Monday, December 1, 2008
reflection 2
Back in early November, there was a lecture and readings about immigrants in the classroom. While immigrant students may have a drive to study more, not cause problems in class, and do well in school, I feel like this all depends on what age the student is and how long the immigrant has been in the United States. In my perspective from what I have seen at the schools I went to, I noticed that immigrant students entering high school that have recently come to the United States have a drive to succeed in school, because their parents had sacrificed so much for them to have a better life than they ever did. They have a better understanding of what is important and how much better their lives will be with education. These students do not want to disappoint their parents. However, I have also noticed that when the immigrants come at an earlier age, like elementary school, they start to assimilate into the American society, their accent goes away, and it becomes almost impossible to differentiate them with other American kids. These kids do not have as strong a sense of responsibility that the older immigrants do.
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5 comments:
I completely agree with this. I have also seen this - not in school, but in my family. As we learned more about this through lectures and readings, I started to notice more how the educational views vary among my mom and her siblings. They all migrated when their ages ranged from 6-18, and it is definitely easy for me to see that the older ones appreciate their education still to this day more than the younger ones. It is very interesting.
I agree with the aforementioned ideas and I also believe that the strictness of the families involved and religious factors also contribute to level that different immigrants view education. Many Latinos share the Catholic religion and this probably contributes to the way that families view different activities. From personal experience I know that Catholic parents can be very strict and instill very firm moral standards. They also preach respect for elders whether it be a priest, family friend, or teacher. I believe that there is currently much more variance in the level of Catholicism than there was in the past. Some Catholic families are becoming more separated from the Catholic Church and this disparity may have something to do with why some Latino immigrants are more likely to pursue education. It is entirely possible that those who do better in school may have been pumped full of more of the lasting values than those who do not succeed in school.
As much as I agree with you that a lot of immigrant students have a dive to succeed, I must sadly say that I have also seen the opposite occur. I have seen immigrant students do poorly in school not because of a language barrier or any such thing, but because they look at the lines of work that their parents have and think that it is as good as it gets. I went to a high school with a relatively high Mexican population, and several of our students were immigrants or children of immigrants. These students were smart and they showed up for school every day. However, when it came to doing the work or taking tests, a lot of them simply did not care. I wondered why for a long time, then, on a visit back to my high school last year, I got into a discussion with one of my old teachers (a child of Mexican immigrants herself), and asked her what she thought the reason was. She said that a lot of these students only see and know what their parents do, and they assume that that is all they could ever do. So they think that they don't need school because it is not going to help them in agriculture or manufacturing or any of the other industries in which their parents work. They go to school simply to make their parents happy, but when it comes to trying to succeed, they don't see a point to it. How do we combat this? Show them more opportunities. Let them know that there is more out there for them if they want to succeed. Unfortunately, my school did not do this as well as others, so I will always wonder what happened to those few select students.
I believe their is a key difference between drive/determination to learn and the ability to succeed in obtaining an education.
Accounting for the ideas that Latinos maybe influenced by Catholicism, not wanting to disappoint ones family, and even content with their family socio-economic status quo, determination will not always equate educational success. As Professor Moje described her four sided parallels (seriously challenged to highly competent reader, knowledge reliant to effort processors) within her lecture, a child can put forth effort and still not be able to achieve one's ultimate goal, within her study literacy.
Personally, it is important to recognize all factors discussed and find solutions to address them. Simply generalizing external influences on a child learning ability will continue to hinder Latino youth. Unfortunately my criticism can not lead to alternative solution of the problems.
I agree with your statement that the earlier in age an immigrant comes to the United States, the less motivated they are to succeed in school. While living in Arizona, I volunteered in Phoenix where there is a large Hispanic population. When I worked in elementary schools, the kids often held high hopes for the future as many white students do when they are in elementary school. It is very common to hear a child say "I want to be a doctor" or "I want to be a lawyer." However, as the child grows older they realize how difficult it is to move up in society. Therefore, they do not try as hard when they enter high school, which I have also witnessed. However, older immigrants often come from a community with even less opportunities so they do not take living in America for granted.
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