Subtractive Schooling: Losing Your Self in School

Subtractive Schooling

What happens if you are not the stereotypical student, if you don’t fit the mold? Schools act like filters, sifting through students trying to find which ones don’t fit our society, if you don’t fit you either allow yourself to be molded or you are rejected.

When you do not fit the mold, schools become subtractive, they take away from you and sometimes they don’t even add anything back. The easiest thing to think about is language and–since language is the water culture ripples through—culture as well.

Let’s say you speak Spanish at home (I’ll try to write about what I know through experience). That sweet, comforting, familiar language is restricted and replaced with an unfamiliar and therefore terrifying language, English. If you are young you wonder why nobody is speaking to you in Spanish (mistakenly thinking that everybody is just like you), you may feel they just don't want to speak to you. If you are old enough and have Hispanic* teachers, you may wonder why they don't speak in Spanish; you start to think they just don’t care about you. You end up learning that Spanish is a dirty language, one you should never speak. You look around and you see that English is the language of academics, you start believing that Spanish is the language of ignorance.

In social studies you learn about America and you look at the pictures and you see all of the little white faces with bright blue eyes and blond hair and you wonder if America is really "your country." When you finally see people that look like you, they are poor workers or farmers, or if you are dark skinned, you may look at the Native Americans and feel a connection. So finally you find somebody that looks like you, you feel represented but then you find out that they were “savages” who had to be taught how to be civilized. You learn about how ridiculously stupid they were when you read about the land they "sold" for little pieces of metal and sea shells. You are crushed and you start feeling ashamed of your culture. If you felt no connection to the Native Americans than perhaps you felt a connection to Californios of Mexican California. Unfortunately the text books represent them first as a fun seeking bunch having fiestas every weekend on their ranchos and later as stupid and feeble. Stupid for rejecting the United State’s offer of $40,000,000 for California and feeble for losing the Mexican-American war and having to relinquish control of all the South West for a measly $15,000,000. You also learn about how lazy they were, my goodness before the Americans came, California was like a piece of gold in a muddy river bank, all they had to do was go and pick it up and wash it. But the Californios were dumb and lazy and did nothing to “fix-up” and take advantage of California’s natural resources. The American’s though, they were smart and industrious; they made California the seventh largest economy in the world!

Even when you are not studying social studies you feel certain disdain. You notice that all around you (in school) the people in power are white while the people working in the cafeteria or cleaning the school are minorities.

Now you want to reject your culture and take up the culture of power and privilege. You reject (psychologically and subconsciously) the inferior culture of your home and you begin to systematically replace it.

Using what you have learned at school, you start analyzing your home and you begin noticing all of the “backward” things your family does and says. Mom says you’ll get sick if you walk around bare footed but you learned at school that germs cause illness**, so you shake your head and wonder why your parents are so ignorant.

With all of their backward actions you begin to get annoyed by them and you stop talking to them. With no chance to speak your language in school and very little opportunities at home, you start to lose the language and the culture that it carries.

One argument against what I am saying will center on somebody knowing somebody who can speak both languages very well and has maintained the home culture. To that I say:

First, I am pretty sure that this will be more the exception than the rule. Second, assuming I am correct in my first statement, we would have to look through a person’s life to figure out why they managed to maintain their culture while most do not. For example, most of the people I know who are fluent in both Spanish and English are female. I think it is because both Latino and American cultures have similar expectations of females; they already fit the mold and not very much has to be stripped away. This would apply to other characteristics as well like being middle class, light skinned, and/or Christian. We would also have to look in the family. If a child is very close to the family then of course they will maintain the home culture, conversely, if the child is not very close to the family, then s/he may more easily replace the home culture. I feel that the main reason I “rejected” my home culture was because of my father. He is dark skinned and a machista. He symbolized what I thought Mexican culture was and since our relationship has never been very strong, my rejection of the culture was actually a rejection of him. I was able to successfully reject him and succeed in school however, because of my family’s financial stability. Other people end up having a much harder time and that is when schools are truly subtractive. In my case, school subtracted one culture and replaced it with another.

So we have three possible situations:
1. You lose your culture and gain the dominant one, doing well in school.
2. You keep your culture and fail school
3 You keep your culture and gain the dominant culture, doing well in school.

The only outcome that is additive (rather than subtractive) is number three. This would be the best way to go about things because the home culture is maintained while another culture is added making the student bicultural and giving her/him two ways of viewing the world. Unfortunately, for this to happen the student must be lucky enough to be born in the right house with the right resources. Schools do absolutely nothing to try to aid in maintaining home cultures, even in ghetto (segregated) schools.

If schools were to promote biculturalism, student achievement would sky rocket.

* I use Hispanic here to mean somebody who speaks Spanish.

** I don’t know for sure, but I think this is actually true. It might not be the cold that causes you to become ill, but probably the stress that comes from the cold. Maybe the body has to try to warm up more making it a perfect environment for germs?

Subtractive Schooling (What Schools Take Away)
Subtractive Schooling

What happens if you are not the stereotypical student, if you don't fit the mold? Schools act like filters, sifting through students trying to find which ones don't fit our society, if you don't fit you either allow yourself to be molded or you are rejected.
When you do not fit the mold, schools become subtractive, they take away from you and sometimes they don't even add anything back. The easiest thing to think about is language and–since language is the water culture ripples through—culture as well.
Let's say you speak Spanish at home (I'll try to write about what I know through experience). That sweet, comforting, familiar language is restricted and replaced with an unfamiliar and therefore terrifying language, English. If you are young you wonder why nobody is speaking to you in Spanish (mistakenly thinking that everybody is just like you), you may feel they just don't want to speak to you. If you are old enough and have Latino teachers, you may wonder why they don't speak in Spanish; you start to think they just don't care about you. You end up learning that Spanish is a dirty language, one you should never speak. You look around and you see that English is the language of academics, you start believing that Spanish is the language of ignorance.

In social studies you learn about America and you look at the pictures and you see all of the little white faces with bright blue eyes and blond hair and you wonder if America is really "your nation." When you finally see people that look like you, they are poor workers or farmers, or if you are dark skinned, you may look at the Native Americans and feel a connection. So finally you find somebody that looks like you, you feel represented but then you find out that they were savages who had to be taught how to be civilized. You learn about how ridiculously stupid they were when you read about the land they "sold" for little pieces of metal and sea shells. You are crushed and you start feeling ashamed of your culture.

You notice that all around you (in school) the people in power are white while the people working in the cafeteria or cleaning the school are minorities.

Now you want to reject your culture and take up the culture of power and privilege. You reject (psychologically and subconsciously) the inferior culture of your home and you begin to systematically replace it.

Using what you have learned at school, you start analyzing your home and you begin noticing all of the "backward" things your family does and says. Mom says you'll get sick if you walk around bare footed but you learned at school that germs cause illness*, so you shake your head and wonder why your parents are so dumb. Or maybe you want to go out late at night but your parents don't let you, you watch TV and you see all of the white kids partying it up. Your parents are just too old school.

With all of their backward actions you begin to get annoyed by them and you stop talking to them. With no chance to speak your language in school and very little opportunities at home, you start to lose it.

One argument against what I am saying will center on somebody knowing somebody who can speak both languages very well and has maintained the home culture. To that I say:

First: I am pretty sure that this will be more the exception than the rule. Second, we would have to look through a person's life to figure out why they managed to maintain their culture while most do not. For example, most of the people I know who are fluent in both Spanish and English are female. I think it is because both Latino and American cultures have similar expectations of females; they already fit the mold and not very much has to be stripped away. This would apply to other characteristics as well like being middle class, light skinned, and/or Christian. We would also have to look in the family. If a child is very close to the family then of course they will maintain the home culture. I feel that the main reason I "rejected" my home culture was because of my father. He is dark skinned and a machista. He symbolized what I thought Mexican culture was and since our relationship has never been very strong, my rejection of the culture was actually a rejection of him. I was able to successfully reject him and succeed in school however, because of my family's financial stability. Other people end up having a much harder time and that is when schools are truly subtractive. In my case, school subtracted one culture and replaced it with another.

So we have three possible situations:
1. You lose your culture and gain the dominant one, doing well in school.
2. You keep your culture and fail school
3 You keep your culture and gain the dominant culture, doing well in school.

The only outcome that is additive (rather than subtractive) is number three. This would be the best way to go about things because the home culture is maintained while another culture is added making the student bicultural and giving her/him two ways of viewing the world. Unfortunately, schools do nothing to prmote this situation. For this situation to occur the student must be lucky enough to be born in the right house with the right resources. Schools do absolutely nothing to try to aid in maintaining home cultures, even in ghetto (segregated) schools.

If schools were to promote biculturalism, student achievement would sky rocket.

* I don't know for sure, but I think this is actually true. It might not be the cold that causes you to become ill, but probably the stress that comes from the cold. Maybe the body has to try to warm up more making it a perfect environment for germs? Anybody with a background in physiology?