Aly Catalan memo #6

       The closing to chapter 5 resonated with me because it is something that I am really thinking a lot about lately and just cannot shake from my mind. Campano writes: “I think it is important to temper one’s optimism. Although Ma-Lee, Priscilla, and other children were successful in my class, their educational futures remain uncertain because of systemic inequality… students who are shrouded in the mystery of their own particular histories, students who have left my class as well as the new students to arrive in the fall…whose mouths remain covered because we haven’t learned how to listen” (70-1). I am having such a hard time swallowing this this year. If there is a professional identity that I want to cultivate, it is really learning how to listen to students, which would be the interested identity. I spend so much time picking and choosing things from scripted curriculums that I think will resonate with my students, but who am I to make that decision? It is like one of Campano’s students says, that their lives do not just fit on a paper. I feel that oftentimes in my ESL courses, we are encouraged to get students to write about themselves first, and to use that as an entry way into getting to content. Although I do agree that it is important to let students express themselves and share who they are, which is what Campano touches on in his book, I find the entire system to be inauthentic, because even if I provide the time for my students to share their story with me or to use literacy in order to continue their stories, at the end of the day my students will take PARCC, STAR, ACCESS, and my ability to teach will be evaluated based upon their performance on these assessments. The whole thing is infuriating! I love what Campano did and what he was able to do in teaching and listen to his students, reflecting on his experiences, and then “committing to inquiry.” I think the real question that I have is how to inspire other teachers to follow this format as well? Is leading by example enough? I don’t know if anyone else felt this way while reading Campano. This realization is really depressing for me, even though I do think Campano wrote this work in a way that was meant to be hopeful and inspiring.