ASSIGNMENT 5

Assignment 5 Working Outline

Wu

Place and Time: California in the near future

WARNING: CONTROVERSIAL MATERIAL



  1. Wu, Asian refugee Teacher's Aide at a year-round school, has become so distressed by seeing the same two little Hispanic girls, day after day, standing in the heat outside the second grade classroom, that she goes to the Teacher, Mr. Jimenez, to offer to tutor them during her lunch break along with the Asian students she is already tutoring.
  2. Mr. Jimenez (who, unknown to Wu until now, supported both the Initiative to deny services, including school, to undocumented aliens and the Initiative to require all schools in the state to use the same, very limited ESL program) angrily rejects her offer and warns her that if she persists in meddling with things not her concern she will jeopardize her job.
  3. [Proposition 187 which would deny services and require Teachers to report on students was immediately challenged in court. This story assumes that the court challenge is on the verge of being thrown out except for the disallowance of forcing schools to report. This would result in cutting student population drastically. Small towns, like Wu's, that have been maintaining their independence may have to merge with larger towns school districts.]
  4. [Proposition 227 was also challenged in court. This story assumes the challenge was denied. The catch to the provision for funding training of adult Limited English Proficients is that only documented adults will be eligible thus disqualifying what will probably be the majority of those who could be helped.]
  5. [There is considerable hostility in California between Asian refugees and Hispanics.]
  6. [Except for a few older buildings most school buildings are rows of classrooms which open directly to the 'halls' or 'corridors' outside the building.]
  7. Wu concentrates on her job, but, she continues to quietly speak to the two girls whenever she passes them.
  8. Wu is abruptly assigned to playground duty at lunchtime.
  9. Worried by the unexpected (to Wu) hostility from the school staff Wu goes to family members for advice.
  10. To the family Wu is not just a low status Instructional Aide, she is a Teacher and gives the Family status in the refugee community. She even brings higher status than Uncle who owns the Asian Food Store. Uncle, however, shares some of that status by allowing Wu to tutor others from the refugee community in the back room of the store in the evenings.
  11. The family is alarmed. Wu must not do anything to risk losing her job (and lowering the family's status.) Why does Wu want to bother with dirty migrants anyway? They just cause problems and persecute the community.
  12. Wu persists. The girls are not they. The girls are babies and it is not right that they are being treated so badly. Their families are afraid to protest. They do not understand the waiver procedure and would probably be afraid to request it anyway.
  13. Uncle suggests that Wu invite the girls to the evening tutorials but she is not to do it at school where someone might complain and she is not to go into the barrio alone.
  14. The family approves. Aunt will go with Wu.
  15. The attempt is a disaster. Nobody ever heard of the girls. Whispers of "La Migra" are followed by jeers and accusations of stealing cats and dogs and eating them. Hostile teenagers follow and jostle them.
  16. [La Migra is the barrio name for the Immigration. The undocumented live in fear of being seized and deported. Any stranger asking questions in the barrio is likely to be suspected of being La Migra.]
  17. Discouraged, Wu returns to the job she is beginning to hate.
  18. Sixth grade students taunt Wu on the playground - accuse her of spying for La Migra, etc. The yelling brings Mr. Jimenez on the scene just in time to 'catch' Wu speaking in Spanish.
  19. The principal is sympathetic. He agrees that the situation is unjust but points out that there are so many major problems facing the schools that there just isn't time to deal with the small ones. He has no alternative to placing Wu on probation. However, if she will agree to stop interfering, and keep out of Mr. Jimenez's way, he won't suspend her.
  20. Tired and discouraged, Wu is tempted by the offer. She could go around the building and not see the children standing outside.
  21. She cannot.
  22. Wu is suspended for three months. When she returns, she will be reassigned - to the predominately Anglo school on the other side of town.
  23. Wu works in Uncle's store and continues to tutor the refugee group.
  24. She searches newspapers, magazines, and the Internet for possible help.
  25. She contacts the A.F.S.C. and they offer to provide instructional materials and training for volunteer tutors.
  26. She finds a nonprofit organization in a nearby city that works with disadvantaged youth and will help with field trips and with filling out forms.
  27. She contacts teachers who wrote Letters to the Editor saying they would resign before they would violate confidentiality of their students. One teacher, who is off-track, volunteers to help with the tutoring sessions and in getting Private School status for the group.
  28. When she points out that the same people who supported the Initiatives are now campaigning to Close the loophole in the Constitution that gives citizenship to any baby born in the United States and this would affect all the American born children of refugees who have not become citizens, not just the migrant farm workers, someone agrees to lease a building to them for a dollar a year for the school.
  29. Wu is fortunate. A teenage boy, one of the boys who harassed Wu and Aunt in their foray into the barrio, shows up to ask if he can come to the school, and his little sisters too.

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Comments? Margaret I. Carr

Copyright © 1999 Margaret I. Carr.

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