Denise M. Massari
I teach in an urban high school in New Haven, CT and while there are most certainly some preconceived notions about what schools in New Haven look and feel like, I have always argued that my school, in particular, is unique to the rest. For clarification the number in brackets represents the actual number of students. The demographic breakdown of my school is as follows: African American {935} 86%, American Indian {0} 0%, Asian {2} .2%, Caucasian {14} 1.3% and Hispanic {136} 12.5%. (Connecticut State Department of Education n.d.)
Based on the numbers alone, one can determine that the school is homogeneous in a manner very different than that of the average American school profile. It is also unique to New Haven public schools overall. While students appear to understand that their school make-up is unlike other schools, it has been my experience that they still believe there are "definitely" more African Americans than Hispanics if not whites in the United States. The environment in which they live and their lack of exposure to communities outside of their own have frequently misled them as to what the rest of the world looks like. Here the majority culture appears as if it is the only accepted one; so much so that the "minority" groups typically have little interaction with the majority. This is not to say that there are major conflicts between the groups; it is only to say that there is very little incentive for them to intermingle.
While this is a common sense identity issue, it makes my job as a Spanish language teacher tougher in the sense that I must not only make the connections for students but also show them that they do indeed have much more in common with the subjects of study than they actually realize. While this may be a shared sentiment in nearly all content areas, the fact remains that I am teaching students a foreign language and trying to instill an appreciation for cultures other than their own. Students are already resistant because they find language study difficult, but it is the issue of relevance to their daily lives that serves as the biggest obstacle. Students understand why they need math, English and history, but when trying to convince them that learning another language is equally as important, I believe most teachers would agree it is no easy task. While the curriculum objectives are mapped out in such a way to bring this relevance to the forefront, most of the students in my school have not left their community, let alone ventured outside of New Haven, leaving them to wonder where they are ever going to use the Spanish they are learning in my class.
Most world language curricula are taught thematically, meaning that the grammar and vocabulary are wrapped around an authentic life experience. The theme may be food talking about one's likes and dislikes, dealing with a restaurant situation or even the importance of nutrition in eating a balanced meal. Other topics include camping a topic difficult to relate to an urban student body without including the experience-- family, friends and the relationships with them and shopping among various others. Students do enjoy learning about the cultural aspects of these themes and often come back to tell me that they overheard people speaking Spanish and were able to understand them or while at work they tried to communicate to a Spanish-speaking person using the target language. These stories are great to hear and make me feel validated about what I do; however, if I want to make a bigger impact, I must dig way beneath the surface of the content.