Gabby Smith
Potiki- Homelands analysis
2/13/13
In chapter 21, Toko describes how he really listened and understood
Granny’s stories much more after many people lost homes and possessions in the
fire. He says how she always told her
stories “with a kind of joyfulness” but really “loss and grief were ordinary
and expected” (140 Grace). Today I went
to Acts 4 Youth for the second time. I
was working with two 7th grade boys on studying science and writing
a book report. At one point, I was
quizzing M on parts of a nerve cell and he got frustrated. “Forget it!
If I don’t get this one right I’m not getting into to no high school,”
he told me. Of course, he got it wrong
and he continued to express more frustration saying that he could never get
into any of those “good high schools.” A
few minutes later, the other boy, A, mentioned Loyola Blakefield that was on a
piece of paper. He said to M how they
could never get into Loyola Blakefield, a prestigious high school in
Baltimore. I immediately said, “of
course you can go!” because I was always brought up being told that I could go
anywhere and do anything I wanted to. M
looked at me and laughed at first, but when I said it again seriously he looked
at me almost like I was just being rude.
It was as if everyone knew that going to Loyola was impossible and now I
was just being cruel by making them think they actually could go there.
I do not know much about their home
lives just yet, as it is only the second week, but I do know that most of them
are not too well off financially. When
reading this chapter, Granny’s demeanor and stories really reminded me of M
today. These boys have so much energy
and are so fun to be around, just as Granny tells her stories always so
joyfully. In this way, I see the
contrast between the storytellers, Granny and the boys at Acts 4 Youth both of who
are almost always laughing, and the truth in their stories, that they have seen
and had to accept difficult circumstances.
Despite such negativity in their lives, both Granny and the kids tell
stories with such enthusiasm that one could assume nothing is wrong. Grace writes how Toko “really understood for
the first time that to Granny, loss and grief were ordinary and expected” (140
Grace). Just as Granny came to expect
loss, M and A have accepted their future as going to a mediocre high school and
maybe getting into college if they’re lucky.
In the York Road area where many of the students live, violence and
death is surprising, but not uncommon.
As for their futures, there is not much dreaming. We toured a business last week to show them
some of the business world and what it takes to be a businessman, but when I
asked who was interested in owning their own business, only two of them said,
“yeah, maybe.” This could be because
their careers are in the very distant future, but when M laughed and got almost
offended when I tried to be hopeful for him, it demonstrated the limits of his
world. The idea of “dreaming big” and “making
yourself” as Hoani says in this chapter, is not there. Hoani says “it’s myself, to give…and your big
fish, it’s yourself, to give” (144 Grace).
I feel this idea of investing in people so they can give the best of
themselves to other people is not in the mindset of Americans in general. Perhaps I am being too idealistic. The reality is that M and A will probably
stay in Baltimore for the rest of their lives and be fine without going to a
great high school or college. Most of
them are very average students with a little too much energy, so some of the
tougher high schools will probably not want to take them. However, not even having that possibility in
mind, not having anything to strive for because M assumes he will never get in,
really bothers me. I want him to be able
to dream and give the most of himself to the world; without goals or
possibilities for his future, I worry about him accepting mediocrity, settling
to be a small fish without striving to be bigger.
**M and A refer to the boys’ names which I decided to leave
out for any security reasons**
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