Journal No. 2

On Sunday morning, the only thing that was on my mind was the Super Bowl. As soon as I woke up, I started to watch the pregame coverage on the various networks that were covering the game. One of the more interesting pieces that I came across was about the punter of the New England Patriots, Zoltan Mesko. He talked about how he was born in Romania, a war-torn country located in Europe. He recalled being with his mother and father in the family apartment, hugging the ground as bullets flew through the walls during the Romanian Revolution. Zoltan’s father ultimately applied for a green card and he and his family came to the United States in 1997. He spoke of how he had pre-conceived notions about America from movies like “Rambo” and how it was a bit of a culture shock for him coming to the US.

I couldn’t help but admire the symmetry between Zoltan’s story and Children of Immigration. Carola and Marcelo Suarez-Orozco share stories of people coming to the United States and the variety of reasons that they do so. There are those who come based on social, economic, or cultural reasons (referred to as “immigrants” by the authors), and there are those who are coming to the US simply to escape the dangers present in their native countries (referred to as “asylum seekers” or “refugees”). Zoltan and his family obviously fit into the latter of the two categories. His parents wanted a better life for the family, so they made a difficult decision: to leave the only place they knew in hopes for something more.

Hearing Zoltan’s story, it made me think of why I want to become a teacher. I want to be able to make an impact in the lives of each of the kids that I teach, no matter how unrealistic that may seem. Someone obviously had a tremendous impact on life. It may have been his parents. It may have been a teacher. It may have been a coach. Whoever it may have been, someone was there to help him adjust to life in a new country and assimilate him into American culture. 

We as educators, however, need to be conscious of the various cultures that make up each of our classrooms. This rings particularly true with those who have immigrated to the United States, like Zoltan. As pointed out in Children of Immigration, those who immigrate are stripped of “community ties, jobs, customs, and (often) language.” They are also sometimes separated from family members and are deprived of “the social roles that provide them with the culturally scripted notions of how they fit into the world.” (p. 70) We need to be mindful and accepting of all cultures and beliefs that our students have in order to create a more comfortable learning environment. This will reduce the anxiety that a student might have about being in a mainstream US classroom and, in turn, will enable the students to retain information and get the most out of the lesson.


Here is the link to the interview:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gj-2msI1DIs