Reading about digital immigrants and digital natives had me reflecting on my immigrant journey and how some of those same things intersect.
I immigrated to the US from Jamaica while still in elementary school. As one can imagine, moving to a entirely new country with new customs etc., can be daunting as an adult. But imagine as a child. To give some background on my educational struggles, Jamaica was conquered by the British therefore our language and spelling is based upon the British English. Now, think about little me in school spelling things they way I know how, and your teacher writing Fs on your spelling tests or marking up your paper with red ink. Everyday I went home deflated. This particular teacher never took the time to understand why I would spell color or behavior, to name a few, with the letter u. So they would be spelled as 'colour' and 'behaviour' respectively.
As I reflect on what a digital immigrant, I thought about how my teacher felt it was only one way to spell things. As if the US English was the only version that existed. She still never took the time to ask me where I was from never asked why I couldn't spell the terms using the US English, everything was assumed. Which in my eyes meant I just didn't belong in her class nor that grade for that matter. I remember coming home and telling my mom that I felt 'stupid' because it seems English isn't for me. Whilst she would rebuttal with "maybe she doesn't know what she's talking about." After receiving a not-so-favorable grade on my progress report, my mom decided a meeting needed to be held not only with the teacher but the principal as well.
In the meeting, I remember my mom pleading with them saying I recently moved to this country and I will need time to adjust. It's as if they weren't trying to hear her because they kept repeating, "she's not spelling on grade level," "I'm not sure she can even read on grade level." Then the teacher asked, "are you sure she was placed in the right class?" At this point I burst into tears because I felt my mom and I were fighting a losing battle. From that moment on I knew that there was no convincing these folks I just had to find some way to assimilate, and do so quickly.
Fast forward to today where I was not only the first in my immediately family to graduate from college, but I am back in school pursuing my second masters degree. Sometimes we are faced with challenges in our younger years and at that point in time we can use the challenge as a fuel to prove everybody wrong or use it as an excuse to not be great. I chose the former. From that moment on I told myself I would never let anyone, little girls or little boys feel the way I did. When I taught I was always focused on the whole child. If they student weren't doing well physically, mentally and emotionally there was no way I could expect them to perform well in class. And now I'm applying the same things to my little girls. We can do anything regardless of the cards stacked against us, as long as well have a strong support system.
Have you faced any similar challenges? Or does anyone have any immigrant stories to share? Feel free to engage in the comments :).
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