Becoming Something Different: Learning from Esme
COLLEEN M. FAIRBANKS
PENNY MASON CROOKS

CONNECTIONS

After reading this piece I connected the points made to two previous pieces we read, Speaking the Unspeakable and Hunger of Memory. In Speaking the Unspeakable, there was a lot of discussion revolving around the difference between public and private spaces and how the two can be combined. In Becoming Something Different, Esme is struggling between the pressures in her home life and the pressures in her academic life. Although in Speaking the Unspeakable it is sexuality that is the main topic but I think the bigger picture of private and public spaces in everybody's daily lives is the most relevant point that is made and can be correlated with topics other than sexuality. In this case, the barrier is lack of communication between two languages. Esme constantly struggles with learning English in school and it is very difficult for her because at home her parents speak primarily Spanish. The pressure Esme feels from the school is to learn English in a certain amount of time and speak it proficiently or she is placed in special literacy classes clashes with the pressure she feels from her family at home who wants her to keep her heritage and not be like the other American children. When Esme reaches high school it becomes more evident that her parents are strict about their cultural ideas when her father does not allow her to have any boys over.
In the Hunger of Memory, Ricardo faced many of the same challenges that Esme did throughout their academic careers. He deals with the same conflicts of private and public space that Esme deals with because his family primarily speaks Spanish in their household as well. All three of these pieces deal with the differences between public and private spaces and the challenges that ELL students face in their homes and in schools. It is not only a lack of communication between two languages but lack of understanding between cultures.

Points to bring up in class: Does everybody face issues between private and public spaces? How is this a challenge? Sometimes issues at home can meld into the issues going on at school and children will miss school because of these issues but what is the big picture here. These children are not being taught equally and are being pressured by too many people.