Susan Ch. 5- Holidays

          When Mrs. Brown was working with Peley and Raji for Columbus Day, she asked Peley if she was born in Cambodia. Peley was very indignant, and insisted that she was born in the United States. I can't help wondering why that was. Was it because she knew all her classmates (as far as I'm aware) were born in the U.S. and she hated to be singled out (even if the only other classmate there was Raji)? Or was it something that her parents stressed to her? The way things are set up in the U.S. and social attitudes, Americans stress the assimulation into our culture. After all how many times (mostly on t.v.) does someone say things like "Speak American." (which I admit worries me about the general populace sometimes because you know there are actual people without scripts who say things like that.) Peley's parents could have picked up on this attitude and somehow stressed to Peley that she's an American, she was born here.
        Also throughout the whole chapter I kept thinking that these holidays would have been a great way and time for Mrs. Starr to ask the children what holidays they celebrate with their families and introduced these holidays to the other children.
         One last thing. The birthday spanking... do you think that's something that is still done in the school today? What do you think people's attitudes would be toward it?
Susan

Holidays in Cambodia and India (Chapter 5)

Cambodia Major Public Holidays:
January 7- Victory from Geneocide day (Celebrated to commemorate being free from rein of Khmer Rouge)
April 13-15 or 14-16- Cambodian New Year (Considered most important festival in Cambodia)
November 9- Independence day (Celebrates freedom from France in 1953)
November 10-12- Water Festival (Celebrates end of monsoon season)
These are the major stated holidays in Cambodia. As with the United States, there are a number of other holidays also celebrated (such as Chinese New Year). These are the biggest holidays in Cambodia and below you will see the biggest holidays in India.

India Major Public Holidays:
January 26- Republic Day (Commemorates the Constitution of India signing in 1935)
August 15- Independence Day (Celebrates the freedom from Britian in 1947)
October 2- Mahatma Gandhi's Birthday (Celebrates the "Father of India")

All other in India are based upon religious beliefs. They celebrate all other holidays of different religions as well. The major religions are Buddism, Christianity and Hindu.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_holidays_in_India
http://sgholiday.com/2010/05/cambodia-public-holidays-2011-calendar/

Vocab and Concepts - Elizabeth (Chapter 5) Blog #2

Vocabulary/Concepts

1. Representative Symbols - A symbol is something such as an object, picture, written word, sound, or particular mark that represents something else by association, resemblance, or convention. All language is made up of symbols but culturally not all symbols mean the same to all people or in all languages. For example, Red symbolized love in Peley’s Cambodian Culture so she understood the Valentine’s day event to some degree.2. Assimilationist Perspective - is used in the text frequently and assimilation means a successful melting pot scenario within the educational system. Assimilation in this text means “Cultural assimilation is a socio-political response to demographic multi-ethnicity that supports or promotes the assimilation of ethnic minorities into the dominant culture"3. “Yuk” - Peley often makes this sound and it seems like she has a true aversion to being dirty or having unclean hands. I am really curious if that is a home element or from the broader Cambodian culture. She is often forced into this uncomfortable position which leads to a product but the product is meaningless for her and her family and the process is where the learning would happen and when her hands are forced into glue and she is left to run to clean off it’s really upsetting.

4. Isolation- the separation or isolation of a race, class, or ethnic group by enforced or voluntary residence in a restricted area, by barriers to social intercourse, by separate educational facilities, or by other discriminatory means. In this text the general definition of isolation or segregation is the social barrier that exists for Peley and Raji

5. Intregration - to end the segregation of and bring into equal membership in society or an organization. For Raji and Peley to be completely included this would need to happen.

A link is attached for further information on Immigration and Education:
http://www.tc.edu/cice/Issues/09.01/91_02_cice_fall2006_edintro.pdf

Holidays and Curriculum...creating isolation for some (Chapter 5) Blog #2

It is honestly hard for me to picture a pre-k or kindergarten classroom without holidays and season changes being recognized. It has been this way for so long and my bias here is that I participated in these activities as a child and enjoyed them. But what this reading has shown me is that the holidays took up a greater deal of the curriculum than I recall and that can create a deep sense of isolation for those children who do not know, understand or celebrate the traditional Western Holidays.

The continuing lack of communication between the home culture and the ESL teacher and classroom teacher is troubling. They are both noticing that the children are not socially fitting in and the ESL teacher realized how little she knew about her students but neither did anything about it. There were times where the remarks made by Peley or Raji were simply ignored when what they were communicating might have been cleared up if the teachers had pressed harder and asked more probing questions without being intrusive, just curious and interested. I think if the questions about their home life and home cultural were discussed and a genuine interest was shown the attention would have been deemed positive and the children might have opened up.

It's frustrating to see them get so close to the right thing to do but not to follow through and ask the questions and get to know these two students better. The focus is just on a set curriculum without any thought on adapting the curriculum to the students which is an essential element of a true inclusive education for all students.
There just was not enough effort and reaching understanding of the holidays meanings and a complete lack of understanding of what holidays are celebrated or not in the homes of these two children.

Do you think that removal of all celebrations and seasonal activities is the best way for a school to run, instead of continuing to use the mainstream culture to help shape early childhood education?
Would there still be value in discussion of just seasonal changes as a scientific reasoning of the world the children live in?
- Elizabeth Francescotti

Blurred Lines (Chapter 5)

I have always found one thing about suburban American schools to be particularly upsetting; they continue to focus on Western European holidays. While my family is of Western European decent, through and through I am American. Being that I am American, one thing I am proud of is our acceptance of cultures from around the world. The actions of Ms. Star in Chapter 5 truly rubbed me the wrong way. She celebrated most of, if not all of, Western European American Christian holidays. I understand that most people in America do recognize and celebrate these holidays, but we cannot allow them to over shadow the other holiday's people of our country celebrate.
One perfect example is Christmas; a holiday that seems to overrun every other culture and holiday in our country. For Peley, "a Christmas gift for her parents was meaningless (p.78)." Her family had no semblance of a Christmas theme in her house, according to the author. As for Raji, whose family was in India, we have no idea how his family celebrated the season, if at all. I feel Christmas, while I do celebrate the holiday, has become too big and diminishes the other holidays that are celebrated around that time. America was founded as a place to celebrate and welcome people of all beliefs and as a place to keep personal religious beliefs separate from state run agencies.

Karen Paine - Ch 5 - Peley's Sensitivity

Schmidtheads:

What I have noticed throughout the book and particularly in Chapter 5, is the author's ignorance of Peley's obvious physical sensitivity. For the Christmas assignment, the students were to make a piece of art that they would give to their parents as a "Christmas present." The project required the students to place the entire surface of both palms in glue and print them on construction paper that was decorated with a pre-printed poem. Peley resisted this project. Mrs. Starr had to physically place Peley's hand in the glue herself, all the while Peley exclaiming "yuk yuk." In fact, after the project, "Peley continued making her 'Yuk' sounds and quickly washed her hands after the imprint' (page 78). Ruggiano-Schmidt stated that Peley was not happy about placing her hands in the paste because "a Christmas gift for her parents was meaningless." I definite agree that this was one reason why Peley was displeased with the project. But neither Peley's teacher, nor Peley's observer, questioned whether a physical sensitivity was a factor in Peley's resistance.

Illustration (Chapter 1-4)

First four chapters: Susan Schuler (Chapters 1-4)

The first four chapters had a lot of information to take in.
Reading about the teacher's reaction or more aptly said, non reaction, to what is happening in the classroom, my first reaction is to wonder just how much attention she is paying to her students. My second reaction is to think what if I end up like that? Not noticing the issues going on right under my own nose? It's one thing to not do something properly and to notice and learn from it. But to do something wrong and not even know or realize...
I wonder what her reaction was, what everyone's reaction was to how they were portrayed in the book? Did they learn from it, did they change the way they did things?
Another thought that ran through my head while reading this was to think that this was written back in the nineties and keeping in mind the editing process and the actual observation, these children were children in early nineties or even late eighties. Where are they now? What are Raji and Peley doing now? Did their social problems get better through the years? Did they even complete school?
Did anyone else think about this?

ElizabethF. -Cultural Differences are important to recognize, include and utilize in literacy education (Chapters 1-4) Blog#2

When I read the first four chapters of this book I had to keep reminding myself that this teacher wasn’t in the benefit of the hindsight view that the reader has, nor the cultural background of the family life of each of these students’ Peley and Raji.

I found that I thought, wait, she is missing a teaching opportunity here! There are many times when I thought the teacher should have talked about these two classmates cultures, and have them shared and used as a chance to learn about a different place in the world and that the world is so much larger than the average kindergartner knows.

In particular I thought that when Raji would leave the class to be in India for a few months that the teacher should have told the class that he was leaving for his nature country and let them ask questions about that. Then Raji and the teacher could supply answers. It seemed to me that this would have helped Raji with being included, rather than further excluded, because the other children just made their own assumptions that Raji was missing school and just having fun while they all still had to attend, creating a dislike.

“It seems apparent that the classroom teacher who creates a literacy learning environment that promotes social connections and encourages the understanding of different social patterns contributes to children’s literacy learning.” (Schmidt pg3).Mooney’s text “Theories of Childhood” shows that Vygotsky found the “primary contribution to our understanding of young children’s development is his understanding of the importance of interaction with teachers and peers in advancing in children’s knowledge” (Mooney, pg 83). This is key in explaining why Peley and Raji are not advancing in their language development as well as they could be. They are experiencing isolation and peer rejection and it’s hindering them. The matter of fact is that the peers don’t understand Peley or Raji’s behaviors well, nor do the teachers. If there was more family cultural background conducted then some of the ‘odd behaviors’ could be explained as a breach in cultural experiences in their homes, their native countries and school environment. It’s being missed by the teacher because some improvements are seen but deeper understanding is not there. This book shows how important that element is.

If I were Peley or Raji I would really be discouraged and frustrated and as such young children they aren’t likely to know to speak out for themselves with their words. There is no praise for Raji’s talents and Peley is completely misunderstood. This would make a love of learning hard for anyone when there is so much conflict experienced over and over.

We are all becoming more of a 'global community' as technology and travel have made it easier to prevent cultural isolation or immigration. Understanding conflicts in culture become that more important of a topic for teachers to be aware of.

Elizabeth Francescotti - Rigorous Researcher (Chapters 1-4)

As the rigorous researcher, I tried to get a little more acquainted with the cultures of Peley and Raji.

Cambodia is located in South East Asia and is between Thailand and Vietnam. Culturally most Cambodians are Buddhists. And interestingly, Birthdays are not big events like in the West. People of the older Cambodian generation may not even know their date of birth as many lost their birth certificates during the Khmer Rouge Years. This was a period of war torn times. So culturally, the year of the birth is know and birthdays aren’t stressed as highly important events like it is in the U.S.

“India is a land of diversities. This diversity is also visible in the spheres of religion. The major religions of India are Hinduism (majority religion), Islam (largest minority religion), Sikhism, Christianity, Buddhism, Jainism, Zoroastrianism, Judaism and the Bahá'í Faith”( http://www.culturalindia.net/indian-art/paintings/index.html)

As far as art work goes nature is a very common theme and is something Raji demonstrates with his intricate floral designs. Unfortunately this cultural feature leads his talented artwork neglected and instead he is called “girly.”

Resources utilized:

Central Intelligence Agency. "https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/cb.html." The World Factbook. US Government, CIA, n.d. Web. 3 Oct. 2010. <https://www.cia.gov/index.html>.

"Indian Culture - Cultural India - Culture of India - Cultural Heritage of India - Cultural Attractions in India - Indian Cultural Heritage." Indian Culture - Cultural India - Culture of India - Cultural Heritage of India - Cultural Attractions in India - Indian Cultural Heritage. N.p., n.d. Web. 4 Oct. 2010. <http://www.culturalindia.net>.

Karen Paine - Vocabulary (Chapters 1-4))

Grapheme

A written or printed representation of a phoneme, as b for /b/ and oy for /oi/ in boy. Note: In English, a grapheme may be a single letter or a group of letters. It includes all the ways in which the phoneme may be written or printed.

Grapheme-phoneme correspondence
The relationship between a grapheme and the phoneme(s) it represents; letter-sound correspondence, as c representing /k/ in cat and /s/ in cent. Note: Technically, grapheme-phoneme correspondence refers to how letters correspond to sounds, not vice versa. Phonics as a teaching device in reading instruction concerns grapheme-phoneme correspondences-that is, how to pronounce words seen in print.

FROM: Indiana University

Karen Paine - Ch 1-4 Impressions

The cultures of Peley and Raji are not valued in school, and they are not used as a catalyst for learning with the other classmates. In chapter three, Ruggiano-Schmidt says, "neither child was introduced to literature relating to their cultural backgrounds" (page 36). In Chapter Four, regarding snack time, Ruggiano-Schmidt states that in response to Ravi's favorite foods, classmates exclaimed "Yuck!" or "I don't get it!" (page 44). If the teacher does not familiarize the students with the varying cultures represented in the classroom, then the majority culture may threaten the minority cultures.

This cultural tension is manifested in student relations. Repeatedly, Ruggiano-Schmidt mentions how incidences relating to the children's discomfort or skill go unnoticed. For instance, Raji's intricate drawing of the rocket ship, or Peley's apparent physical sensitivity to touch and textures. When there is animosity from other students there is not adequate intervention. The teachers act on a day-to-day basis and because they are focused only on daily interactions, the cumulative effect of the negative social-cultural interactions between the students, the unhappiness of Peley and Raji, is untraceable.

What is clear is that Ruggiano-Schmidt believes that without social interactions, students cannot fully display literacy learning; without cultural recognition, social interaction is nearly impossible. This is where the teacher comes in, to bridge the gap of understanding. However, Mrs. Starr never relates the social problems of Peley and Ravi with the cultural differences between home and school (page 36). "When the school program ignores or rarely makes cultural connections between home and school, cultural conflict and struggle become apparent" (page 40).