Middle of Everywhere - Mary Bray Pipher [49]
Before their first day of school, many children from traditional cultures have never been away from their mothers for even an hour. At school, they may feel far from home. Everything may be different—the language, customs, the colors of the people, the clothes, the foods, and even the play. Developmental levels of children are not uniform either. Five-year-olds from one culture have very different skills, relationships to family, and comfort levels with strangers than do five-year-olds from another culture.
Schools are often where kids experience their first racism and learn about the socioeconomic split in our country. There is the America of children with violin lessons, hockey tickets, skiing trips, and zoo passes, and there is the America of children in small apartments whose parents work double shifts.
English as Learned Language classes are taught by teachers who are responsible for everything from cultural orientation to teaching English and basic academic skills. The students are grouped according to their ability to speak English, and kids from as many as twenty different language groups may be in one class.
School may be overwhelming at first, but it is school that will enable children to make it in America. School offers students the freedom to develop and to dream big American dreams. In spite of their disadvantages, refugees have lower drop-out rates and better grades than native-born kids.
A determining factor in kids' success is the quality of their family lives. Well-loved, well-nurtured kids from all over the world have a tremendous advantage. Mothers and fathers who carefully select the best from both the new and old cultures have the best-adjusted children. Parental involvement in education varies. In general, refugee parents have high expectations, but limited contact with the schools. They feel that education is the job of the teachers. Parents may want to be involved, but may not understand how to be involved. Also, work schedules, transportation, and language problems make contact with schools difficult.
Schools are therapeutic environments. Half the world's refugees are children and adolescents, many of whom arrive in the United States malnourished and with health problems. Many students have lost siblings, parents, or other family members. Teachers may not deal with trauma directly, but they are part of the healing process. They give their students order and predictability. After the chaos and confusion of their lives, nothing is more comforting than routines. Kids like the same things to happen at the same time with the same people. Students need to receive the message that school is a safe place. Order, ritual, and predictability are part of this reassurance.
Relationships with kind, consistent adults are deeply healing. Good teachers, to quote Nellie Morton, "hear people to speech." They give children lap time, pats, and nonverbal reassurance that they are going to be okay. Physical affection and smiles can occur in the absence of a common language. A hug has a universal meaning.
Teachers connect the dots between the world of family and of school, the old culture and America, the past and the future. They help children understand how their worlds fit together and they teach empathy and good manners. Children become moral beings, not through lectures, but through coundess daily encounters with moral people. They learn how to be good through stories about honesty, kindness, responsibility, and courage. Moral behavior is essentially a set of good habits. Good teachers help children form those good habits.
The class story that follows is about ELL students and their teacher, who is a cheerleader, an instiller of hope, a cultural broker, a therapist, and an occasional comedian. I worked in elementary schools and summer ELL camps. Over the course of my research, I met hundreds of children, all of whom had interesting stories. However, for the purposes of this book, I will limit my discussion to one classroom at one school, which I'll call Sycamore Elementary