Gerri August

“We teach in real time with real distractions, and real pressures”

Gerri August

How is it that a 5 year old accentuates “different” behavior to a point where he/ or she thinks it’s funny?  I have always believed in the innocence of children; what they say and how that act are unscripted and “could not have been engineered” (166). How is it that when Zeke does ballet moves around the room, it makes the kids laugh? August analyzes this laughter as “the disaffiliative laughter as accentuating a difference in gender identification” (149). With this specific example I think we can make an argument that Zeke may have looked very silly dancing around the room, whether it was ballet, hip-hop- or the waltz, young kids think it is funny to see their teacher dance in class; innocence. In regards to the situation in” Do you speak Chinese?” when Shiloh mocks the Chinese language when she says “Chum, chum, chum, chum chung” and then laughs. This is not an innocent statement made by a curious little girl. Where do they learn this? August quotes Johnson “such expressions of dominant ideology, regardless of whether offense is taken, widen the paths of least resistance.” Obviously the innocence involved in this particular incident was that the offense wasn’t made intentionally to hurt someone’s feelings, however, like Johnson says, it doesn’t matter, “This is the stuff of which privilege is made. It is also the stuff of which oppression, privilege’s necessary counterpart, is made” (152). The privileged kids in this case study are the normal kids. The “otherness” is the different kids, according to the dominant ideology

As I read chapter six I started to wonder about August and Zeke’s motives about little Cody.  I do applaud the Designed Dialogicality lessons that Zeke engage his students but I got the feeling that he is prompting for a specific answer and August is waiting patiently for a specific mind blowing expression from Cody about his lesbian mothers.  In the section titled “Family” August states, “I argue that the data portray a child who, even in the context of a democratic, emancipator classroom, censored the speech and other expressions so as to downplay his non-dominant family structure’ (177). I am not convinced that is  true. There is only two small examples that I believe supports Augusts’ claim in this section. On page 181 “Having attended a Montessori preschool with other internationally adopted children, several of whom also had lesbian moms, Cody, nevertheless, found himself needing to explain his family constellation and his skin color.. In spite of the preschool teacher’s inclusive language, books, and representations, (she herself indentified as a lesbian), several of Cody’s classmates repeatedly questioned him about his two moms. He complained of this to Tamara and Ellen and repeatedly asked why his Cambodian family had given him up” (181). Cody seems more upset about the adoption and his really family then the fact that he has two moms.

“On at least one occasion, Cody expressed frustration that he couldn’t scrub off his color in the bathtub” (181).” Again, I see Cody being more aware and frustrated that his is different and that it is obvious he has been adopted.

“ I was present for 50 of Cody’s news shares. On five of those occasions, Cody made reference to one of his moms” (182). August then goes on to say that “this omission alone would have been an unremarkable fining. After all, rarely did a ZK student mention both parents in a news share. Dads made only occasional appearances in the students account” (183). I don’t think Cody’s omission is intentional, most kids didn’t mention both parents. Perhaps Cody notices his different color and the fact that he was adopted and this bothers him more than the fact that he has two moms. Since most kids don’t mention fathers, why would Cody be aware of his “different” family? Until it was brought up in the books they read, Who’s in a Family?and And Tango Makes Three.

               And Tango Makes Three The most banned book in America in 2008.

A school district in Charlotte, N.C. has pulled a children’s book off the shelves because some parents have deemed it inappropriate. This same book tops the American Library Association’s most banned books in 2008.http://logicalcomplexinfinitive.wordpress.com/2009/04/22/and-tango-makes-three-the-most banned-book-in-2008/

This book was written based on a true story about homosexual penguins in Germany. Watch the news footage video.

Here is just one review of Who's in a Family?. It reflects on the dominant ideoloy

F. Weinstock (Brooklyn, New York)

 As a white single mother of a bi-racial child, I'm always excited to find books that validate our family's composition. The problem with this one is that the main character whose family begins the book is a white girl who lives with her two white parents and sibling, has a dog and white grandparents. So the set-up is that her family is the "regular" kind and others are variations that aren't quite the same and are kind of exotic. I don't read this to my daughter 

 On page 195 it seems as though Zeke and August feel like they finally got Cody to divulge his true feelings. This evidence is the fact that Cody speaks quietly when he talks about his moms. “He said, I told you about me and my sister and my dog and then he kind of got quiet and he was like my two moms and he said it really quietly.”’ Zeke goes on to say that  “a reasonable interpretation of his hesitation and his lowered voice was that he was reluctant to go on, reluctant to identify his two moms.” However, his two moms were very busy in the school, in the classroom, at meetings, and helping out. It is mentioned that he greets them enthusiastically. I am not convinced that Cody was reluctant to talk because he has two moms.  “None had answered, “my mom and dad,” or “my parents.” Two in fact, had answered, “My mom.” If most kids do not mention their parents , why would Cody be expected to.

However, I can be convinced that the real issue is not his two moms but the adoption. At this point I can’t argue this. Perhaps in another blog post.

August suggest on page 188 that “using the word “different” three times in this short introduction, Zeke might have begun to disturb existential assumptions with family that would prevent students from hearing the meaning of the text.” Perhaps making young kids more aware of the difference makes kids more aware that they are different. Don’t we want kids to understand that different is the same?