Our brilliant instructor's paper highlights a lot of interesting and significant issues when dealing with AAL and LWC. Obviously, the focus rests on the attitudes of teachers towards the two languages/dialects considered in opposition to one another, but another, more general question was brought to light. How does the segregation between home life and school life impact students' performance in the classroom?
This dichotomy was mentioned in the paper in a number of places; however, as it was not the focus of the paper, and it is indeed a broad issue, no clear conclusion has been thus far presented. It was clear from the studies that were mentioned that there is a distinct divide in the minds of teachers (and probably in the minds of students as well) between life inside and outside the classroom. Is this positing of a dichotomy really genuine, though? How much of a difference is there between the two aspects of a student's life? After all, most of a student's waking hours will be spent in a school setting, and even outside of the school many of the same processes take place. Learning, colloquial interaction, problem solving, and interpersonal communication (both verbal and non-verbal) are key components to both in-school and out-of-school existence for a student. If school and home life were to be treated in much the same manner, what kind of impact would it have on learning? This would indeed be an interesting study to conduct, and one that could dramatically alter the paradigmatic classroom.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
How does the segregation between home life and school life impact students' performance in the classroom?
ReplyDeleteHow much of a difference is there between the two aspects of a student's life?
If school and home life were to be treated in much the same manner, what kind of impact would it have on learning?
As we have read in this chapter on The Clash of “Common Senses” both Linda and Tanya are impacted by the tension between the values and language they are raised in and the mainstream common sense that denigrates their culture. That which is encouraged in the “home life” of an AAV speaker may not be valued within mainstream “school life.” Meacham even asserts that mainstream common sense claims that an individual must abandon their home life in order to be successful academically, “working class students are portrayed as having to resist their surroundings and to leave their communities in to realize educational achievement (Meacham 183).” There is such a profound difference between the two aspects of life that Linda attended an African American college in order to have the “black experience,” because she would not be able to entrench herself in her culture and history in a predominately white school. At Clark university teachers promoted “African American cultural well-being, as opposed to “white middle class mainstream consciousness (Meacham 185).” In Tanya’s story her family valued SE which would create a bridge between home life and school life, but this resulted in an internal struggle for Tanya because her language characterized her as less black- even white. Tanya used SE as a defense to the evaluative judgment the mainstream subjects her to but this resulted in a “gap between the language she spoke and the culture she loved (Meacham 188).” To address your final question I draw from the conclusions made by Tanya and Linda. School and home life cannot be treated in the same manner as long as the common sense in power is not reflective of all cultures. Both woman resigned to the fact that they must “play the game” and that their African American students will “have to work harder” simply because of their race (Meacham 198). Tanya came to see playing the game as a productive opportunity to create a personal style and standards. I think it is paramount to note that “they realized, in different ways, that mainstream common sense, although pervasive and powerful, is not truth (Meacham 201).”
Good stuff.
ReplyDeleteShirley Brice Heath did a fascinating study--I think I mentioned it in class--called _Ways With Words_ in which she documents the "home language" of two communities (one Black, one White) and how the language of the town's school is in many ways incommensurable with both of them. The home/school divide is artificial, to be sure--and almost certainly damaging--but it's also deeply embedded in language patterns. Some have argued that the loss, over the years, of neighborhood schools has contributed to widening that moat.