Zacher

This is a very interesting study on children’s social positioning in literary events.  Zacher bases her study on DeAndre, Arturo, John and Marcus, students who have known each other since kindergarten and have established some kind social hierarchy within their friendships with each other.   DeAndre is the most popular kid because of the symbolic and cultural capital.  Arturo and John are a part of DeAndre’s group and thus also hold symbolic capital.  Marcus, despite being friends with the boys, is the lowest ranking member of the group’s hierarchy.  This may be in-part due to his lack of economic capital (Zacher has observed him using a string and ribbons as a makeshift belt for his pants).

Arturo basically writes two stories about unnamed boys.  The first one was about a kid who broke a window and got “whooping” for punishment.  The second story was about a shoe thief who was also punished, but this time by the victim of the theft.  What is interesting is that Arturo, instead of using pseudonyms, uses his friend’s names in the stories when he reads them to the class.   

In his first story, Arturo named the kid who broke the window John.  John’s friend is “Shorty” whom everyone knows as DeAndre (However, only DeAndre’s friends are allowed to call him Shorty).  In this story, John who is also Arturo’s friend and equal is the boy that gets the whooping.  Arturo makes sure to mention Shorty because he knows that in doing so, he can confirm to and remind everyone about his association with DeAndre.  

Before Arturo’s reads his second story, Marcus read his.  His is called “My Story” and is about a boy who seems to have an economically stable and loving family.  Ironically, according to Zacher, Marcus just paints himself as this boy because in reality his living situation is far from what he describes in his story.   

Arturo senses this and proceeds to insert Marcus as the shoe thief in his next story and DeAndre as the victim although the characters were nameless in his written text to begin with.  This reading puts Marcus back in his “place” and solidifies DeAndre’s standing and Arturo’s standing with DeAndre’s group.

In retaliation and in an attempt to change his “status” he races to the front of the room before DeAndre can present, and says “I got story. John beat up Arturo and gave him two black eyes and a bloody nose”.  

The boys used this literacy event as a tool to promote or, in Marcus’s case, to change their social status.  I’m willing to bet that most of us have been in this kind of competition over status with our friends during childhood...and if not childhood, in adulthood.   I remember a similar scenario happening to kids when I was in third grade class and then happening to another group of kids when I was in seventh grade.  

  Zacher ends her analysis by concluding that the teacher become more aware of situations like this.  By becoming aware, the teacher has an opportunity to productively have students access and analyze their own class or social identities.  This would certainly be a form of multicultural education and could possibly produce a better understanding of social identities.  I really think that this is both plausible and beneficial.