Englsihes

I 100% agree with what Carillo had to say about the whole English Core Learning standard. I believe the mentality of “The same method goes for everyone”, is not ideal only because there are so many other methods one might prefer which will actually help them in future references. Growing up I did not like the way my English teachers would teach using their methods only because it would always confuse me. Majority of the time, we would take a text, for example, have to agree with what they’re saying and write about what they were trying to say in our own words. I did not like doing this because there were times where I didn’t’t agree with what that piece of writing was. Basically, I was forced to agree with a saying without even having a choice, whether I liked it or not. Thinking about it now it is extremely frustrating because my entire life I had to deal with my grade suffering because it did not meet with the “Common Core State Standards.” How does one feel it is okay to automatically mark an answer as wrong because they were thinking outside the box and not with one had planned their answer to be ? Why must my grade have to suffer because I was using my creative mind to answer a question ? It’s sad that this is what the “Common Core State Standards” expects and if one’s answer does not meet with those standards, then it’s automatically wrong. To me, the difference between “knowledge” and “understanding” were very important because majority of time I wouldn’t understand what my English teacher was trying to teach which always aggravated me. For me, it wasn’t fun when I would have to go to class and walk out with “understanding” anything. In my opinion and experience, “knowledge” is something one knows before they were even taught it. “Understanding” is able to comprehend something and possibly being able to teach what you had just been taught. This is important today because, many teachers fail to know whether their students actually understand what they were just taught.
I can relate to, “Mother’s Tongue” in many ways such as, when Tan talks about how she had to pretend to be her mother to be able to be taken seriously, is something I have had to do for my mother as well. I’ve had to speak “proper English” using fancy words to talk to someone on the phone talking about fixing insurances, things like that. In “Mother’s Tongue”, Tan states, “I was ashamed of her English… the fact that people people at departments stores, at banks and at restaurants did not take her seriously….”, this is something I’ve witnessed happen with my mother because her primary language is not English. Now, if someone were to mistreat my mother I would fully defend her.