The study of the VOA article on developments in the racial make-up of America was only supposed to take 20 minutes or so, but we had to go back to basics--reviewing the geography of the nation as depicted in the two maps illustrating the story--to really begin to do the job.
I'd forgotten--stupid me--how, for many of you in the class, the names of the regions, the layout of the states and counties, the concepts of majority vs minority populations, and the age pyramid, were unfamiliar, and needed explication. I put pie charts up on the board divided into 'people who look like Peter' and 'other people' to show the demographic trends underway across the country.
The theme of growing diversity came through loud and clear as you pointed to each other in the class--Russian, Haitian, Brazilian, Vietnamese, Honduran, Salvadoran, Dominican, Kurd--as illustrative of what the story was essentially about: the changing face of this city, this nation.
There was some slogany 'land of opportunity' talk but also discussion of the sometimes narrow focus immigrants have on just making money and remitting it home. Where we went after that was to the idea of the future of this place as the shared responsibility of all who live here and love it.
I thought, how much of the fraught history of this republic you have missed, as well as the inspiring stories of remarkable men and women, the life-force of our tradition.
It used to be that classes such as ours in, say, the beginning of the last century, would have preached patriotism to those landing at Ellis Island. We don't do that anymore, but I could hear in your attentiveness, your questions, a readiness to learn what you are heir to, now that you've thrown in your lot with all the rest of us.
The class felt somehow religious in a distinctly non-dogmatic fashion. Then I gave the writing and reading assignment for the next class and you, the new America, said goodbye, walked through the door and dispersed.
I'd forgotten--stupid me--how, for many of you in the class, the names of the regions, the layout of the states and counties, the concepts of majority vs minority populations, and the age pyramid, were unfamiliar, and needed explication. I put pie charts up on the board divided into 'people who look like Peter' and 'other people' to show the demographic trends underway across the country.
The theme of growing diversity came through loud and clear as you pointed to each other in the class--Russian, Haitian, Brazilian, Vietnamese, Honduran, Salvadoran, Dominican, Kurd--as illustrative of what the story was essentially about: the changing face of this city, this nation.
There was some slogany 'land of opportunity' talk but also discussion of the sometimes narrow focus immigrants have on just making money and remitting it home. Where we went after that was to the idea of the future of this place as the shared responsibility of all who live here and love it.
I thought, how much of the fraught history of this republic you have missed, as well as the inspiring stories of remarkable men and women, the life-force of our tradition.
It used to be that classes such as ours in, say, the beginning of the last century, would have preached patriotism to those landing at Ellis Island. We don't do that anymore, but I could hear in your attentiveness, your questions, a readiness to learn what you are heir to, now that you've thrown in your lot with all the rest of us.
The class felt somehow religious in a distinctly non-dogmatic fashion. Then I gave the writing and reading assignment for the next class and you, the new America, said goodbye, walked through the door and dispersed.
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