Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Obituary: Mr.Harvey
I think that Mr.Harvey was just wanted his students to be the best they can be. He was telling them the truth, and the truth hurts. I think that sometimes you have to be realistic. In America it would be very hard to become a productive part of society with broken English. Mr.Harvey may be harsh but it is obvious that he just wants to motivate his students to do better. I think his way of teaching might not be moral but I think that really he just wants the kids in the class to not be stuck and have multiple opportunity's in life. In the beginning it is clear that this is the case because Lois-Ann Yamanaka says "No make f-you finger to Mr.Harvey. We gotta try and talk the way he say. No more dis and dat and wuz and cuz' cause we only hurting ourselfs." The writer is ashamed of the broken English. I don't think that just because a person can't speak proper English that they are ignorant I think that society doesn't care if you are smart or not. Society judges you on your appearance and how you present yourself.
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Hi Catherine,
ReplyDeleteYour post has me thinking about the way our perception of something changes the way we interact and evaluate that thing.
For instance, Mr. Harvey regards the student's language as broken English, and his interactions with the children in his class are based on his judgement of their language. In his mind, since they speak broken English, they need to learn to speak English better and they need to stop speaking the way they do at home.
But what if Mr. Harvey regarded the student's language as another language? If he viewed Hawaiian Creole English as a completely different language from English(which it is), he'd see that the students are bilingual. Rather than discount their current language, he'd just need to explain that English is another language to master.
This change in perception would help the children. Lovey sees herself through Mr. Harvey's eyes; she devalues her own language, and this devaluation affects her identity and self-concept. If she were able to understand that she speaks Hawaiian Creole English at home and Standard English at school, she might stop devaluing her home culture and language.
Thanks for your ideas.
Take care,
Lauren
You did a good job of bringing attention to the prospective of Mr. Harvey's teaching methods. You are right they were very different times then the more politically correct ones we live in today. Although this does not give Mr. Harvey the right to treat his students the way he did, I am thankful that we have the school systems we do today.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your reading,
Daye