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If you are interested in seeing my Digital Altered Book, you can click on this link.
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A little horror story
During our family's five-year stay in Ecuador, Richard attended a bi-lengual school, and he learned to read English, Spanish, and Music. We moved to Phoenix AZ just before he began fifth grade. In the school he attended, the fifth grade students moved from classroom to classroom and from teacher to teacher for their different subjects. Imagine our surprise when we received the first nine-weeks report card to find a "D" on Richard's report card in Reading, when his other grades were As and Bs. Fearing that he had been terribly lazy, or perhaps really, really naughty, I asked for a conference with his Reading teacher to find out why he was not doing well in her class. Here is the interview I had with her:
Teacher: Come in, Mrs. Hintze, and have a seat. How can I help you?
Me: I am concerned because of Richard's low grade in Reading. Has he been naughty or rebellious? Has he refused to do his homework?
Teacher: No, you see, we do not expect our English as a Second Language students to do very well in reading.
Me: I don't understand -- English as a Second Language?
Teacher: Yes, you know, those that speak Spanish. We really don't expect much of them in the way of reading English.
Me: Wait -- you think Richard is from a Spanish-speaking home?
Teacher: Yes, he and the other Spanish-speaking boys behave very well when I allow them to sit at the back of the room and color during Reading class. I just give them all D's rather than fail them.
Me: Sit at the back of the room?
Teacher: Yes, you see, we don't want their poor reading to interfere with the learning of the others who read on a fifth grade level or above.
Me: Poor reading?
Teacher: Yes -- the Spanish-speaking boys just don't read English very well, and they slow the class down.
Me: Have you ever heard Richard read?
Teacher: No -- I found it just embarrassed the poor readers -- the boys that speak Spanish -- and me if I tested them on their reading, so I just accomodate them, and let them entertain themselves. They don't give me any problems during Reading class -- really, they are quite well behaved.
I will end the account of the interview at that point, because I really don't think you WANT to read about what I said to that teacher! Just because Richard and the other boys spoke Spanish, she assumed that they were poor readers, from whom she should not expect much. She ignored them so that she could spend her time with the "good" readers -- by that I figured she must mean white, Anglo-Saxon girls. So those who might have really needed help did not get it. I have often wondered what would have happened if Richard had been a native Spanish speaker, and if I had been a Mexican-American Mom who trusted teachers and took her evaluation as reality.