During this week, I witnessed a form of microinsults
and/or microinvalidation. One of the parents
decided to correct the assigned teacher and her assistant about the
pronunciation of her child’s name. As
Americans, and having a thorough knowledge of English grammar and phonics, the
teachers that interact with her son, were pronouncing his name without the
Latin accent. The teacher disregarded it
as being unimportant. She stated, “Why didn't she inform us of that at the beginning of the school year. Why now?”
The assistant teacher felt like the child doesn't know the difference
anyway. “Besides we are not Spanish
speaking people; everyone can’t roll their tongues”. These
are the hidden messages that Dr. Sue was referring to in the Microaggressions
video. I’m not sure if it was
intentional or unintentional, because the teachers didn't express this to the
parent. They only discussed it in
private, but their attitude of not rendering respect to the parent’s wishes and
the child’s identity was shocking. I
definitely disagree with both because they can at least put forth the effort to
try to pronounce the child’s name correctly and even though the child is only
2, he is picking up on different behaviors within his learning environment and with
the attitudes of these teachers, it could cause an early onset of psychological
stress (Microaggression in Everyday Life).
As he develops, he could become embarrassed by his culture or heritage
and lose that part of his identity in order to fit in with society or people
who share their attitude. From this observation experience, I see how
easily it is to engage in microaggression, as adults, and use it towards
children regardless of their age. This
also was an indication of how we must improve our professional development
requirements. If I was the
administrator, and this was brought to my attention, both of them would be
attending Anti-Bias Educational Classes.
Reference
Laureate Education, Inc. (2011). Microaggressions in Everyday Life. (Mulitmedia Presentation).
Laureate Education, Inc. (2011). Microaggressions in Everyday Life. (Mulitmedia Presentation).
I agree with you. Names are so important. It's who we are and is a huge part of our identity. I believe that regardless of how difficult we should make the effort to say and pronounce names correctly. Even if it means you have to practice. I am sure the parents would appreciate even an attempt to get closer to the correct pronunciation.
ReplyDeleteShonda, you are so right! It is appalling at the attitudes some have and voice in private about certain things. I too wrote about a name mis-pronunciation involving a name of Spanish origin. It is amazing what a little practice and a willing attitude will do. Isn't that what we teach our children? Thanks for your blog!
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