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Title: Con Respeto: Bridging the Distances Between Culturally Diverse Families and Schools: An Ethnographic Portrait by Guadalupe Valdes ISBN: 0-8077-3526-4 Publisher: Teachers College Pr Pub. Date: April, 1996 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $23.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.5 (2 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: This is not the entire picture
Comment: The person that reviewed this book so far cannot understand, maybe empathize, what the parents of these children endure in a society that is dominated by the notion of "whiteness". The only parents talked about, are those immigrants who speak Spanish and are often the target of repeated injustices. As an educator, most parents are like the parents discussed in the book. Of course, the differences like language, culture, and the history of different populations and what those implications entail, are very critical factors to consider. The previous review is a helpful one because it reaffirms what people still believe and continue to do-blaming "others," the victims, for why they and generations after them are still not doing well.
Rating: 4
Summary: Educating Parents
Comment: Finally! Finally we have an ethnographer who is able, or maybe just willing, to research the heart of the matter. Why do immigrant children have problems assimilating; why are they less likely to go to class; why are they less likely to graduate; why do they feel marginalized? Guadalupe Valdes attempts to answer these questions in her book Con Respeto by interviewing and observing the lives of ten mexican-american families. Similar ethnographies have focused on the school environment --- what are these immigrant children experiencing at school that would cause them to be marginalized the way they are? Valdes, who still looks at the school environment, spends the majority of her time examining the families of the immigrant students, and what their home life consists of. This deeper examination proves very fruitful by clearing up possible misconceptions one could have walked away with after reading books like Jocks and Burnouts, Gender Play, and Made in America. Are the parents responsible for the triumphs, and in many cases, the failures of their children in school? Valdes would say, yes, but only partially. The schools, Valdes feels, could still do more, or at least communicate more effectively with the parents.
What can be done to make the learning experiences of these immigrant children more pleasant and more fruitful? Until now, the majority of literature has focused on what the school could do differently in terms of how they could better teach these children. Strategies have been mentioned like better understanding of the children's needs, or better understanding of the children's culture, or more money and resources for materials designed to use the child's own culture as a basis of the curriculum. Valdes, on the other hand, makes a strong case that maybe the parents should be given a better understanding as to why education is important in the first place, thus empowering them to help their own children succeed at school.
Throughout Con Respeto, Valdes illustrates how the relationship between the parent and child could develop into one that is discouraging to the child's education. She states that even though the families recognize that school is important they often do not know why. She shows that as a result, these parents could send mixed signals to their children and actually hamper their education. She also shows how parents might become fearful of the education their children are getting: will my children some day leave me, will my children stop respecting me, will they think I'm dumb. These beliefs by parents could also be harmful to a child's education.
As to what should be done, the issue still seems somewhat uncertain. There are plenty of good arguments for government intervention and for the "changing of families," as Valdes put it. There are also plenty of good arguments for the flip side: leave the families alone, or at least, don't intervene, which, by the way, Valdes acknowledges as very important. Valdes makes it clear, in her final chapter, that she supports neither side fully, and that what should be done is uncertain -- perhaps, Valdes reveals, people should just understand what these families are going through.
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Title: Subtractive Schooling: U.S. Mexican Youth and the Politics of Caring by Angela Valenzuela ISBN: 0791443221 Publisher: State Univ of New York Pr Pub. Date: November, 1999 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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Title: Gay Parents/Straight Schools: Building Communication and Trust by Virginia Casper, Steven B. Schultz, Louise Derman-Sparks ISBN: 0807738247 Publisher: Teachers College Pr Pub. Date: July, 1999 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Other People's Children: Cultural Conflict in the Classroom by Lisa D. Delpit ISBN: 1565841808 Publisher: New Press Pub. Date: February, 1996 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: The Cultural Nature of Human Development by Barbara Rogoff ISBN: 0195131339 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: March, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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Title: Multicultural Issues: In Child Care by Janet Gonzalez-Mena ISBN: 0767416856 Publisher: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages Pub. Date: 14 July, 2000 List Price(USD): $26.30 |
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