failures

genevieve patthey-chavez (ggpcinla who-is-at yahoo.com)
Mon, 27 Sep 1999 17:12:27 -0700 (PDT)

Eugene, have your read _Other People's Children_? I
think highly of it. As a matter of fact, along with
Sternglass' _Time to Know Them_ and Valdez's _Con
Respeto_, it's a book I would highly recommend to
instructors working in Central Los Angeles and related
communities. I disagree with your interpretation of
some of Delpit's ideas, rather strongly. I would not
say that Delpit is primarily interested in equity at
the expense of other goals. In the piece that started
the whole firestorm, she started from the
instructional "dilemmas" of "a progressive Black
educator," dilemmas created by the very clash of
systems commented on by others on this list. The
choice of the word 'dilemma' keys the basic double
binds so many of us find ourselves in when we start to
work with central city people.

When I started to work at Los Angeles City College ten
years ago, the English Department had devised what I
felt an absolutely ingenious system of parallel
'remedial' courses. Most of our students have spent
very little time with academic English, so one
semester of academic 'remediation' doesn't do a whole
lot for them. We used to be able to recommend a
parallel course for students who, in a sense, had kept
up their side of our bargain, come to class, done the
work, written the papers, and yet still were
struggling with 'college' English. At the time, I
thought, 'how wonderful! I don't have to fail good
students.' Essentially, the department had carved out
a kind of 'instructional space' for developmental
students that broke with the rigid 'Step A goes to
Semester 1, Step B goes to Semester 2 and if you can't
follow you fail' flow of student bodies in the writing
curriculum. Basically, this was a form of retention.
Then, about 3 or 4 semesters into the experience, the
Chancellor's Office told us to shape up and cut out
all the parallel courses. We were being very bad boys
& girls for keeping qualified students back, and a
student who passes a particular level is by definition
qualified to tackle the next.

Now my choices once again have narrowed. I have
little to offer students who need time & practice
beyond one-on-one talks where I try to tell them
something akin to, 'Here's how you write. Here's what
you're supposed to write like the next level up. What
do you think? Are you ready?' I'm a big believer in
people making informed decisions. Now, I find that it
is not at all easy to be honest when one is the bearer
of bad news. And I remember rather vividly one
student in particular, who told me, 'Man, I almost
dropped your course after you talked to me! I got so
depressed!'

Most of the time, I respect the decisions indicated to
me by my students. In Spring 99, though, I went
against that philosophy and failed a number of
students who had indicated they wanted to go on. Much
to my surprise, four of them showed up on my doorstep
this semester. I know I won't fail them a second
time. I don't think I could stand to be around myself
if I did. But there are so many other ways in which I
can and do fail them. I never have enough time for
them. I never give them enough practice. I never
give them enough feedback. I let the general 'sink or
swim' ed philosophy of the place solve far too many of
my dilemmas for me ...

Genevieve

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