Between Two Worlds — Your Name here

HW Post #6  

Between Two Worlds Between Two Worlds, Due on Wednesday, Sept. 22 (before class by 12 noon).  Two paragraphs, 6-7 sentences each.  Reply to two fellow students’ posts.  Title:  Between Two Worlds — your name.  Category:  Writing Task — Between Two Worlds

We have read educational journeys of people navigating between two different worlds:

• José Olivarez is the son of Mexican immigrants.  He tells us that when he entered the local preschool in suburban Chicago, he was too Mexican, and that when he visited Mexico for the first time at age sixteen, he wasn’t Mexican enough. Throughout his difficult educational journey through public school, he writes of a double or “ambiguous” identity that has made it hard for him to feel at home anywhere–ni de aqui, ni de alla–in either the U.S. or Mexico.  He is“constantly fighting” with the different parts of his identity.
• Frederick Douglass feels so conflicted when he learns the hard facts of slavery that it puts him it at odds with his fellow slaves, “In moments of agony, I envied my fellow-slaves for their stupidity” (238).  He agonizes over which world is better existing in a state of knowledge or being in a state of ignorance.
• In prison Malcolm X learns to speak a new language–proper English–because he can’t connect with his mentor, the Honorable Elijah Muhammed, using street slang.  He must learn the language of the educated world in America, yet he speaks the language of the street.
• Esmeralda Santiago arrives from Puerto Rico and enters an American school only to be placed in a learning-disabled class instead of the standard 8th Grade class although she is a bright student. She must navigate between her eighth grade class of outcasts and the English-speaking teachers and students at her school feeling out of place in both groups.__________________________________

Here is the Writing Prompt:

Have you had the experience of living between two different worlds, perhaps each with its own language or traditions or values?  In your own life how have “ambiguous” feelings or internal  conflicted feelings–about language, identity, injustice, or opportunities that put distance between you and your family–affected your own educational journey?  What actions have you taken to  address the conflict?  Or, how have you learned to live with it?

Be sure to explain to your reader exactly which two worlds (or more!) you belong to.  You might be bi-lingual or bi-cultural, but you may also consider other world besides nationality–race, class, gender or gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, education, or other.