Understanding Discrimination Through My Ancestry

I just finished the sermon, "How the Irish Became White," which we received an e-mail about earlier today. I thought that the story was especially interesting because most of my heritage is Irish. Until class on Thursday, I didn’t know about the extent of discrimination that the Irish first faced when they came to the United States. I do however, remember my dad talking about how his Irish Catholic family was a ‘minority’ in the town that he grew up in, although he didn’t face discrimination. I found it hard to believe that a group of people that had undergone discrimination and something similar to slavery would turn against those with a similar experience. It seems as though our country is like a group that likes to make newcomers feel unwelcome until they conform and become more like the group. Those new members, in turn, oppress those in which they were once on the outside with. Although I have never experienced discrimination, this article helped me to come closer to the issue, knowing that my ancestors had gone through it.

On a different note, I will choose my student that I will profile tomorrow. I’m still not sure about what kind of student I would like to observe. I’m excited to begin working on this and hopefully spending a little more of my day at the school so I can see how the child acts in other environments such as other classrooms, at lunch, and at recess. At first I thought that I wouldn’t be able to relate to the students, but junior high school students seem to have grown up since I was in junior high. It is scary how mature these students are, or at least the mature nature of things they know. I am interested in learning about what these students talk about and what influences them.

On a final note, which really has very little to do with class, I hope the weather warms up soon because some of these walks to the junior high have not been very enjoyable.