Skip to main content

Button Duty



Way back in the late 1990s, I worked in the Beverly Hills area of Los Angeles, California for a business that provided in-flight entertainment to Pakistan International Airlines.  The business was small, and I was responsible for, well, running everything.  My boss, Mr. H, was from Pakistan but had many years of residency in the United States.  He had worked for several movie studios and was very comfortable with Western business culture.
A high-level representative for Pakistan International Airlines (who I shall call Mr. D) came to visit our office.  My boss introduced me to Mr. D, and I offered my hand for a handshake.  Mr. D hesitated very briefly and then shook my hand.  As he did so, he noticed that a button was loose on the cuff of his shirt.  Mr. D asked me to sew it on his shirt for him.
My boss very quickly intervened and seemed worried that I would take offense.  I did not, though I do admit to feeling very bemused by the whole situation.  The fact was that despite being female, I was wholly unfamiliar with the art of sewing and would likely have ruined Mr. D’s shirt had I tried to mend it.  Still, it was obvious that Mr. D regarded me as a woman who would be expected to handle traditional “feminine” tasks.
The entire incident was fascinating.  Mr. D simply saw me in such a different light than I would have expected from a businessman from the United States.  I recognized that this was due, mostly, from his unfamiliarity with the role of women in Western culture business.  I think, too, the fact that Mr. D was older also contributed to his very “traditional” view that women handled domestic tasks while men took care of business.  I did not think (and still do not think) that women are valued as much as men in American business today, but this incident showed me that the disparity can be even greater in other cultures.   

Experience in the Community

Comments

  1. Dr. DApril 6, 2017 at 7:30 AM

    I enjoyed reading this immensely and without stereotyping (is that not the most significant challenge in an exercise such as this) a plausible situation! Good posting.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Learning about the Language Learner and Learning about the Language Learner Labels

Take a second to re-read the title of this post and then try to say it three times very, very fast.  I'm guessing that it didn't exactly trip lightly from your tongue.  Now, imagine a sweet six-year-old child who is being raised in a family  environment that speaks only Spanish.  Can you guess how that kid feels that first day he or she enters an English-speaking public classroom?  That student is probably about as comfortable as you felt trying to say that title three times fast.  As our first chapter reading pointed out, teaching English learners is a complex, oft-misunderstood undertaking.  Every learner has a unique set of background, social-emotional, and cognitive factors that play into how that child acquires a second language.  Good teachers routinely use differentiation to tailor instruction to individual student's needs.  Similarly, good teachers must recognize and implement practices that support English language development by ...
1 comment
Read more

SIOP

The Second Grade Classroom Science video shows how two teachers carefully implement the Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) model of teaching.   This strategy is a specific method used to instruct English learners.   I talked about it a bit in an earlier post (Having a Plan:   SDAIE), but I very much enjoyed watching two veteran teachers actually putting it into action.   What stood out most for me was just how much careful planning must be used when using this teaching protocol.   Eight specific areas must be addressed:   lesson preparation, building background, comprehensible input, strategies, interaction, practice and application, lesson delivery and review and assessment. It is a time-consuming process and teachers are, if anything, always short on time. Still, I am someone who likes to have a plan, and I will definitely be mindful of all of these steps that should be used when instructing English learners.   Lesson plannin...
1 comment
Read more

Having a Plan: SDAIE for Success

In my last blog posting, I stated that I would strive to help my English learners by differentiating instruction in specific ways.   In the most recent chapter of our text, I was happy to learn that my plan is a real “thing” and even has a name!   SDAIE, which stands for specially designed academic instruction, is a method for helping English learners have better accessibility to content instruction.   SDAIE uses specific strategies that focus on communication techniques that make accommodations for students who do not speak English as their first language.   This makes sense, of course, because in order to gain understanding of content, students must understand the language being used. A good teacher always has a plan.   SDAIE helps to organize that plan.   Arkansas asks that homeroom instructors use only English, but for my English learners, I plan to incorporate many of the strategies that SDAIE recommends.   These include, first and foremost...
Post a Comment
Read more