Portfolio III: Being the "Other"

For my experience being the "other", I went to Pins & Needles night at the Orem Public Library. The description online said that they would crochet and knit every Tuesday night. I have never done either of those, so I thought it would be a good experience for me.

One lady's book of patterns

I learned that this ball of yard tells you whether you should knit or crochet the hat based on what it says on the package. The one hook means it should be crocheted.

One woman's ball of yarn, showing what the finished product should look like. The two hooks mean that it should be knitted.

My attempt at crocheting

These four pictures are the cultural artifacts which I was able to take pictures of. A lot of the women also had bags, scissors, and large projects which they had been working on.

I was pretty nervous going in to this experience, partially I'm shy and don't like going places alone. Although I grew up in Orem and have been going to its library for my entire life, I didn't know where the room they were meeting in was and I had to ask a librarian. I ended up being one of the first two people there. The other woman was much older than me and I worried that I would be the only younger person there. But she was very kind, and started teaching me what to do with the crochet hook and scrap of yarn that I had found (with a little bit of help from my mom, who loves to crochet). Because she was so helpful, I understood that she, at least, was very welcoming. That was encouraging to me, but I still felt out of place. As others arrived, they were also helpful and welcoming. I felt very relieved. They were all older than me, but there were some young moms and even a few teachers, which helped me feel better, although still kind of out of place. The group also talked a lot about shared experiences. I realized that they have been meeting together for a long time, and are all friends. Some of them were also coworkers. This made me feel more out of place, because they were referring to experiences and events which I did not know about. They also used different terms talking to each other about their crocheting than they did when they were talking to me. I have no idea what a "slip stitch" is. There is a crocheting/knitting language that I don't know anything about. I just knew that I was supposed to make loops and pull the hook through them. This made me feel behind, not as knowledgeable, and insecure.

Even with how welcoming and kind the women at the Pins & Needles event were, my lack of experience in what we were participating in made me feel uncomfortable. There was a definite culture and language the other participants shared which I did not. I realized that this could be such a big problem in my future classroom. People are not always as welcoming of a minority as the women I met are. This could make an already uncomfortable experience even worse, leading to feelings of distance, stratification, and worthlessness. I think that is why developing an inclusive pedagogy is so important. Students need to feel included in the classroom, in any way possible. Even if I end up teaching in an area that is less diverse, students should learn to accept and encourage diversity and understand how to approach situations in which the people are not all homogeneous. Allowing a hegemony to influence teaching styles leads to oppression of minority cultures and people. Students need to feel safe and included at school so they can have the best possible environment for learning.