27 Sep 2010 Portion of a "Writings on Readings" paper due for Intro to Grad Studies course; I thought it was a terrific article so included the summary here.

Right on the Border:  Mexican-American Students Write Themselves Into The(ir) World

This article was awesome!  I would have read this article even if I wasn’t required to read another article from CLJ!  I am so glad that I found this!  What an inspiration!

I originally chose this article because I have family in Arizona (including one teacher) and family (including young nieces) in Texas so the location, mention of students, and the portion of the title ‘write themselves into the(ir)’ world intrigued me.  (The title I found interesting because it seemed to relate to the concept and benefit of writing as it relates to people reinventing – or expanding - their lives.)

The article centers on two groups of teens.  The first group consisted of sixty thousand teens who worked in the fields of Nicaragua during the day and taught reading and writing to the local citizens in the evening. The second group consisted of a class of students at the University of Texas Pan American (UTPA).  The author was so impressed with the results of the first group that he made the decision to pattern a class project in the same manner.  He said the first group of students not only taught the ‘peasants’ to read and write, but the teens received an education in life (Zwerling 48).

This article just fascinated me!  It was so well written that I forgot I was reading a research piece…or was this even a research piece?  It couldn’t be.  Then again, I imagine it is - research obtained through personal observation.  I could feel the passion Zwerling held for his students and he pulled me right into that passion with him!

I loved how Zwerling used quotes from the brigidistas, or Nicaraguan teens (49).  I enjoyed his vivid description of the “banking theory of education” where students “eventually earn a degree and are deemed competent to inflict this process on some other victim” (49).  I appreciated his remarks on his self-education (50) since I returned to school precisely for my own self-education and enrichment rather than with a specific plan on how to utilize this education in the “real world” (i.e., job opportunity).  (Yet everyone continues to want me to come up with “a plan”.)

Zwerling informs us how he starts his UTPA project by reading Community Writing: Researching Social Issues Through Composition by Paul Collins.  He then describes his plan to connect students from his isolated area in Texas to a “wider world and make them feel that they are actors rather than spectators” (50).  He asks his students what goals they want to accomplish and then they accomplish them!  All!  They used only one text.  Oh how I envy them there!!

He describes how the students identify their own multiple communities (e.g., race, school, neighborhood) and decide what areas they want to make a difference in.  They then utilize library research and personal interviews to research the issues and decide on their own solutions (50-51).  The students also produced written reports of their work.

In the end, in a community whose Office of Community Service actually closed, Zwerling and his students took on a project at Bentsen State Park, completed it on time, and met or exceeded their goals (51-52).  In a community where one third of the population survives below the poverty level and students are generally the first in their families to attend college (47) these students proved bright enough to, among other items, create a children’s book, a MySpace page, and original postcards for the park.

Zwerling concludes his article listing his lessons learned in “anticipation of his next attempt”.  I almost want to be right there with him!

WORKS CITED

Zwerling, Philip.  “Right on the Border:  Mexican-American Students Write Themselves Into The(ir) World”. 

     Community Literacy Journal Spring 2010.

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