L2

Dewey Dykstra, Jr. (dykstrad who-is-at bsumail.idbsu.edu)
Mon, 5 Jan 1998 13:17:25 -0600

Angel's recent note reminded me that I have a colleague here who might have
something she would be interested in. His name is Robert Bahruth. I sent
him a copy of her note. Here is his response to her. He gave permission
for me to share it with you and I have given him instructions as to how to
join xmca so that he can participate.

>Dear Angel, I received some information from Dewey Dykstra, a close
>colleague of mine here at BSU. I think the concerns you are raising are
>legitimate for many reasons, however, I approach them from a different
>angle. I view traditional, and what you call "elitist" approaches to
>educating students from lower socio-economic groups as mechanisms to
>withhold literacy and academic progress from these groups. I study, and am
>firmly centered in critical pedagogy as postulated by the work of Paulo
>Freire. I agree with Paulo's argument that L1 - centered learning
>experiences provide the root system necessary for eventual academic
>progress in any other language. Whereas teachers generally come from more
>economically privileged and mobil social classes, they are less likely to
>speak the dialects of students who are from the lower classes. This calls
>for two moves: 1. to help more students from these backgrounds to become
>teachers, and 2. to devise pedagogical spaces which allow for students to
>work on higher order problem solving activities in their mother tongues
>where teachers from privileged class backgrounds can help them to succeed
>without necessarily having to speak their dialects (although the most
>professional among teachers would be predisposed to acquire more and more
>of the students' dialects as they work with them in these settings.
>
>In the US, these students often have their intelligence equated with their
>inability to perform in traditional settings which are designed to ensure
>their failure. We refer to this as the "language of deficit" and it is
>reflected in the many labels used to assign the failure to the students,
>their families, their communities, etc. so as not to force an
>interrogation of the one-size-fits-all educational system itself.
>
>I want to emphasize that I do believe in teaching these children in ways
>which will improve their chances for greater mobility in their society.
>However, current approaches seem to do the exact opposite. I believe in
>the innate intelligence of all students regardless of the economic
>backgrounds, and feel schools must either change radically at the
>philosophical and theoretical level, or we should just accept that the
>purpose of schools is to reproduce privilege for those who are already
>privileged. I don't know of too many teachers who would admit that this is
>what they do, yet I know of many who have come to recognize this as the
>outcome of traditional pedagogy which is elitist and discriminatory,
>through my classes and speeches. They eventually become much more critical
>of the mechanisms of failure as systemic, change their dispositions towards
>these students, and thereby become much more effective in meeting the noble
>goals of education which are far more often spoken than met.
>
>I will be visiting Taiwan and Korea this summer to talk about these ideas,
>but in the meantime, I'd be happy to continue an exchange of ideas.
>
>Resepctfully,
>
>roberto (rbahruth who-is-at claven.idbsu.edu (Robert Bahruth))

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Dewey I. Dykstra, Jr. Phone: (208)385-3105
Professor of Physics Dept: (208)385-3775
Department of Physics/MCF421/418 Fax: (208)385-4330
Boise State University dykstrad who-is-at bsumail.idbsu.edu
1910 University Drive Boise Highlanders
Boise, ID 83725-1570 novice piper

"Physical concepts are the free creations of the human mind and
are not, however it may seem, uniquely determined by the external
world."--A. Einstein in The Evolution of Physics with L. Infeld,
1938.
"Every [person's] world picture is and always remains a construct
of [their] mind and cannot be proved to have any other existence."
--E. Schrodinger in Mind and Matter, 1958.
"Don't mistake your watermelon for the universe." --K. Amdahl in
There Are No Electrons, 1991.
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