Alan K. Frishman
1.
Continuum Process
(See previous discussion.)
2.
What is the First Thing You Notice When You See a New Person?
Let us guide our students in the direction of bringing their assumptions to their consciousness. For this purpose we use the guided exercise, “What is the first thing you notice when you see this new person?” In this process, we show our students various pictures and segments of videos and have them determine which particular indicator is most important to them at any given time, based on particular needs. We ask the students to hypothesize which situation would make which pair the most significant, for example: interviewing a candidate for a job, choosing someone to date, picking up sides for a ball game, sitting next to a stranger on a train, selecting a college roommate, choosing a partner in class for a collaborate exercise.
For this exercise here are some possible pairs:
male
|
female
|
non-white
|
white
|
young
|
old
|
able-bodied
|
disabled
|
“good-looking”
|
not “good looking”
|
healthy
|
sick
|
short
|
tall
|
rich
|
poor
|
heterosexual
|
homosexual
|
well educated
|
poorly educated
|
United States citizen
|
alien
|
English speaking
|
non English speaking
|
literate
|
illiterate
|
intelligent
|
not intelligent
|
regular education student
|
special education student
|
graceful
|
clumsy
|
urban
|
suburban
|
peaceful
|
disturbed
|
cooperative
|
disruptive
|
well spoken
|
poorly spoken
|
By way of illustration, we discuss with our students the lottery process for selecting students for the four interdistrict magnet schools in New Haven. There are only
two
indicators of significance, aside from a student being in the proper grade and residing in one of the fourteen enrolled towns:
white / non-white resides in New Haven / resides outside of New Haven.
There is much controversy about having only two indicators and having those two. We solicit our students’ opinions as to the selection process for the school. What indicators would they consider important? Why were these the two indicators chosen?
3.
What Are You?
(16)
We start out by asking our students to consider what makes a culture. We may suggest they consider items such as gender roles, family, shared stories, interpersonal relationships, social expectations and behaviors, language and communication patteterials:
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Post-It Note Pads (each student needs 10 sheets)
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12 8.5 x 11 pages to post around the room, each pages having a label from this list: Teenage Boy, Teenage Girl, Old Man, Old Woman, Black,
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White, Jew, Puerto Rican, Asian, Adult Woman, Adult Man, Unwed Mother
First we discuss with our students how our attitudes toward and beliefs about other people are shaped. Then we ask our students to think about words that describe a person’s behavior and character traits, both positive and negative. We have a long enough discussion to generate some thinking and to encourage our students to stretch the responses to use more precise words. Not “good” and “bad,” for example, but “industrious,” perhaps, or “untrustworthy.” As the students respond we put some of the words on the board.
Then we pass out the Post-It sheets and ask our students to write five negative and five positive words on them. While our students are doing this, we put up the 8.5 x 11 sheets with the label words around the room. We then ask our students to attach their Post-It words on the sheets with the label words,
so they match our society’s stereotypes of those categories of persons.
Finally, we have a discussion around the following questions:
To what extent are these stereotypes accepted by the group being typed?
Was it harder or easier to attach the positive or negative words? Why?
How has this image helped the group?
How has this image hurt the group?
5.
They are not like us.
Central to the fear of diversity is the statement, implied or manifest, that “they are not like us.” Here is an exercise that puts this fear into a historical perspective, helping our students understand that, throughout United States history, xenophobic attitudes have existed, yet at the same time our culture has survived and been enriched by each new wave of immigrants:
First, our students will read this updated excerpt from a speech written by a “famous American” without being told who he/she is:
I agree that these people are a matter of great concern to us. I fear that one day, through their mistakes or ours, great troubles may occur. The ones who come here are usually the most stupid of their nation. Few understand our language, so we cannot communicate with them through our newspapers. Their priests and religious leaders seem to have little influence over them. They are not used to freedom and do not know how to use it properly. It has been reported that young men do not believe they are true men until they have shown their manhood by beating their mothers. They do not believe they are truly free unless they also abuse and insult their teachers.
And now they are coming to our country in great numbers. Few of their children know English. They bring in much of their own reading from their homeland and print newspapers in their own language. In some parts of our state, ads, street signs, and even some legal documents are in their own language and allowed in courts.
Unless the storm of these people can be turned away from their country to other countries, they will soon outnumber us so that we will not be able to save our language or our government. However, I am not in favor of keeping them out entirely. All that seems necessary is to distribute them more evenly among us and set up more schools that teach English. In this way, we will preserve the true heritage of our country (17).
Second, based on clues from the passage we will ask them to determine who is speaking, when the speech was made, and what group of people is being described. Are they Cubans? Haitians? Cambodians?
Third, we will lead a general class discussion. We will ask such questions as: “What is fact and what is opinion?” “What is the concern of the speaker?” and “Might there be any validity to his/her concerns?”
Fourth, we will reveal the author and the topic. It is Benjamin Franklin, referring to immigrants from Germany.
Finally, we will discover if our students are, as we would suspect, surprised. If so, we will ask why and elicit their responses.