Talking Points #2

"Aria"

By: Richard Rodriguez

In this piece, Rodriguez states that all people come from different backgrounds and speak different languages. He argues that all people from different backgrounds should be assimilated in the public.

1.) "Without question, it would have pleased me to hear my teachers address me in Spanish when I entered the classroom. I would have felt much less afraid. I would have trusted them and responded with ease."

Rodriguez, like many other children from different cultural backgrounds, feel overpowered when they go into class. Classes are obviously taught in English, but alot of kids speak a native language at home. This can play a roll in how they learn.

2.) "At last, seven years old, I came to believe what had been technically true since my birth: I was an American citizen."

After Richard's family had started talking to him in English at home, he started to feel more comfortable with speaking out in class. He felt confident. As in this quote, he finally felt like an American Citizen.

3.) "Today I hear bilingual educators say that children lose a degree of individuality' by becoming assimilated into public society. But the bilingualists simplistically scorn the value and necessity of assimilation."

This stands out to me because this was a boy from a bilingual, but strong spanish-speaking background, and after he changed to speaking English fluently, he strongly beleives that people should be publicly assimilated. It is for the best interest of the persons life. It opens job opportunities, and social benefits.

This is a very sensible piece for any teachers in inner city schools. It helps you relate to where alot of children are coming from. Sometimes it is hard for us to see where other people come from, and therefore hard to understand why they are the way they are in public. Again this article deals with race and ethnical backgrounds like our other articles. This was an easy read, and very informative to me as a student teacher. Although I come from an inner city school, I kind of live outside of the city part, so it is hard for me to relate to problems such as this. It intrigues me and makes me want to get more involved.

When I read or hear of problems like this, it motivates me to do something about this. If children are going to lear, we haveto try to get them as close to the same level as we can in the early stages like kindergarten. Right now I am student teaching a kindergarten class, and although it is not what I want to be teaching forever, this will allow me the opportunity to change some things in the classroom. I can pay more attention to pronounciation and tone. I can work with different kids at different rates, knowing that they all do not have the same grasp on things.

I would like to know if anybody in the class has had a similar situation growing up? If so did you have as much trouble as Rodriguez had at becoming assimilated?