My Mind-Bending Experience
Can someone’s opportunities and life outcome be decided from birth? In my life, I was taught a variety of things I had to look forward to because of my gender and race, and most of those things being negative. One of those things I was taught was that for me to be something I couldn’t be “a stigma” and for me to be something I had to get an education, but I was also taught that most of my teachers wouldn’t care and they were only teaching to get paid, which then gave me a lone ranger perspective that was negative and flawed. As time went on teachers showed me that may very well be the case but there were periods in my learning experiences that I was shown just how much a teacher can care.
My first instance of when a teacher showed me I wasn’t in this alone was in 6th grade. I was new to middle school and I had an idea that everything was fast-paced and there would be little to no help, that was until I met my English teacher. My teacher was the type of teacher that you wanted to know because she was a great teacher but also a real teacher. She didn’t pull any punches when editing your paper and she was never afraid to tell you, “this sounds dumb.” But what really made her most memorable is the fact that she acknowledged and introduced us all to the fact that, we were born with odds stacked against us, and as young black learners we were not expected to be much. But she made it very clear to us that no matter what others may expect of you, you have to reach your own heights and defy the normalcies. It was her words and her level of care that set her apart from the other teachers and it let me see that from a young age there is help in education but also if you don’t want what’s best for yourself then you can’t expect to reach new heights.
English: Rubik’s Cube
A Rubik’s Cube is a colorful multi-faceted puzzle that can only be solved by manipulating the puzzle to make every face have all solid colors. When learning English there are times when it feels like a puzzle but what makes me think most about Rubik’s Cube is after you decipher the language you start to realize that there are different ways to speak to different crowds. My journey of learning is one that may not be as complex compared to some who did not start in an English-speaking place but basic English was one of the first languages. Although in my house Hebrew was spoken more my parents never lacked when it came to teaching their kids how to speak English eloquent enough to show manners and couth. It wasn’t until later in school that I started to step back and recognize English as I know it today. And much like Amy Tan, I was able to recognize that in different settings you may need to address someone differently and found the need to code-switch. Code-switching is, “the practice of alternating between two or more languages or varieties of language in conversation” (google.com). Growing up I went to school needing to know how to differentiate between an A on a paper while staying up with all the changes in “street talk.” For many parts of my academic career, I had teachers that taught with the thought in mind, my students are like empty bank accounts and it’s my duty as a teacher to deposit facts, and this was beneficial in my opinion. It was the differences in my teacher’s age, race, attitudes, and teaching methods that allowed me to grow my own knowledge and apply it to certain situations. The way they spoke from the time they greeted me to the time they send me off was all a part of my identification of the various facets of the English language, and although they may have thought they were pouring in nothing but facts it was my rationalization of the information that allowed me to learn. Knowledge is only as powerful as the understanding behind it and when you are taught by someone who teaches with their own understandings and experiences that’s when you can truly begin to learn for yourself.
