After reading through this article by Richard Rodriguez i have a new understanding a respect for children and people who come from different cultural backgrounds. This article sheds light on the ups and downs of not speaking the native language of the class room and how it can affect a child's learning and their family.
"Because I wrongly imagined that English was intrinsically a public language and Spanish an intrinsically private one, I had easily noted the difference between classroom language and the language of home."
Richard/Ricardo was himself as an outsider in the english world/classroom. But on the other hand he saw his Spanish roots as a warm welcoming language to comfort him and give him an escape from the english speaking world. He had connect the languages to the different locations it was used. So english was associated with the classroom, where Spanish was connected to home and family. I feel that this is a very hard thing for a child to deal with, making it hard for Richard to interact outside of his home life.
"From the doorway of another room, spying the visitors, i noted the incongruity-the clash of two worlds, the faces and voices of school intruding upon the familiar setting of home."
When Richard witnesses this encounter of his two worlds colliding, I feel there is some concern that his life is about to change. His perfect comfort of home being attacked by the outside language displayed as the nuns from school.
"But the special feeling of closeness at home was diminishing by then. Gone was the desperate, urgent, intense feeling of being home; rare was the experience of feeling myself individualized by family intimates."
Thought the progress of learning the english and becoming familiar with it, the family started to deteriorate. Their roots set in Spanish where no longer being recognized, which created a language barrier between the parents and children. This also created less of a need to rush back to the comfort of home where there had become a permanent silence.
So I concluded after reading this article that it is very important to recognize that these children have two identities, as Richard Rodriguez states in his text. These teachers don't recognize the importance of the children's native toung. It what connects them to their family as well as their roots. They should not feel ashamed of where they come from, or pressured to leave it behind. I strongly believe that these children should be encouraged to share their language and roots within the classroom, to teach the other students a little about where they come from. This will also show the children there is nothing wrong with coming from a different place, and create a greater interest or longing to learn more about there classmates second identity.
