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Date: Wed, 31 Mar 2004 09:54:09 -0500 (EST)
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From: "Eugenio Longoria" <ezl109@psu.edu>
To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov>
Subject: [NIFL-ESL:10155] Re: layers of meaning
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Thank You all and Andrea:
People are so politically driven. I can't stand that. They get so carried
away and forget the profession they so claim to practice and the people the
pretend to help.
Andrea, I like the story of your mother. My father is a farmer and learning
English would never have changed that. A farmer was what he was, like being
Mexican or a male. He couldn't change that and wouldn't either. Farmer was
his professional identity, like mine is a Teacher and Your mother's was a
landscape architect. Just because it is physical work does not mean it is
not worthy work. Many times I feel educators place value on middle class
labor only, like working in an office wearing a tie or a dress and heels.
If their students don't achieve that, then they have not progressed. How
awful is that? That is why I was so turned off by the conversation
yesterday. And, then, they are so pretentious; experts sitting on
pedestals. I'm sure they have good intentions, but they need a reality
check or just someone to knock them off their pedestals. I can't stand the
hypocrisy in the field, this "I'm your savior attitude."
Anyway this will be my last posting on this issue. I hope to meet all of
you some day. I have only been involved in the field for five years and I
am currently a student but will graduate some day and would love to work
with you all. Sometime things get heated up on list serves such as this
one, but I'm sure in a different setting we would be more civil with each
other, maybe. When we meet, don't bring your pedestals. I prefer the
we-are-on-the-same-level-eye-contact.
Eugenio
-----Original Message-----
From: nifl-esl@nifl.gov [mailto:nifl-esl@nifl.gov] On Behalf Of
AWilder106@aol.com
Sent: Wednesday, March 31, 2004 8:56 AM
To: Multiple recipients of list
Subject: [NIFL-ESL:10154] Re: layers of meaning
Interesting conversation.
America is made up of micro-cultures, one size does not fit all.
In my micro-culture, for example, higher education and physical labor are
not seen as separate categories as they are in other parts of the US and the
world.
In adult literacy the question may be--does the student have a choice?
Often, the student does not. I think the role of the adult educator is to
expand choice opportunities through reading and writing.
A word on the role of physical labor--work--in my micro- culture. My cousin
is multi-lingual, has lived and taught in other countries, runs a summer
program now for foreign graduate students. She also works around the house,
roofing would not be out of line for her. In our micro-culture a person
tends to be judged by how open they are to physical labor--1) will a visitor
join in without asking if they can help, 2) will they ask, or 3) will they
wait until you have finished....You may be thinking, "Remind me not to visit
her!" But this is fairly accurate.
It took me a long time, and I am still learning, to put my work aside when
guests come, and to act "polite." Also, at first going to Latin American
parties, or Jewish holiday dinners, was extremely difficult. I have (sort
of) learned both, but it's been a stretch
It's the "have to" aspect of physical labor for some, that catches in the
throat, not, I hope the fact that physical labor requires muscle exertion
and sweat.
My mother's chosen work involved physical labor, she was a degreed
professional landscape architect and a lot of her work for 60+ years was
outside. The wife of one of my mother's Italian stone masons gave her the
highest compliment I can think of when she said: "She was a hard worker."
I guess some of this is by way of saying that from inside my micro-culture I
don't appreciate it when physical labor per se is denigrated, it does make
me wonder where another person's values are; a lot of this discussion has
been about what we value and don't value, what we see as insulting or not,
how we judge other people.
Applying "politcal correctness" to a micro-culture can result in a strange
hybrid, my opinion.
Andrea
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