Classes of Different Classes

Marissa Lehnert
Engw_1100_34
Prof. Young
Due: 9/24/15

Classes of Different Classes

 

 

     After reading Jean Anyon's "Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work", I have to say that I agree with her.  At least where I live (Long Island, NY), that's how the schools end up being.  Sometimes you will get the occasional really rich kid or the kid with nothing, but for the most part, the schools end up being separated by social classes.  For instance, The Sachem District's neighborhoods have nice houses, but there's no huge, expensive house, and I go to school with people with similar houses(incomes to pay for the house).  On the other hand, Half Hallow Hills District's neighborhood are all huge, expensive houses with wealthy people living in them.  In my school, you are lucky if you find the one good, fast computer in the library.  Meanwhile, Half Hallow Hills' students each get a brand new iPad to "help with their studying".  "There are obvious similarities among United States schools and classrooms.  There are school and classroom rules, teachers who ask questions and attempt to exercise control and who give work and homework" (Anyon 73).  What Anyon is trying to say here is that students are all being taught, whether it's in a bad/good school, with bad/good teachers, using bad/good books and technology.  Students do not go to a certain school because it's for "rich or poor kids only", they go to that school because it's the closest school to the home that their parents can afford to live in.  Just like the Half Hallow Hills students, they go to the nice school with iPads and more because their parents can afford the beautiful house that they live in within the prosperous community the house is located.  I understand her point of upper and lower middle class and I totally agree.  There are families with a lower income than an average middle class family, but they aren't poor and vice versa for the upper middle class.  To conclude,  I agree to Jean Anyon's essay, while others may have disagreed.  I only feel this way because thats how I grew up in and around my school district.  Others may have been raised differently and have other opinions, but this is my opinion.

 

 

quote taken from: http://www.jeananyon.org/docs/anyon-1980.pdf

Student's Language in an Academic Setting

Marissa Lehnert

Engw_1100_34

Prof. Young

Due: 9/17/15

Student's Language in an Academic Setting

     I think student's should have the right to use their own language in school.  Teachers always say that everyone is different in their own ways and allowing the students to speak the way they want and say the things they want proves that true.  Proper English is commonly spoken during classes, but outside of class, people speak with accents, slang and even different languages.  I think it is good that students practice their own dialect during school because it also allows other students to acquire the vocabulary that is being used as slang.  Most of the new slang comes from people young and old, so it will also allow for students to communicate more comfortably.  According to the article Students' Right to Their Own Language by the National Council of Teachers of English, "The claim that any one dialect is unacceptable amounts to an attempt of one social group to exert its dominance over another"(NCTE 4).  In other words,  to say that one dialect is allowed over another is belittling the other.  All dialects are equally dominant.  "The explanation of what a dialect is becomes difficult when we recognize that dialects are developed in response to many kinds of communication needs"(NCTE 5).  People talk certain ways to meet the needs of others around them.  If people see that no one around them uses proper English and is just hanging out and using slang, they are not going to sit there and speak like Albert Einstein would, they would speak using slang along with the people around them.  To conclude, the way a student speaks is a freedom of speech, a freedom of expression, and a freedom of identity

  


  




   

 

What Identity Means To Me

Marissa Lehnert

Engw_1100_34

Prof. Young

Identity

What Identity Means To Me

     Identity makes a person who they are.  Without identity, everyone would be the same.  Identity is very important to me.  Personally, I think identity is not other people’s perception of you or the friends that you have.  Identity is how you present yourself, your race, religion, gender, language, family, culture and zip code.  All of these things make you who you are.  I am a catholic, Caucasian girl who only speaks English, is from a family of 6 and lives on Long Island, NY.  That’s who I am.  I am different from other people I know that are colored, from a different state and Jewish.  We have different cultures, different holidays, different interests, different preferences, even different accents.

     Differences don’t make someone weird or strange.  It just makes them unique.  "I will no longer be made to feel ashamed of existing. I will have my voice: Indian, Spanish, white. I will have my serpent's tongue -- my woman's voice, my sexual voice, my poet's voice. I will overcome the tradition of silence."(Anzaldua 267)  This quote means that she doesn’t care if someone tells her not to speak a certain way, she is going to do it anyways because she is comfortable in her own skin and she will speak her mind.  "So, if you want to really hurt me, talk bad about my language. Ethnic identity is twin skin to linguistic identity-I am my language. Until I can take pride in my language, I cannot take pride in myself."(Anzaldua 266-267)  This quotes is saying that in order for her to respect herself and have pride in herself, she needs to respect and have pride for her language.  Her language is who she is and no one can change that, no matter how hard they try because she is happy just the way she is.  To conclude, identity is an important part in everyone’s life.



3 Quotes from How to Tame a Wild Tongue

Marissa Lehnert
Engw_1100_34
Prof. Young
3 Quotes

Quotes that Interested Me

 

"I will no longer be made to feel ashamed of existing. I will have my voice: Indian, Spanish, white. I will have my serpent's tongue -- my woman's voice, my sexual voice, my poet's voice. I will overcome the tradition of silence."
Page: 267


“Who is to say that robbing a people of its language is less violent than war?”
Page: 256



"So, if you want to really hurt me, talk bad about my language. Ethnic identity is twin skin to linguistic identity-I am my language. Until I can take pride in my language, I cannot take pride in myself."
Page: 266-267



Anzaldua, Gloria. "How to Tame a Wild Tongue." Teaching Developmental Writing. Ed. Susan Naomi Bernstein. Fourth ed. New York: Bedford/ St.Martin's, 2013. 245-255. Print.

All About Me

Marissa Lehnert

Engw1100_34

Prof. Young

9/1/15

All About Me

1.  I have been playing volleyball since I was in 8th grade.  I played on a travel team called LIVBC from 8th to 12th grade, but I played for the school team from 10th to 12th grade.

2.  In my free time, I like to play volleyball, hangout with my friends/boyfriend and take naps. 

3.  Since I was young, my family has called me Ris, Rissa or Rissie but most of my friends just call me Marissa.

4.  When I write, I usually sit at the computer with not a clue on what to write and then when I think of it, I can write a whole paragraph on like 5-10 minutes, but then I get stuck again.

5.  My writing experience for my high school senior year was very relaxed because my teacher helped us a lot.  He understood that he would hardly get any essays if he didn't help because of everyone's senioritis.  I got about a 98 on every essay I wrote(even if it wasn't that good), so I didn't need to revise it.  I learned grammar rules and structure from elementary school-11th grade, but it wasn't really required for 12th grade.  I learned about the 5 paragraph structure, the summer did a toll on my memory.

6.  I listen to whatever is on the radio so mostly pop music.  I don't really have a favorite artist, but I do enjoy listening to Sam Smith.  His voice is perfect.

7.  I use social media all of the time.  Whenever I have Wi-Fi and I am on my phone, I am either texting my boyfriend or checking social media (even though I never have notifications).

8.  This semester, I want to learn how to cut my sentences, so that my sentences aren't run-ons.

9.  I would rate myself a B writer.  I know I'm not a great writer, but I don't think I'm horrible.