I felt rather naive reading Wong Chapter 5 last night, a familiar feeling that I've had throughout this semester. Throughout much of my life, I can honestly say that I've taken for granted what I have been given and the status that I have been granted in society simply because of my background. Before this semester, I had never really given much thought to the push for English-only education in the United States. When I was taking English education classes and going through student teaching, I assumed that this monolingual policy was simply the way to go. Now, however, I realize that "erasing" someone's first language also means erasing their culture, erasing a huge part of their identity.
DuBois' concept of double consciousness was especially interesting to me. "It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others, of measuring one's soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity," wrote DuBois in 1961 (172). I have never been a hyphenated American, by DuBois' and much of the United States' standards. I have not been Caucasion-American; rather, I have just been American. Yet, minorities in this country always seem to get that hyphen attached to their name, qualifying them as something else and simply citizens of this country as I am. These actions in itself appear to be an accepting of that racism discussed in today's readings.
Much of the teachings in these readings can easily be transferable to the classroom context, if only for teachers to be more open-minded and aware of the diverse backgrounds of students in a classroom. Perhaps one of our jobs as teachers is to help students (re)discover those collective memories of indigenous discourses, of discourses from their past, so that we can reevaluate that dominant discourse that many unhyphenated Americans are not even aware exists so strongly. I do agree with Wong that there will always be a tension for teachers between that diversity and creating a common ground for her students. Students, regardless of their backgrounds, need to feel a part of the classroom group as well as a part of their own culture. This balance may be hard to achieve, but, as teachers, we must always try to do this.
I also agree that a lot of the things that we have learned in this class can be applied to all classrooms. The math, science, history teachers are all going to have students whose first language is not English. So, I think that it is important for all educators to "be more open-minded and aware of the diverse backgrounds of students in the classroom" like you said. Unfortunately, not all educators will take a class like this to see the importance to embracing a students heritage, culture, and L1.
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