Blog 7:Aria by Rodriguez and Teaching Multilingual Children by Collier

This blog assignment is on the readings of Aria by Richard Rodriguez and Teaching Multilingual Children by Virginia Collier. Rodriguez tells a compelling story of learning the language of English as a child and his own personal anxiety with the language of "Los gringos." While attending school as a boy, the nuns that taught him in school went to confront his parents at home and encourage the family to speak English outside of the school. Rodriguez parents immediately conform to the teachers request and he makes it sound like it had an incredible impact on him. Rodriguez states " In an instant, they agreed to give up the language that had revealed and accentuated our family's closeness." It is obvious that at this young age the author had a great family connection with the speaking of his formal language and it sounds like he was desensitized to his family when English became the language used in his home. Another quote that illustrates what this American school had done to this author's family by requiring English be spoken in the home "There was a new quiet at home. The family's quiet was partly due to the fact that, as we children learned more and more English, we shared fewer and fewer words with our parents." Depending on how many ESL students felt like this, it could be assumed that Hispanics were having trouble at school with English and trouble at home learning English. It was affecting relationships with teachers and relationships with parents. Rodriguez goes on to talk about assimilation(developing one's culture) and how it could strip one of it's individuality. This is a quote that shows the trouble with not recognizing another culture in classrooms: "After English became my primary language, I no longer knew what words to use in addressing my parents." I could not imagine not knowing how to communicate with my parents, it sounds like a hurtful experience and one I would not wish on anybody. I feel that if this is the majority of feeling towards teaching in our classrooms, then systems should be changed. Schooling should not tear families apart while adjusting to a new culture, this sounds like an American nightmare. The Collier piece was a little more optimistic in teaching kids a different language. Reading Collier brought me back to the Rodriquez piece and how his life learning experience could have changed had those nuns stayed away from his house that day and they incorporated some of her advice. Collier argues in her article about teaching kids ESL " The key is the true appreciation of the different linguistic and cultural values that students bring into the classroom." Teachers need to recognize a person of a different culture in our society and celebrate it, not try to brainwash this individual from who they are or where there from. Cultural diversity in what makes us a great nation, if everyone thinks the same, no one is thinking very much. Collier also gives 7 guidelines on how to teach ESL students and have a greater impact to better their lives. One of the guidelines I found would be helpful in erasing what happened to Rodriguez is guideline 3 which stated: "Don't teach a second language in any way that challenges or seeks to eliminate the first language." I found this to be interesting in teaching children who are learning English as a second language. It may eliminate all the problems that Richard Rodriguez had and give kids like him a good life in our culture and keep a strong family relationship at home with parents who might not speak the language. In reading the rest of the article by Collier,found it a bit difficult to keep up with the "code switching patterns" but the guidelines I found very useful. I think Collier's article sheds light on the problems of Richard Rodriguez's schooling as a ESL student. It was damaging to his family to have teachers dictate his home life and Collier gives solid guidelines on how to keep these students happy in both the classroom with the teacher and at home with their parents.