Rhetorical Analysis Of From The Hood To The Classroom
Georgia State University
ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University
English Dissertations
Department of English
12-20-2012
From the 'Hood to the Classroom: A Rhetorical
Perspective on Teaching Secondary English to the
Urban Student
Shae A. Anderson
Georgia State University
Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarworks.gsu.edu/english_diss
Recommended Citation
Anderson, Shae A., "From the 'Hood to the Classroom: A Rhetorical Perspective on Teaching Secondary English to the Urban
Student" (2012). English Dissertations. Paper 101.
This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of English at ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in English …show more content…
A school wide program must include: school wide reform strategies, instruction by highly qualified teachers, parental involvement, and additional support for students (Georgia Department of Education).
The school, located in Muscogee County, Georgia, is 96% African-American and the other 4% are Hispanic, White, or multi-racial. While these numbers may vary a fair amount, it seems that most Title I schools in the state of Georgia are made up primarily of African-American students or economically disadvantaged students. Additionally, most students in Title I schools or schools with a targeted Title I population are typically classified as at-risk because they have a social, academic, or economic need of some kind. These students could have any combination of the following academic or economic situations: single parent household, multiple absences, homelessness, failing grades, living at or near poverty level and a variety of other scenarios that
2 would place the student at a disadvantage when it comes to state mandated tests such as the …show more content…
Black people have lost too many children that way” (Baldwin 3).
Baldwin wrote this in 1979 under a very different set of circumstances and his assessment of the situation then was mostly accurate albeit a bit aggressive. However, the difference now, in the 21st century, is not that the black child’s experience is despised. It is simply not understood.
While I largely agree with Baldwin’s position, I believe that both black and non-black teachers can be guilty of not respecting a child’s “experience.”
18
African American English, the “mother tongue,” has been inspiring other cultures since the first slaves arrived here in America. However, without even going quite that far back, James
Baldwin, in his 1979 essay, “If Black English Isn’t a Language, Then Tell Me, What Is?” states perfectly: Now, I do not know what white Americans would sound like if there had never been any black people in the United States, but they would not sound the way they sound. Jazz, for example is a very specific sexual term, as in jazz me , baby, but white people purified it into the Jazz Age. Sock it to me, which means, roughly, the same thing, has been adopted by Nathaniel Hawthorne’s
ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University
English Dissertations
Department of English
12-20-2012
From the 'Hood to the Classroom: A Rhetorical
Perspective on Teaching Secondary English to the
Urban Student
Shae A. Anderson
Georgia State University
Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarworks.gsu.edu/english_diss
Recommended Citation
Anderson, Shae A., "From the 'Hood to the Classroom: A Rhetorical Perspective on Teaching Secondary English to the Urban
Student" (2012). English Dissertations. Paper 101.
This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of English at ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in English …show more content…
A school wide program must include: school wide reform strategies, instruction by highly qualified teachers, parental involvement, and additional support for students (Georgia Department of Education).
The school, located in Muscogee County, Georgia, is 96% African-American and the other 4% are Hispanic, White, or multi-racial. While these numbers may vary a fair amount, it seems that most Title I schools in the state of Georgia are made up primarily of African-American students or economically disadvantaged students. Additionally, most students in Title I schools or schools with a targeted Title I population are typically classified as at-risk because they have a social, academic, or economic need of some kind. These students could have any combination of the following academic or economic situations: single parent household, multiple absences, homelessness, failing grades, living at or near poverty level and a variety of other scenarios that
2 would place the student at a disadvantage when it comes to state mandated tests such as the …show more content…
Black people have lost too many children that way” (Baldwin 3).
Baldwin wrote this in 1979 under a very different set of circumstances and his assessment of the situation then was mostly accurate albeit a bit aggressive. However, the difference now, in the 21st century, is not that the black child’s experience is despised. It is simply not understood.
While I largely agree with Baldwin’s position, I believe that both black and non-black teachers can be guilty of not respecting a child’s “experience.”
18
African American English, the “mother tongue,” has been inspiring other cultures since the first slaves arrived here in America. However, without even going quite that far back, James
Baldwin, in his 1979 essay, “If Black English Isn’t a Language, Then Tell Me, What Is?” states perfectly: Now, I do not know what white Americans would sound like if there had never been any black people in the United States, but they would not sound the way they sound. Jazz, for example is a very specific sexual term, as in jazz me , baby, but white people purified it into the Jazz Age. Sock it to me, which means, roughly, the same thing, has been adopted by Nathaniel Hawthorne’s