Prompt #2

All of my students that I have tutored are of a different socioeconomic status than my own. I live in a better-than-average urban neighborhood, while the students I help live in an urban setting that looks vastly different than the one I am accustomed to. Mine consists of trees and hills, and backyards fraught with swimming pools (my house is one of few in my neighborhood that does not have one), while their community consists of nail salons and convenience stores, and torn up asphalt roads outside the crowded apartment buildings in which they live.

As well as belonging to a different socioeconomic status, all my students are of different racial and ethnic backgrounds, and each student holds a certain "cultural capital" that they bring to the classroom each day they walk through the door.

I believe one student I have gotten to know especially well, Charlotte, has extreme potential to succeed in any endeavor she may choose. She is a vibrant child, always talkative, but she knows when it is appropriate to be so. She is friendly, and she speaks fluent Spanish; I've heard her converse with classmates numerous times in the language that I am sure she primarily speaks at home with her family. I believe she is a student who, given the right opportunities and coming across the right circumstances, could become a very enlightened individual and someone who cares deeply about the well-being of others. She's inquisitive and is always asking, "Why?" She could easily become someone of importance in her working-class community, as well as any other she may become a part of during the course of her life.

She reminds me quite a bit of the working-class individuals discussed in Brown's "In the Bad or Good of Girlhood." She has an extremely strong front put up in the classroom group setting, as if she would hate for anyone to thnk she was anything less than strong. But when talking to her singly, although her voice is still strong, one can see her insecurities a little more defined.

Charlotte, nonetheless, is a natural born leader, itching to be at the front of the line, to take attendance when Ms. Mara needs to attend to other things, and just being the center of attention amongst friends, speaking in rapid-paced Spanish. With a good education and perseverance on her part, Charlotte will be an excellent student and citizen in society, able to think for herself as well as others, assess situations put before her, and choose which action to take wisely.