Campano fills his practitioner inquiry project with stories--stories of his students, their families, their struggles with the American Dream, and his own struggles as a teacher researcher and citizen. Identify one story from the book that you find particularly noteworthy or compelling for one reason or another. Explain that story, what you think is important about it, what lessons it renders or asks us to think about. Explain what you think about Campano’s take on that particular story or the issue it represents.
Maria - agency (p74)
Maria sought Campano out before she was even in 5th grade, having her mother request him as a teacher and telling him about her situation. After she left his class, she was, she felt, placed too low at her new school. She was seeking out support to get this remedied. This is a "coping" mechanism for her - "she inserts herself into a set of supportive relationships." (p74) This is an incredibly important life skill that I coach adults about developing - so many people try to be independent when they actually need to reach out to others to help them achieve their goal. She's 9 years, still later maybe 13. Her ability to act within her world is astounding.
To me, she (and most of the children described) is already an adult. The behaviors and obstacles that the students described by Campano deal with - well, I know a lot of adults that don't face their fears as gracefully or willingly.
There are so many lessons to learn from Maria. Campano describes a new delivery of the immigrant narrative - that of a series of returns. (p75) With her narrative she doesn't tell the rags to riches story, instead her story is infused with realization about how connected she is to others.
Maria also used her autobiography as a way to heal. She wrote to get distance from the past while still retaining the lessons and learnings from it. (p78) Campano also analyzes her story as reflective and restorative nostalgia. What Maria is doing with her storytelling is creating possibilities for herself to reflect on her life from different perspectives; it creates an awareness that feelings and thinking are not at odds with each other but help each other along in the processing of looking back.
Maria is what I would describe as a talker. She has had many life experiences - traveling, poverty, death. She is a person who needs to interact to help her process her thoughts and feelings. Being more of an extrovert her writing and performance show her ideas and thoughts and how she thinks of others - she is interpersonal in her learning as well - touched deeply by others who have helped her and need her help. I wanna be friends with her.
What hit me hardest was the closing lines from her section. "This is her protean cultural lens that shapes her locale and the consciousness of our classroom. Its value cannot be measured by standardized-test scores or writing rubrics. It is not amenable to five-paragraph essays." (p 80)
I was left with these questions:
What is an adult? What is a child? Can age be the only way to measure this? Can we only measure this 'scientifically?'
Do we infantilize children in order to avoid reflecting on life ourselves or to maintain our power as adult/parental/authority experts?
