Portfolio VI: Book Club

I read the book Holler if You Hear Me: The Education of a Teacher and His Students by Gregory Michie.

Major Points of Disruption

This book challenged a lot of my ways of thinking about education and schools, especially in areas with low-income, marginalized students. Beyond that, it also challenged my ideas about society and the prejudices, stereotypes, and racism we have at structural and institutional levels.

One major disruption that I had occurred throughout the book and was stated very well during the introduction. It says, "The popular notion of what it's like to teach in urban America is dominated by two extremes. On one hand are the horror stories, fueled by media reports that portray schools in chaos: incompetent administrators, hallways that are more dangerous than alleyways, students who lack even the most basic skills, parents who are uneducated and unconcerned. On the other hand is the occasional account of the miracle worker, that amazing super-teacher/savior who takes a ragtag group of city kids and turns their lives around overnight. Somewhere in between these two, between the miracles and the metal detectors, is where I teach," (Michie, 1999, p. xxi). As I read the book, I kept expecting the stories Michie told of his students to end at one of those extremes. When they didn't, I was consistently surprised and had to really think about my beliefs and ideas. I think that we oftentimes put students into categories based upon stereotypes and don't really see them for who they are - to us, and to me, they are often just a statistic or a story instead of a person or a life. I kept wanting the students to become hugely successful and inspirational stories, and it bothered me when they didn't. Thinking of marginalized individuals as stories dehumanized them and allows us to avoid empathizing or at least sympathizing with them. It creates an environment for us to have a deficit theory perspective because we don't acknowledge their humanity, potential, and accomplishments.

A specific example of this from the book was the experience of a student named Tavares. When they held their mock court in the first chapter, he did an amazing job as the prosecutor. I thought for sure that when he told Michie his life story in the next section that he would have graduated from high school, gone on to college, and been studying in law school. In my head, that would have made it a good story. However, when I read that he had dropped out of school and become involved in gangs and drug dealing, I was shocked. I had seen this student's potential in the classroom and when he was talking about himself, and he hadn't reached it. I realized then that I had an idea in my head of how he should be living his life based on my standards of morality and my middle-class, white experience. I judge others based on my perspective, because it lets me feel morally strong and right. This, again, leads to a deficit ideology. What Tavares said really hit me, "A lot of times when a person does something wrong, they know it's wrong, but they do it anyway. It's like a person that gangbangs - he knows it's wrong, he knows shootin' people is wrong, he knows selling poison to his people is wrong. But all people see is the outer part - his pants hangin' off his butt and his hat turned this way or that way - but they never look within him to see what's making him do what he does. If a person was to sincerely look within these guys, they would find a lot of scared young people. Scared of being broke. Scared of not having. Scared of not being able to do for their parents or their kids. And some of 'em, including myself, come from a background where there wasn't a lot of love there. Living in a house with a single parent - she's trying to be the mom and the dad - it doesn't really work out. She knows she's all by herself, and whatever we get, it's gotta come from her. If it doesn't come from her, we won't have it. So having to live with that, it tends to build a lot of pressure, and also causes you to make some mistakes in the process," (Michie, 1999, p. 15). When I dehumanize the people doing things that I think are wrong, I miss the chance to see them as they really are and to understand a wider view of what happens in society. This leads to more oppression and racism against Latin Americans.

Another disruption I had while reading was about the welfare system. In general, I do not agree with or support the way the federal government has structured its welfare system, on either side of the political spectrum, but I generally disagree with expanding welfare more than I would agree with it. While one of the students, Ruby, talks about her life, she discusses welfare from a different perspective than I have. She says, "That stuff about cutting welfare pisses me off. I think every kid should have a medical card to help with the hospital bills and stuff. It's gonna affect the women the most, because a man can have as many kids as he wants, but he doesn't have to support them. He can just leave. Some women work two jobs to try and support their kids, to put food on the table, to buy diapers - it's hard. They should put more pressure on the men. It's like the man commits a crime, and the woman has to pay for it. It's like she had the kid by herself," (Michie, 1999, p. 122). In this conversation with Michie, Ruby brings up both feminist issues and welfare issues. Both are concepts that I have a harder time with. I definitely don't think it's okay that men abandon women and children to try and survive on their own, but I never really thought about how this would impact their need to governmental assistance. Because of their gender, women are stuck in poverty trying to care for children they love and want the best for, but they can't always provide. When I refuse to acknowledge that a larger welfare system could benefit these women and families who are working harder than I have ever had to because of my privilege, those of us who have privilege get to keep our financial and health security at the cost of theirs. While I still don't know how I feel about government welfare programs, I'm starting to see that there needs to be something in place for the working poor who still have an extremely difficult time trying to make ends meet.

There were two examples of interactions with the police that really stood out to me as I was reading. The first was talking about police presence in their neighborhood, or rather, the lack thereof. The students claimed that, while the gangs were the biggest problem in their community, the police were either scared of them or had given up on the areas with the heaviest gang influence (Michie, 1999, p. 136). This discussion challenged my thinking in two ways. First, the individuals living in those communities really know how dangerous it is and what the problems are. They don't like the violence or gangs, which I should have realized before, but the stereotypes I had heard and believed told me that everyone living there is the same. I realize now that this racism is so extremely wrong and that I need to fight against it in myself, as well as in those around me. Again, I have been allowing myself to dehumanize people in an effort to make myself feel more comfortable and at peace. When I believe this way, I contribute to a problem of people not reaching out to those areas because we think the people there don't deserve it for whatever reason. Second, I have always had a positive image of police and their ability to keep us safe. Children in elementary and middle school have realized that police have given up on their communities, which is just an awful thought. No one should have to live knowing that public servants only serve a specific portion of the population, and that they somehow don't qualify for protection or aid. It makes me feel gross inside. This leads to the other example involving the police. This one was even harder for me to read because it was police brutality. One of the students was attacked by a police officer while waiting for a bus to take him to a school basketball game, simply because he was African American in a Mexican American neighborhood. The police officer's partner allowed the brutality to happen, showing passive racism. I want to believe that police are good and helpful and unbiased, so reading about an instance of brutality is always hard for me, but this one was harder, because I have to acknowledge that it was completely unprovoked and just wrong. How can we allow this kind of thing to happen? The fact that it does happen, and probably more often than I have been willing to realize, tells me that there is definitely institutional and structural racism in our society. We allow our public servicemen to perpetuate racism and violence. This consistently oppresses people of all minoritized races and ethnicities. It upholds structures of power and privilege, and that's not okay. I was shocked and horrified when I read this account, in a chapter entitled "And Justice for Some", which shows the twisted and hypocritical nature of our society (Michie, 1999, p. 145-157).

Towards the end of the book, Michie describes a graduation ceremony for eighth grade students. Each student had to take a standardized test to graduate, and the description enraged me. Some students, who worked extremely hard, barely failed to pass these tests and were denied graduation from the eighth grade (Michie, 1999, p. 166). I have a lot of problems with standardized tests, but this is an example that just makes me furious. These tests, designed by people disconnected with students in schools, have the ability to determine an important step in their educations, and deny them of so many opportunities. Students who do not speak the language of power or have middle class, white experiences often perform worse on these tests and the tests themselves can be very dysfunctional. I don't think we should ever determine a student's future based on one standardized test, no matter their socioeconomic status, race, ethnicity, or any other factor from their lives. But forcing students who come from a place of lower opportunity, cultural capital, and privilege to fail based on this standard is simply awful. I couldn't believe it when I read that. It's so wrong.

Connections to Class

This book brought up a lot of points about equity versus equality. For example, the students lived in a community where the closest schools were low-quality and strict. While they had access to a public school, this school did not have very many resources to really meet their needs. Many of the teachers were stuck in a place of doubting the students, harshness, and burn-out. Another example is in the services available to them. They had landlords, police officers, and utility workers, but this was not enough to provide them with a safe environment and usable goods. The people in this community needed more to get onto a level playing field.

Students also dealt with many issues of race, ethnicity, and class. One student, Paloma, discussed the issue of social reproduction. She said, "People say it's a chain - like statistics just repeat themselves. They say that because you grew up in a certain neighborhood you're gonna be a certain way. Or since your parents did this or that, and since you're their son or daughter, you're gonna do the same thing. It's a chain that keeps on going and going and going. But I think it doesn't have to be that way. You don't have to be just another statistic. You don't have to be a part of someone else's chain. You can start your own chain - a good one, you know? But you can't do it by just complaining and sitting there doing nothing. If that's all you do, then whether you want it or not, you'll become a part of that statistic. You have to change your mentality," (Michie, 1999, p. 107). Paloma approached the topic of social reproduction from the perspective of grit ideology. However, as many students realized, they had been placed in a situation that was almost impossible to break the cycle of without a changing structure. Many of the students' stories talked about how they had dreams but circumstances prevented them from attaining them, just like Tavares, who I talked about earlier. Structural and institutional racism causes social reproduction, and denies the possibility of a meritocracy. Students also had to face the discrimination that came with self-identification. One student, Nancy, identified herself as "Mexican" and was corrected by a teacher, who said that Nancy was "Mexican-American" (Michie, 1999, p. 68). Because of power structures, being considered American, even part American, has been thought of as better by those in power. Having cultural capital allows people in positions of power to advance high enough in society to uphold the societal structure that favors whiteness. Nancy also provided an example of discrimination based on social class. In her college class, she did not feel that she fit in because she came from a lower class than the typical middle class college student. She had to work to speak up and be heard due to her background (Michie, 1999, p. 67).

The book also provides a lot of examples of deficit ideology. Students in Michie's first classes were pulled out from school for special help - not because they were not intelligent in reality, but because they were seen as not being intelligent or knowledgeable enough to succeed. Michie illustrates his frustration with deficit ideology, "I cringe at news reports and studies that suggest that all urban kids really need is to get back to basics. Because what often seems to accompany this idea is a belief that the basics are all poor black and Spanish-speaking children are capable of learning," (Michie, 1999, p. 103). Thinking that students cannot learn or think beyond the basics due to their background denies them of many opportunities for real growth. It upholds social and power structures and only benefits those in power.

I thought that Michie did a good job providing some examples of culturally responsive pedagogy. One thing he did that I really liked was bring in a book written by someone from a similar background to the students. The book, The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros gave students the opportunity to study literature that they had the prior knowledge to really comprehend and relate to. In the case of reading The House on Mango Street, students had the correct language and experiences to really understand what the literature was saying. They enjoyed the experience and were able to learn a lot from reading, recording, and studying the book. They even had the opportunity to meet the author. She gave them an example of someone from their background, who really understood what it meant to live in their circumstances, who allowed it to shape her in good ways to influence others. Michie, in conjunction with another teacher, also had students study about what it means to be Mexican-American. In addition, he brought in culturally relevant media, topics, and ideas to the classroom in his Media Studies course.

Influencing My Future Work

Reading about the experiences of Gregory Michie and his students helped me realize a lot of things about teaching. Michie's most effective classes and lessons took place when he really related to his students and tried to include them in the learning process. He was not always successful. He talked about how he had a lot of bad days and there were students who he was not able to reach. I think that's something that's really hard to face as a teacher, but it's also something I think I need to come to terms with as I start my teaching. I can't let bad experiences prevent me from caring and from trying. Additionally, I need to work hard to prevent personal burn out and stress from impacting my students negatively.

Students can't learn in an environment where the teacher does not appreciate or include their cultures. They also deserve to have a teacher who is excited about the opportunity to interact with them. I want to teach Kindergarten, so I had hoped that my students would be more sheltered or protected from any harsh realities, but that won't necessarily be the case. Children in hard, inequitable circumstances are impacted by it very young, as evidenced by Michie's experiences in elementary school classrooms.

I cannot leave the work of supporting my students to someone else. Teaching for social justice includes me being a part of the change. I realized this as I read one specific story in the book. One student says, "Why does everybody say 'we' have to stop the gangs, 'we' have to stop the violence? You say that, but really you're waiting for another person to start up a resolution. You have to say, 'Oh, what can I do about this? What can I do?' So you could share it with another person, and that person could give you an idea, too. 'Cause you're always like, 'We should do something about this.' But you never do anything!" (Michie, 1999, p. 170). In order to effectively teach my children and include their cultures in my classroom, I have to be willing to change myself. I have to be willing to fight against the oppression I found reading this book, as well as other oppression in the world around me.


Reference
Michie, G. (1999). Holler if You Hear Me: The Education of a Teacher and His Students. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.