Stacey's Indy Teach

I really liked Stacey's lesson today about language, connotations, and multi-cultural education. Our discussion of how words perpetuate racism in our society was good and I thought we all had quite a bit to offer. After reading Rayford's Song I thought I would post my version of cultural silencing in the classroom:

Central Pacific

Wei forced metal and wood into the earth

twelve hours a day.

One tight fit after another

he moved sideways in the sun.

For two years, with sweat cascading

down brow and cheek,

he put muscle into it.

Arms shining brightly in between trees

and perseverance.

Exhaustion and illness met the end of each day.

With cracked and bleeding hands

Wei went to sleep each night

holding her scarf.

Soon he would have enough to go back

and care for the baby;

To have a field of his own

where his sweat would never fall

on land worked in vain.

Hundreds of men extended westward

with the same dreams as Wei.

With each swing of the mallet

more than a stake was driven into dirt and dust.

Patience.

Hope.

Health.

Integrity.



This promise land.



Jin went to school with a question.

A century later a different story was told.

Manifest Destiny.

"The transcontinental railroad was built

to connect East and West,

industry and nature,

man and his dreams."

Cold, black text fit into a tidy paragraph.

Jin read the page carefully,

over and over,

waiting for the ink to swell and morph.

Waiting for truth to surface from ambiguity.

Jin went to school with his question.

When lunch was over and fourth period came

he raised high his ancestor's hand,

"Who built the railroad?"

he asked assertively.

"Well, all the men who wanted to be pioneers,

railroad workers. Now who can tell me

when Yellowstone was erected?"

More than Jin's question was forgotten

with the early dismissal.

Stories.

Families.

Suffering.

Dreams.



This promise land.