Reflections on My Story

When I first became aware of my race/ethnicity:

My parents moved from L.A. to Cleveland in 1968.  My father took a position teaching English at a community college in downtown Cleveland.  Shortly before I was born in 1971, they bought a home in Cleveland Heights.  They had to switch realtors because a couple tried to counsel them away from the area they wanted to a "whiter" neighborhood.  We ended up in a great house around the corner from Caledonia Elementary and a few doors down from the public library.  I don't remember any other white families living on our block.  There was one other white child in my kindergarten class.  That may be when I first became aware of my race.

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This isn't my Cultural Autobiography, but it is my response to one of the first questions in the book (How much do you know about equity issues...?):

I work with students and their families in the Migrant Education Program (MEP). Our students attend school in many districts throughout San Diego county.  Although not a requirement for eligibility, all of the students in the MEP in San Diego county are Latino--the overwhelming majority are Mexican or Mexican American.  During 18 years working in education, all of my students have been Mexican or Mexican American, except for 1 year I spent teaching in Virginia, when my kindergarten class was 100% African American.

Most of the families we work with in the MEP struggle to make ends meet.  Many are doubled, tripled, even quadrupled-up in apartments; parents work incredible hours for low wages; lack of transportation is a constant issue; internet access is growing--slowly--but still not the norm.

My students face many equity issues at school.  They are tracked into lower-level classes.  They are over-represented in Special Education.  They miss out on opportunities like field trips and camps because their families can't afford it.  They don't get to play sports or musical instruments in high school.  Counselors don't believe they can go to college, and may believe they and their parents don't care about school.  Teachers assign homework that requires the use of technology students don't have at home.  I am sure Harry Bloom will tell us wonderful stories about the access projects at SDCOE, but believe me--it is a very SLOW process.

My students' primary languages (not just Spanish, but indigenous languages too) are not valued and are even degraded by the culture of the school.  As a result, their culture is devalued.  This is devastating on many levels: it lowers self-esteem; kids miss out on learning about their rich historical and cultural heritage; a wedge sometimes forms between parents and children as children lose their home language.