Growing With Your Peers

Over the course of the semester, we have learned about different literacies and the advantages of being literate. Robin Wisniewski discusses how getting involved with your peers can help you to advance your literacy.  Here at Spelman, we have something similar to the peer counseling program she started at her college. It’s called the writing center, where students help other students to improve their writing skills. At Wisniewski’s college, the peers were not only helping students with writing but also with other literacies as well. It was very interesting to see how successful the program was and the fact that it was very successful due to the students who were giving the counseling. Ms. Wisniewski brings up two particular students Lauryn and Vania who were peer counselors in the program. These two students shared how this particular program helped them with identity issues and how it was ok to be an individual who had her own opinion and voice that was not to be identified with her race. As they began to help their peers find their own identities and transform, they were able to do so as well. They talked about how learning different concepts in their courses was not just about mastering them, but also using different strategies such as flash cards to help them learn more.  Vania felt that understanding her students was the best way to help them to progress. She made them feel as if they had a voice which helped them too to feel like individuals.

This was a very interesting reading as I am able to relate to the things discussed in Robin Wisniewski’s reading. When I go to the writing center to get help with a paper, I feel as if I am not only receiving advice from my peers but also that they take into account what I do and do not understand. They are able to teach us and help us to become better writers, and I feel that programs like these are very beneficial to students as they not only can get help from their professors but also from students have may have had the same trouble that they have at one point in time. 

Appreciating African-American Female Teachers and Professors

In the text Voices of Our Foremothers:  Celebrating the Legacy of African-American Women Educators, a chapter in Reader’s of the Quilt by Joanne K. Dowdy, Sunny-Marie Birney tells of her experiences from being adopted as a small child to finding herself with the help of her African-American female teachers and professors.  Adopted at age two by people of Euro-American decent, Birney, a young African-American woman, felt out of place, lonely, and worthless.  She makes reference to the negro spiritual Motherless Child- stating that she found herself “a long way from home.”  Later majoring in Psychology and Black studies triggered a “cultural and spiritual awakening” which began her journey “home”.  This is the point where she decided to focus her efforts to solve issues involving education in the African-American community.

Birney goes on to mention three African-American female college professors that made a lasting impression on her life.  From these professors, she gained an understanding of her place in the world and the world as it relates to academics.  These professors inspired and uplifted Birney through their levels of commitment and laudable skills.  From these African-American female professors, she felt a sense of care and concern not only having to do with her studies but care and concern for her general well being.  These women inspired her calling to serve the African-American community through teaching.

 A definition of service by Carter G. Woodson explains that service is a necessary part of life.  Author-Freire speaks on the importance of service and how it is beneficial to both the students and teachers.  He explains a style of education “for the practice of freedom” called liberation education.  It involves stimulating the mind through communication as opposed to just giving information.   Like Freire, another author- bell hooks describes education as a practice of freedom.  Birney, looking back on her career as a student, agrees with Freire and hooks in their understandings of education.  Birney’s African-American female teachers and professors throughout her student-hood illustrated the idea that education is about how students could grow as individuals and not just about how much information students can memorize.

Just as we have come to a new understanding of literacy, this text sheds light on an understanding of education that is not dominantly recognized either.  Most people would agree that students are more deeply affected by teachers and professors who seem to care about them.  It is mentioned in this text that more African-American female teachers and professors show their concern for students than other teachers and professors.  They show their dedication and push their students to reach levels of success that they may not have even thought of before their encounters with these teachers.  This text brought more appreciation for the efforts of African-American female teachers and professors.

Using Education to Serve a Community

For this weeks blog I read “Voices of Our Foremothers: Celebrating the Legacy of African-American Women Educators: A Personal Dedication” by Sunny- Marie Birney. In it Birney talks about her experience with her African American teachers and how they became “..[her] mothers away from home...”. In the next section she discusses Carter G. Woodson and how she believes that teaching is a form of service. This caught my attention in the sense that I never looked at teaching in that light, but after her analyses of it I now see that it is indeed a service.

A teachers job is much more than simply teaching a child information about a subject. A good teacher, a true teacher, knows how to expand a mind and actually get their students to think, process and use information that they learn. Teachers hold just as much power, if not more in certain situations, as a child's parent(s). Birney expressing that she saw her teachers as “mothers” shows that the interaction she experienced with them was significant. Therefore, it can be noted that teachers have a major impact on the students that come across their path. A teacher that is successful in not only teaching academics, but helping their students grow as individuals has succeeded in performing a service of educating. 

I feel that the professors I interact with here at Spelman College fall into the description of performing a service. Since being here I feel as if my mind has been expanded and I’ve been forced to think critically about situations and life. Professors here are open and willing to answer questions about both the curriculum and everyday concerns. Being at a school with a smaller population makes building these types of relationships and having these interactions possible and for that I’m thankful.