The Immigrant Child

 

“I wish I had the power to place before you what it seems to me is the opportunity that the immigrant colonies present to the public school…;” (Addams, 1908, p.3).

In India, we don’t have the issue of immigrants from other countries as much as inter country immigrants, especially from the villages to the cities. Or from one end of the country to the other. Or from the disturbed cities to the safe cities. Either way, since our culture is so diverse in different states, I could relate to the issue. As a teacher in middle school, I once had students who spoke 3 different languages and were from completely different cultural backgrounds. Some of them were hooted for being different. When I go to a different part of the country, I also often hear the question, “Which country are you from?”

I agree with Addams that this is an opportunity for a school or the society to learn from. A child from a village, not well versed in city bred level spoken English but excellent in weaving a carpet is as much talented as anyone else. An immigrant brings to his or her chosen country and huge wealth as part of the culture. When understood, its depth can often be humbling.

However, where I beg to differ is “…it is for the teacher both to perceive it and to fulfil it.” (Addams, 1908, p.3).

Teachers would be able to do that only if they had a level of autonomy over the curriculum to be taught and assessed that would allow them to see beyond the other challenges of working in a school. Large classrooms, text heavy huge syllabus, examination being the main stay of the social approval for an ‘educated’ person and an absence of proper training leads me to think, having worked with Indian teachers for years, that it is a miracle that they are still abound with love for the profession! It is not that they do not try to create a community, but the constraints within which they work that hinders their efforts.

(Addams, 1908, p.1) continues that “…public school too often separates the child from his parents and widens that old gulf between fathers and sons which is never so cruel and so wide as it is between the immigrants who come to this country and their children who have gone to public school…”.

My mother is an immigrant from her village where she was born and brought up. She is a product of her village school and college. She was married to my father, who studied in the same village. We are the first generation public school children. There is a gulf between my mother and me (we lost our father very young). She often blames me and my education for the gulf. But is that the only reason? Or is it also that she does not wish to move forward from her way of seeing the world? She never attended any school functions and refused to visit me when I lived and worked in the progressive schools across India, who are very open to diversity. She does not wish to change.

My ex-students, settled in the USA, huddle together with other Indians, while their children mingle with the international community. Even if a teacher was to create conditions for the child to fulfil the longing that “…the school teacher should know something about the lives their parents lead…” (Addoms, 1908, p.3), if the parents are not ready to be accepting, there is only as much that a teacher or even the whole school can do.

The immigrants bring a wealth of their culture. However, they are also living in a country with its own wealth of culture. Immigrants could take a step and be open to the new culture and by an intelligent blending of the two, move forward in their evolution as a human being.

Then perhaps, we can have classrooms without borders.

To conclude, while having immigrants as a part of a classroom is a brilliant opportunity to learn and grow, it would be futile to expect a teacher to make a huge difference unless:

1)    The teacher has autonomy over curricular volume and teaching practices.

2)    Parents of immigrant children are open minded to receive the culture of the country they have chosen to live in and grow through it to recreate a new culture that is a blend.