La nostra Cultura...

Growing up with illiterate parents has helped me value the teaching profession that I had experienced at an early age and throughout my entire life. My parents both came from different social strata; my mother came from a slightly more privileged background in Sicily and was able to complete fifth grade. On the other hand, my father came from a struggling farming family where he had to drop out of school in third grade in order to assist his family. These social hardships made learning difficult for my mother and father, because working was more important than education.
We came to America when I was five years old. As I went to school I would learn how to write letters, words, sentences, and eventually speak and write proper English. When I would come home, I would sit with my mother and father showing and teaching them how to pronounce each word I had learned earlier that day.
As time went on, I began to realize that I wanted to become a teacher. The reason why I wanted to teach was because I noticed I was not only teaching, but I also was learning from my parents’ mistakes. When my mother and father struggled to grasp the pronunciation of a word, I did not take their confused eyes as a sign of their failure to understand, but rather as an indication that I needed to refine my ways of teaching them in order for them to comprehend a particular word.
My culture and up bringing has been centered on the idea that family comes first. It is because of this central ideology that I transferred from my undergrad work at Pennsylvania State University to be closer with my parents. It wasn’t because I missed them… it had more to do with their struggling literacy. In other words, they were having a difficult time to pay the bills without me. So, I moved closer.
I believe that each person has a different upbringing and therefore a different culture. It is important to address this issue in the classroom. Students should realize that each person is different in different ways, but at the same time we are similarly different. In other words, there are some commonalities that we all share. Most students would not know about my culture unless there is some sort of assignment that fleshes out each person’s individuality. The important thing to do in the classroom is have an assignment that allows the student to describe their culture and uniqueness to the entire class. The assignment would teach the students that we are not that different from each other. What this ultimately does in the classroom is create a better learning environment where students will feel comfortable enough to speak their minds without fear of being judged.
We all come from different backgrounds, speak different languages, and worship different religions. If the classroom is able to create an environment where the class can discuss these differences openly then, the class will begin to see that there are many similarities in the differences that we all share. Till this day my parents’ English isn’t perfect, but it has improved greatly. I never gave up on my parents. It is because of them that I realize that teaching is a continuous process, both for the teacher and student and my patience and love for them has made me dedicated to this profession.