Other People's Words: The Cycle of Low Literacy

If Dr. Purcell-Gates did not undertake the task of teaching Jenny and Donny how to read, many people would not know of this "invisible minority." It was certainly news to me. However, it did open my thinking to how children are and/or were traditionally taught using the word recognition view of reading with preconceived notions about what they should know entering kindergarten. My frustration with the education system that Jenny and her son, Donny encountered caused me to wonder how many of the visible minority are experiencing the same dismissiveness in 2011. Although I'm not in a classroom setting yet,this book posed an interesting dilemma. Would I do what was in the best interest of the child, or would I ignore the pleas of a mother and move the child along to make my principal and the school look good on paper? I'm sure teachers today are stuggling with this question and college remedial classes are full of the choices that these professionals have made. How can we as graduate students be different? How can we act as Dr. Purcell-Gates did in discovering how literacy functions in Jenny and Donny's lives and then find ways to make it more accessible to them in the small amount of time we have with students?
This book has allowed me to see literacy from the perspective of the have nots with which I'm unfamiliar. I'm sure there are more. Knowing what their culture is like, investing in finding out what their culture is like can only enhance my ability to teach. It is likely I will come across students of different ethnicities, backgrounds and cultures living in this city. My assumptions about my students cannot be more important than my desire to teach. My desire to get everyone on the same page cannot be more important than the one student that is lagging behind. I do not want to be that teacher who dismisses someone because I think they can't learn or they are too far gone to be helped. After reading this, I'm convinced there needs to be literacy centers outside of a school setting that can help facilitate learning in an enviornment that is non-threating, non-assuming and places an emphasis on the student's progress instead of the institution's status.