I teach ESL at a technical vocational school in Boston and our next
newsletter includes discussion about girls in nontraditional jobs. One of
the girls profiled is Cape Verdean, and she is in the Electronics program.
She
credits her choice and ability to stay with the program to support from her
vocational teachers, academic teachers, classmates (all who are male- and
immigrants from Cape Verde, Dominican Republic and Haiti) and her family.
This does speak to the strong need for an extended support network if girls
are going to be "allowed" to make other choices. However this individual
also has a very strong sense of self and realizes that not everyone chooses
what
they are "supposed to". In other words, she is very happy with what she
does-she wants to fix things! We are profiling her in our newsletter as a
way to
support her and also as a way to let other girls know that its possible!
There are several other girls in the trades ( two in Electricity- again
these girls are Cape Verdean.) I don't know of any other girls who have
made
nontraditional vocational choices in our school.
As an academic teacher (ESL) I try to create ways to open dialogue with
the young men and young women in my classes.In our ESL class we have
watched and analyzed the movie "Love and Basketball." This is a wonderful
film to help young people analyze choices and gender roles.In those
discussions the girls were very vocal ( girls from Cape Verde, DR
(Dominican Republic) and PR (Puerto Rico) and Brazil) about how girls have
the right to choose what they want!
These girls have been in the USA different amounts of time- from 8 months
to three years. I think on top of cultural influences I am seeing a
generational influence going on here. Immigrant girls in my classes are
talking the
language of goals, achievement and choice with much greater fluency than I
did at their age. It makes me feel hopeful for them and for our society.
However they also voiced how many times parental figures discourage their
dreams and point them down the "girl's" path. I believe this is a
generational as well as a cultural point of conflict. As many respondents
have pointed out it helps no-one to put young people into "cultural boxes"-
the more I teach the more I realize the importance of responding to the
individuals in front of me... However in this comment I do not want to
minimize how important cultural knowledge is as an undercurrent for
understanding the dynamic of the student /teacher relationship.
Emily Hewitt
LeeLeehew@aol.com
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