While reading Villanueva’s article I couldn’t help but pull out my highlighter and embark on a marking rampage. Pretty soon my article looked like a fluorescent pink art piece. I circled, wrote notes, underlined quotes for questions in class, and I had to ask myself, what about this article creates this drive to know more? Some of the articles in the class I can say haven’t really resonated with how I think I see myself as a teacher. Like Dr. Cauthen mentioned, some of the readings are a little dense. That however, hasn’t stopped me from finding pieces that I felt I could use, and intend to utilize the techniques in my future classrooms. But, one of the topics that Villanueva touched on is that what our field needs to embrace and welcome minority students, is the journals and articles. This idea of representation is hard to find in some of the articles that we are presented with. While reading the statistics (no matter how dated they may be) had me thinking is that what I have to look forward to? Never being heard in our field? I am sure the numbers have grown, and minority representation has grown within the CCCC and NCTE, but what does that mean for our students? Are their voices being heard in the classroom? Are we producing teachers that include Native American authors in their classroom? The canon has expanded over the years, but are we putting some of these things to use? How can we do this, with such a short time in a school semester and have an impact that our students can take with them in their future English Comp classes? Where does it begin? We hear success stories in our class about teachers who have had some success with including alternative discourse in their classroom, but we have to find ways to use these things across the board. I know the classics are pushed for students to learn and understand, but what is the definition of a classic? I have so many questions because I am beginning to see that this idea of “discourse” has left us with so many opened ended questions and answers. There is a hierarchy of what is acceptable in a classroom and what is not. Who responds to certain type of teaching and the zones in which they are dissecting information? It has been broken down to a science, but this idea of multiculturalism is frowned upon. As a minority student I do find myself from trying to see the racism in certain types of discourse or literature. I try to not make things a race issue. But unfortunately I see myself as Black; I wake up every day and see my reflection. I also see myself as a human, but as I am walking this Earth in America I am a black American, and I have things to say on the subject. My experience as Black in America has validity, so I should be able to conjure, and draw on these experiences in my writing. But I do get the feeling when we bring up race in some classrooms the looks from some of the non-minority students are not this again…..
I guess it might be too much to ask to have this free flowing utopia of discourse where everyone is politically correct, and no one is offended or questioned for their beliefs. But Villanueva says there is a place for everyone to be heard. I don’t think the subject of racism, multiculturalism can ever be overdone. We see that these issues are reinventing themselves, they are presented in less obvious ways. The challenge I think now comes with having enough articles that can be used in classroom to show students that this is an issue that concerns other in literature. And making our students feel stifled for making a mountain out of a molehill when it comes to race in the classroom or their writing.
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