Jean Anyon Response

Ariele Silva

English 1100

September 23, 2015

Prof. Young

~ Consider your own educational experience against Jean Anyon’s essay. Do you think her position still hold merit today?

When do stereotypes become real? They become real when we make them our own reality. In accordance to school systems and how well our public education is in term of class there is a significant gap between classes. From working class, to middle class and upper class each education system varies. If I were asked on my thoughts of how each education is for their respective classes, I would have answered as follows. For the working class/ lower class the first thing that comes to mind is a rough school environment with broken desks, torn and dated books and teachers who genuinely don’t care about teaching students. When thinking of middle class, my thoughts are on normal nice desks, up to date textbooks and schools supplies and a friendly learning environment. For upper class schools, I picture white walls with beautiful decor, fancy desks, expensive uniforms, the latest technology and textbooks and a bunch of ungrateful snobby kids. Those are all my thoughts because those were the stereotypes of the class education system that I grew up with. My own education system, I would have to say would be an upper middle class. I was in between a middle and upper class school system, not high enough for upper class but technically not in middle class either. My school had modern up to date textbooks, fairly good technology, we had a clean atmosphere and a positive learning environment. The teachers in my school genuinely cared about their students and would take their time teaching the material and offer extra help after school hours. In reference to Jean Anyon’s essay, her statistics fit the stereotype of what I learned about the classes educational system. Some teachers were narrow minded into textbook teaching and only having one way of doing things while others threw in their own notes and problems. Other teachers didn’t bother or care enough to thoroughly teach the students on how to do certain math problems like division. They would just say here it is and it’s this, while other teachers dissected the problem to the point of teaching the student not only the step by step procedure but even teaching them the mathematical vocabulary. I do believe that class plays a part in your education but the students themselves have the major role. As many people say “make it or break it”. If you were in the working class educational system, you have to make the most of it as a student and work hard to persevere and make your way out of that class. By progressing in any kind of education and finding a well paying job you can leave that class and work your way up. Not only is the power only to the students by it also depends on the teachers as well. If a teacher genuinely cares about their students it doesn’t matter what class they are in, as long as they give 110% in their teachings. There could be an amazing teacher in the working class and a teacher who simply doesn’t care in the upper class. It's all about opportunity and ambition. Although Jean Anyon’s essay does hold merit, I do believe that with the years that have gone by obviously the statistics have changed and that young people today can be more motivated to move up in the world and strive to be in a better class with hard work and perseverance.

Students right to their language in an academic setting response

Ariele Silva
English 1100
September 15, 2015
Prof. Young

          ~ Do you think students should have the right to use their own language in an academic setting? Why or why not? ~


    I think students can not only use their own language but slang as well in an academic setting. Slang can be used, when appropriate, while student’s own language can be used for the reason of being able to “preserve its heritage of dialects”. Not only in a cultural sense but in a modern sense language has changed and evolved. An example would be back the term “Gee willikers!” was used, nowadays no one uses that term but instead say “Oh my God!”. The change over time shows how language evolves and modernizes a simple term of slang. There are also certain modern slang terms like bomb or awk etc., which are more casually used. Those are good normal slang terms used with today’s language but there are also slang terms that are offensive and are mostly profanity. The other day in class, we all used appropriate slang, when learning how to write a "Bangin' Essay". and when we were discussing the explanation of how to pronounce thot. Given those circumstances, it was appropriate to use friendly slang. For example, saying your class is "the bomb" means good things. It means your class is awesome and fun. Another instance in which students should be able to use their own language in an academic setting is just like when we were learning about Gloria Anzaldua and what our identity is. A major point we all agreed as a class that identity was, was language. Gloria incorporating spanish and speaking/writing in Spanglish is part of her using her own language in an academic setting. Her incorporating that is completely appropriate. But if or when students want to take advantage of that, we must still only use it when appropriate. For example to use their own language and slang in an academic setting, it has to be appropriate and clean, it can't be the profanity slang because not only is it vulgar and unprofessional, but it can also be seen as disrespectful. That's why given the circumstances students can use their own language in an academic setting and use slang but only when appropriate.

Gloria Anzaldua Response Essay

Ariele Silva

English 1100

September 2, 2015

Prof. Young

Gloria Anzaldua Response Essay

What does identity mean to me? When I think of the word identity itself, I think of a person’s 

background, heritage, culture, religion, language and ethnicity. I think of all those things because 

those are all the things I use to identify myself. I’m very proud to be Ecuadorian, and I identify 

myself as such; just like how Anzaldua identifies herself as Chicana. I really related to “How to

Tame a Wild Tongue” because as a Spanish speaker, I knew exactly what Anzaldua was going

through. Coming into this country, I never knew how narrow minded people were when it came to

them having to face the unknown, when facing another ethnicity. A prime example of people’s 

narrow mindedness would when Anzaldua’s teacher rudely said “If you want to be American, speak 

‘American.’ If you don’t like it, go back to Mexico where you belong.” (Anzaldua 256). Firstly, no 

one can speak “American”, what they spoke was English, not American, and secondly America is 

supposed to be a “melting pot” where all different cultures come together in one country. Instead of 

scolding Anzaldua’s for her accent and shaming her for her language, they should have her embrace 

it, encourage it and be proud. Anzaldua is Chicana. That’s who she is, and her identity and nothing 

will change that. Just as Anzaldua had said “Stubborn, persevering, impenetrable as stone, yet 

possessing a malleability that renders us unbreakable, we, the mestizas and mestizos, will remain.” 

(Anzaldua 264) no matter how they might try to beat us down or break us, we won’t falter in our 

pride for who we are, our identity. This is what identity means to me. To be able to fight for who you 

are, what you believe in and to stay true to yourself.

Works Cited

Anzaldua, Gloria. "How to Tame a Wild Tongue". Teaching Developmental Writing. Ed. Susan Naomi Bernstein. Fourth ed. New York : Bedford/St. Martin's, 2013. 245 - 255. Print.