The Power of Education
Lorena, Myles Horton, and Calderon believe their jobs as human beings is to teach their community to be able to know what’s right and wrong and educate them in topics they might not know very much about, such as the dangers of pesticides as described in “Sabrina Needs Her Identity Back,” specifically for farm workers who may not know anything about the dangers of it. They believe the community holds an important role in a city and shouldn’t be taken for granted when having people such as labor workers not be educated.
Some of the social issues that Lorena, Horton, and Calderon are engaged with include farm labor rights, minority rights, and community organizations in diverse coalitions. Lorena was motivated by her own life experiences when she was sent to North Carolina for her internship to help farmworkers, “ I’ve always reminded myself that the only reason why I’m in school and I have a good job is because my parents did backbreaking labor so that I could go to school. I’ve always felt like I need to give back to those people, because those laborers out there in the fields are like my parents.”(Orner, 190.) This internship made her see and provided her with so much information about all the injustices that happen to farm workers which had an empowering effect on her. She developed a passion to help out her community and when she came back from the internship, she created her own organization on her college campus to help local farm workers.
Horton is motivated by his different perspectives and points of views in things. In his text he mentions, “ I can’t imagine a world in which there isn’t conflict growing out of different decisions, and I think we have to set up the procedures that take into consideration minority decisions and decisions that seem completely crazy, yet have a place in our thinking, since they may grow into noncrazy decisions. History tells us that the minority decisions have become the majority decisions, and that any society which doesn’t allow for this to happen is going to die.”(Horton, 138.) He includes a perspective not many would have noticed would be important. Sometimes we’re so caught up into doing or planning things our own way that we sometimes forget to see the other perspective on what it is we’re trying to accomplish. It’s important to acknowledge the other side and take it into consideration because it could be a key point used for success along with validating what Horton mentions when he says he is trying to get his students to learn to be social activists.
In Calderon’s text, he expresses his form of teaching and how it has made an impact not only in the lives of his students but also the community which his students spend time out of class with. He has changed these students’ perspective on many things when it comes to immigrants and having their voices be heard, “ To combat negative portrayals of new immigrants, students and day laborers have organized community-wide art and pictorial life history presentations. Thus the workers and students join in raising their voices and ensuring that they are heard. In all these projects, students come to accept the day laborers as teachers.”(Calderon, 3). His motivation derives from his past experiences being an immigrant himself and not having his voice be heard by anybody because he wasn’t able to speak english. This has made him very passionate about teaching his students through experience themselves and not just through an outside perspective.
As I read Lorena’s story in “Sabrina Needs Her Identity Back,” it was very shocking and inspiring at the same time to read such a similar story to mine. I couldn’t believe it. It was intriguing to read someone else’s migrating story because it reminds me of the insane amount of strength people carry within them to be able to cross the desert, leave their home country and family members behind to seek a better future. When Lorena says, “My mission is to change one person’s life. Educate one person, so if their boss tries to be bad to to them, they’ll say, “No, I know you can’t do that, that’s against the law.” If I can do that, then I’ve done my job as a human being.”(Orner, 194) it inspired me and brought up some questions of what my job as a human being is in my community. Some things she mentions about her life as an immigrant worker were very relatable when she said, “In my family, you go to work, no matter what, unless you have to be hospitalized.”(Orner, 198.) This resonates with me because it’s a saying I have been taught since I was young. During my highschool years, I would see some classmates taking days or even weeks off from school because they had a fever or a cold and when I would be sick, I struggled because I wasn’t allowed to stay home unless I was dying. This has taught me how much value education has with it for my family.
A strategy I see Lorena use in “Sabrina Needs Her Identity Back,” to make education meaningful, democratic, and empowering is never forgetting how she and her parents once started off from, not knowing anything including english and how having someone advocate to them about everything they needed to know would have been beneficial for them. Throughout her story, she constantly remembers where she came from and I believe that is a meaningful way that she motivates herself, knowing that she had come here to receive a better education than she would have back in Puebla, Mexico.
All these texts carry importance with them through experience and I believe it’s something special one carries within. I’m excited to be able to connect and meet with other people through this class and listen to what their experiences have been like and how they’re similar/different to mine.
