I have learned in my spanish classes). But I thought that there was just "proper" spanish and spanish not so "proper"spanish. From seeing how many different types of spanish there are I can understand how the spanish people have "conflict in discourses" within their own communities in the same way that we English speakers have. This was baffling to me because as someone who wants to become fluent in the spanish language, I wondered how could I ever? being that there are so many types of spanish. With that in mind I would think that for a spanish person trying to learn English it may be similarly difficult for him/her because of the many different types of Englishes there are.

More specifically to the article, I find it interesting that those spanish speakers who used their home language in school could get in trouble. Gloria Anzaldua recalls getting "licks on the knucles with a sharp ruler [after] being caught speaking Spanish at recess" in her article How to Tame a Wild Tounge (Anzaldua 37). I think one should never be punished for speaking in his/her native tounge but rather "validated" for speaking another language as Delpit suggests in her article The Policitics of Teaching Literate Discourse. I think overall that the chicano language and any other spanish dialect should be celebrated.

Conflict in Discourses

To begin I would like to say that I would definitely need to re-read "Literacy, Discourse, and Linguistics: Introduction and What is Literacy?" by James Paul Gee to get the full understanding of the article because it included a lot of information and a lot of different points. But there was one thing that I found to be true although I thought the idea could have been explored more. Gee talks about how discourses can be in conflict. He says that "...some people experience more overt and direct conflicts between two or more of their Discourse than do others" (Gee, 628). I believe this is true because many people talk one way at home and then have to speak differently when in other settings (which is a topic that we have been exploring throughout the course).

Although I find this to be true, I do not like how Gee uses black people as an example of this. He says that "this is much less true of the primary Discourse in many lower socio-economic black homes, though this primary Discourse has influenced the secondary Discourse used in black churches" (Gee, 628). Whether or not this is true, even after re-reading the page I do not quite understand how he can justify this opinion and I wonder where he got this information to put this in his article. I think this idea would need to be further developed so that it doesn't come off as being racist. Gee also talks about "women academics [conflicting with] feminist Discourses" which without further explanation comes off as a bit sexist.

Someone please correct me if I am wrong or help me to understand what Gee is talking about!

I Don't Want to Be Average

Mike Rose's article "I Just Want to be Average" was an unfortunate account of schools that use track systems. I feel that this system discourages students learning because in it there are no incentives to do better in school. Perhaps that is why his friend says that "[he] just wants to be average" (89). He feels this way because he knows the excelling will not put him any further in life in the vocational category that he has been placed under.

On the other hand, I admire Rose's drive to become something more. Although it took a strong teacher to come along and encourage an interest in learning in him, it was up to Rose to do the work and decide to not just be average. This ties in to concepts in Rodriguez's article "The Achievement of Desire." Rodriguez noted that many children, especially "working-class" children do not do well in school because they do not seek to further their education and they settle for mediocrity. However, I feel that for anyone, especially "working-class" children to be successful, they must seek knowledge in the way Rose did, even if there is not a driving force such as an inspirational teacher.

For myself especially, I find that I have to work hard everyday because I do not want to be average. Being in the condition that I am in now I could stop working right now, as many people would, but because I do not want to be like everyone else I put every effort into getting assignments done, meeting deadlines, and continuing to go to class!

Exercise of Power

To understand Bell Hooks article "Engaged Pedagogy", I first had to look up the word pedagogy because like several of the other words used in this class, I did not know what it meant going into the reading. Webster's dictionary defines the word so simply as "the art, science, or profession of teaching."

After understanding the meaning of the word, I found the article to be something that I could relate to. Hooks talks about the forceful style that many teachers use to teach and how she did not like this. She was looking more for a teacher who engaged the students in learning by using methods other than dictating. She says that she "...needed to know that professors did not have to be dictators in the classroom" (70). Alike to her experience I have had teachers who taught only to fulfull their duties as a teacher and to get through a lesson in a class period's time and furthermore failed to connect with their audience; the students. On the other hand I have also had many great teachers who put passion and feeling behind their words which made me feel blessed to have them. When given such teachers "I learned, along with other students. to consider myself fortunate if I found an interesting professor who talked in a compelling way. [Some] of my teachers were not the slightest bit interested in enlightenment. More than anything they seemed enthralled by the exercise of power and authority within their mini-kingdom, the classroom" (Hooks, 70). This to me could account for the worst classes ever; showing up and sitting through meaningless lectures.

Embarrassment at the Lack of Education

To begin with, "The Achievement of Desire" by Richard Rodriguez was a little bit hard for me to get into at first because I did not understand fully why the author made references to the "Scholarship Boy." However I did find some of the points that the speaker made to be interesting. First he talks about a what he finds to be the trend in many classrooms. He says "typically most working-clas children are barely changed by the classroom. The exception succeeds. The relative few become scholarship students" (433). I find his conclusion to be unfortunate although true. A lot of times "working-class" or poor children do not do so well in school and I am not sure why. I think some of it may be due to a lack of hope or encouragement as well as due to other reasons but whatever the reason makes for a sad outcome; many unsuccessful children who must work all of their life for very little as their parents also had to do.

The article also noted that some working-class children who do succeed in school may no longer want to relate to their parents and furthermore they may be ashamed of them. The speaker talks about how "the scholarship boy...permits himself embarrassment at their lack of education" (434). I find this to be sad because I would not want my children to be ashamed of me if I were uneducated or for any other reason. However I can see why this "scholarship boy" was ashamed, because although both of my parents are very educated I have other relatives who are not and even though I love them I find it embarrasing when they try to speak their minds on certan subject matter and it comes out as foolishness due to their lack of education. And what makes it worse is that some of them do not seek education, which I find to be the embarrassment in itself.