Bilingual Foundations

This was a truly powerful poem about oppression. Ruffo describes it as a slow and illusive process. The silencing of voices goes undetected. He says it’s like losing your tongue because you lose your ability to speak or communicate. You don't notice it because you still have other uses for the tongue, like eating or rinsing. However, words no longer have meaning when you’re not being heard. In time, you give up and stop speaking all together. You lose yourself, your voice, your identity. Things are happening all around you that may require your attention but there’s no point in trying anymore. There’s a feeling of disconnect and disrespect that keep you silent. In the end even your silence goes unquestioned because no one really cares.

Gillan portrays a gloomy picture of her childhood experiences at PS 18. As a first grade student all she remembers is being afraid all the time, so afraid it literally sickens her. She’s afraid of many things but mostly of her teacher, whom she believes dislikes her for not being white. I like that Gillan was able to escape her reality through the books she read but at the same time it seems as though she associated that world, “free and perfect,” to only be available to children with “blonde curls” and cute faces. She goes on to say if only by some magic she could transform herself to look like the children in those stories just so her teacher would like her. This is extremely sad because no child should grow up feeling this way. We are taught to celebrate differences and teach acceptance. How can we teach others acceptance if we don’t model it? This is why the first step to a multicultural classroom begins with the educator’s cultural competence.