I agree with what Carillo had said about the CCSS and how it doesn’t teach enough about understanding and using our own frame of reference to analyze text. In school, I’ve mostly always have felt like I needed to make a response that would satisfy my teacher and the curriculum as correct whether or not it was how I felt or interpreted it at first. At this point, I’ve become used to it so I don’t feel too strongly about it, but I can see how flawed this is. I haven’t thought about the difference between “knowledge” and “understanding” until now, but after reading the assignment I can see the distinction the author had made and how it affects students today. It’s important to know the distinction, because it shows how we as humans can analyze and interpret our own meaning from things instead of just processing information like a robot.
I also have various “Englishes” that I use to communicate with people in my life regularly. Like Lysicott, I speak differently depending on who I’m around and what the environment is like. When I’m with my friends I speak more casually and use curses, but when I’m with teachers, I cut out the curses, speak more maturely, and try to come off as more articulate. The best quote to show this would be when Lyiscott says “So when my father asks, “Wha’ Kinda ting is dis?” my “articulate answer never goes amiss. I say ‘father, this is the impending problem at hand.’ And when I’m on the block I switch it up just because I can so when my boy says, ‘What’s good with you son?’ I just say, ‘I jus’ fall out wit dem people but I done!’ And sometimes in class, I might pause the intellectual sounding flow to ask ‘Yo! Why dese books neva be about my peoples’. Yes, I have decided to treat all three of my languages as equals because I’m ‘articulate’.” With Tan, my mother also usually speaks different English when she’s talking to me or my sisters. She usually speaks an English-Urdu-fused form of the language. When she’s talking to doctors on the phone, however, I can tell the difference in her enunciation, tone, and articulation.
I’m glad you connected so well with the Lysicott piece — it’s really both funny and enlightening, and that’s just the best, as far as I’m concerned. It’s also good that you see the point Carillo’s trying to make; you’re right that it’s about how students have been affected by simply going along with the “correct” answer and not being allowed to think. Important comments. Good work.