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Rachel Bruinsma

Dr. Zachary Brewster

SOC 2000

24 April 2017

Service Learning Journal

Tuesday, January 24, 2017

Today was my first day at Michigan Works tutoring for the Harris Literacy Program. The

students I will be working with this semester come from a wide age range and have a beginning

functioning between a fourth and eighth grade reading level. They are taking this course as a pre-

GED class to provide a solid foundation for English writing and grammar. At first, I was not sure

what to expect. Fortunately, the students seemed very receptive and willing to learn. It was

surprising to see how different the levels of functioning were between the students. Some had

difficulty simply reading off the directions to worksheets while others had near mastery of

concepts as soon as they were taught.

The first sociological concept that jumped out to me was the disparity in education that

exists between the Highland Park area were Michigan Works is located, and the education I was

able to receive in Livonia Public Schools. The students I am working with are far from

unintelligent. It is very clear to me that given different circumstances and resources, these

students could have been very successful during their high school years and with the right help,

could have completed high school instead of choosing to drop out. It became very clear to me

that the choice to drop out only laid in part with individual agency, and that structural factors

played a very significant role in my students decisions not to complete high school.
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Tuesday, January 31, 2017

This was my second time volunteering. The other volunteer who usually helps me teach

was out sick, so I had to take on the whole class by myself. Fortunately, I had a lesson plan to go

off of, and it did not take long to get into the swing of things. I really enjoyed myself and my

students were enthusiastic. I gained a lot of respect for them and their circumstances. None of

them drive to the class; all either need bus passes or walk home.

Tuesday, February 7, 2017

Today was a rough one. It was raining all morning so only two of my students were able

to make it to class. Early into the lesson, one of them got a phone call: apparently his name had

come up in an investigation of a stolen car. He was extremely stressed, but his demeanor made it

seem as though this kind of thing was not something entirely out of the ordinary. Based on his

social position as someone living in an impoverished area, being involved in this kind of thing,

or at least being tied closely enough to be wrongly accused, was not something that was strange.

It is interesting to think how someone who had grown up in a suburb like Livonia where I grew

up would react to the same news, and how that would be quite different from how my student

did.

I was particularly reminded of the article Code of the Streets. Though the street

values that are discussed at length in the article did not exactly come up, I was reminded most of

the discussion of the complicated relationship between choosing to act in a street manner and

choosing to act decent. I would consider most, if not all of my students involved in the Harris

Literacy Program to be people who have largely chosen to exhibit decent values rather than

street, though I have only known them for a short period and many of them may have a past

where the pressure to act street may have overpowered decency. I feel that reading the article
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gave me a greater appreciation for the many pressures people who live in an impoverished, high-

crime, urban area are under, which allowed me to more fully understand the circumstances my

students are under, and have been under for their entire lives. Having this understanding is vitally

important to becoming an effective instructor as it is impossible to truly help a person without

understanding them and their circumstances.

It was clear by observing the duress the student was under that he was experiencing a

form of role conflict. Though he insisted he was innocent, he chose to turn himself in. This was

interesting for a variety of reasons. First of all, it seems illogical that a person who is actually

innocent would choose to turn oneself in for a crime one did not commit, at least by the norms I

have learned through the socialization I have received through the primary socializing agents I

have been exposed to, especially the media. Clearly, however, the student had received different

socialization than I had and so felt an expectation to adhere to different norms. Secondly,

though he said he was innocent, he seemed to know a decent amount about the situation and so

clearly was involved in some way, even passively. Even if all he was guilty of was simply not

reporting the crime, this is evidence of street values as he did not do what would be considered

decent which would be to report the crime to the police. This is where the role conflict comes

in. In dealing with being accused of a crime, the student was forced to choose between his

decent role as a student who is looking to better himself through education and a street role

which led him to be involved in a crime. This role conflict caused the visible discomfort he

displayed as he faced his situation.

As I considered the different roles my students perform, it occurred to me that many of

the students placed themselves in a situation of resocialization when they chose to enroll as a

student in the Harris Literacy Program. Many of them would have to learn different values than
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those they may be used to as uneducated people. In choosing to better themselves, they must

learn the importance of delayed gratification as well as different social norms that go along

with working a better, higher-paying job. By looking at this through a sociological perspective, I

was able to fully grasp the complexity of what my students were going through beyond the

material which was taught in the classroom.

Tuesday, February 14, 2017

The lesson today was relatively uneventful. The topic of the day was plural words, which

some of the students had particular difficulty with as they were continually tempted to put an

apostrophe before the s at the end of plural word. Eventually, however, I was able to teach

them the difference between a plural and a possessive word based upon the placement of an

apostrophe.

One thing I did notice today was the dynamic that existed around my race. All throughout

my time teaching at the Harris Literacy Program, I have been the only non-black person in the

room. All of the students, and the other teachers as well, are black. From the beginning, I noticed

that the students interacted differently with me than they did with the other teachers. I realized

that this was due to the power dynamic that existed because of my perceived race. Because I am

white-passing, my students perceived me as white and so (likely largely unconsciously) behaved

in such a way with me that was different than when they interacted with a teacher of their own

race. This was likely due to socialized norms which dictated how to behave around people of

other races, which all people have experienced at one point or another. Most surprising to me

was the shift in the way in which the students interacted with me when I revealed to them that I

am actually of mixed race. All of a sudden, the interactions seemed more relaxed. Based on my

understanding (and how I feel myself around other people of color) this is due to the fact that
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most people of color are able to understand one another, at least to some extent, due to shared

experiences. Though this is not the first time I have experienced something similar to this (and

will likely not be the last) it was still interesting to reflect through a sociological perspective on

the reasons for such a shift in interaction to occur.

Tuesday, February 21, 2017

Today the students took their midterm. It was not particularly eventful, but I was

surprised with how the students conducted themselves during the exam. Throughout my

experience in education speaking to each other during an exam and asking for and discussing

answers was very much so looked down upon and often resulted in severe sanctions such as a

failing grade or some kind of punishment like a detention. It was made apparent by the students

behavior that they did not receive the same socialization that I did which taught the norm that

speaking to one another during an exam is considered cheating. It was made very clear to me that

while during my education talking during an exam is considered cheating and is a more which

will be treated with severe sanctions, to these students, this same behavior is at best a folkway,

but in general is not seen as a violation of social norms that should receive any sanction.

This observation is especially interesting because it demonstrates the difference between

the socialization I underwent as a student in suburban schools and the socialization my students

underwent as they at best did not complete high school, though some exited the education system

earlier. In some ways, one could say that the students missed out at receiving the socialization

process which would allow them to enter the role of a student and so did not know how to

behave in that role now that they have entered it as a participant in the Harris Literacy Program

pre-GED course. In addition to this being demonstrated in the students behavior during the

midterm, it could also be seen in their general behavior in the classroom. Some of the students
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would consistently interrupt me when I was teaching. At first, I took this as very rude, but I soon

realized that it was due to the fact that they had not been socialized into their role as a student

and so did not know the appropriate behavior would be to wait until I was done speaking and

raise their hand to ask a question. Additionally, some of the students did not know how to take

notes, something that I had initially thought was very simplistic but I soon discovered was

something I had taken for granted as part of my privileged education in a suburban school.

Through this, (as well as many, many other situations) I was able to recognize the disparity

between the education I was privileged to receive due to my own and my parents social

position and the education my students were able to receive due to their social position as

people living in an impoverished area with underfunded schooling.

Tuesday, February 28, 2017

Only two students showed up due to weather. It was very rainy out, which certainly

would have made transportation difficult for my students who either had to walk all the way to

the Michigan Works building or at least to the bus stop to get on the bus that would take them

there. This situation does a lot to reveal how transportation for a population that is similar to the

population that my students come from can be a significant structural barrier. If each of my

students had access to a reliable vehicle, or at least had someone with a reliable vehicle who was

able to drive them where they needed to be, all of them would have been able to attend. At the

very least, transportation has proven to be a barrier to education as the students who were

unable to attend missed out on the days lesson, and therefore would not have access to the

knowledge and skills that were taught to the students who were able to attend. In addition to

being a barrier to education, it is hardly a stretch of the imagination to see how transportation

could be a barrier to employment as well. If something as simple and frequently occurring as bad
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weather could prevent someone from getting to work, they would hardly be seen as a reliable

employee, and could be terminated due to circumstances outside of their control such as access

to transportation.

One of the students was desperate for a GED prep book to help her study for the GED

test she had scheduled for the next week. Initially, the head teacher was reluctant to give her a

copy to take home with her because there was a very limited supply of GED prep books that

were available for student use and it could not be certain whether the student would return the

copy. When the teacher suggested that she go to her local library to check out GED books there,

the student admitted that she was not even sure where her local library was, let alone that there

were resources available there that could help her study for the GED. From this conversation, I

was able to learn about how lack of awareness of resources that are available can serve as a

debilitating barrier to the resources. If people are unaware about the resources that are available

to them, then they might as well not exist. In a way, this is a real-life demonstration of the

Thomas Theorem as because people are unaware that these resources exist, they are effectively

nonexistent in the consequences that result. Essentially, because the resources do not exist in the

minds of the people who need them, it is impossible for them to have any effect and so the

perception of a resource barren environment becomes a reality in its consequences.

Tuesday, March 7th

Today the lesson was dedicated to how the United States and Michigan governments are

structured. Many of the students knew the structure on the federal level, but, like most people,

were not as knowledgeable about local government. The lesson led to an interesting discussion

about the role as a citizen and the responsibility to be an active participant in the political

process. Unsurprisingly based on what I had learned in class about the voting behaviors of
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uneducated, impoverished people, very few of the students had voted in recent elections and

many either thought that their vote was irrelevant or that the process of voting was seen as too

much work and was therefore not worth it. One student even pointed out the issue of the power

elite controlling much of the decisions that are passed through the government. While this is

difficult to deny, we still tried to teach that it is important to participate politically to make sure

the issues that are important to them are heard at the governmental level. Through the lesson, I

feel that we were able to instill a sense of civic responsibility in the students and to convince

them, at least to some extent that their voice is also important in the political process.

Occasionally, the class tended to get off topic in the middle of the lesson. Oftentimes the

teachers are able to steer the conversation back to the lesson, but sometimes the conversations

are interesting and are about important and relevant topics considering the social circumstances

of the students. Perhaps the most interesting conversation occurred today and centered around a

discussion about the use of the n-word. It is worth noting that I, for the entirety of my time at

the Harris Literacy Program, was the only non-black person in the room, including the teachers.

Because of this, I chose to stay out of the discussion as I understood that as a non-black person,

my opinion on a matter that is so closely tied to highly sensitive topics within the black

community is largely irrelevant and inappropriate for me to share without invitation. The

discussion began with one of the students asserting that black people who use the n-word to

refer to themselves or other black people simply have low self-esteem. This is because, she said,

the white man imposed that name onto black men and so to use it, even when attempting to

reclaim it and take pride in ones race, is still derogatory. While this assertion was not

unanimously agreed upon, most everyone seemed to agree that any black person who chose to

use the n-word to refer to oneself or other black people was ignorant and did not respect
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oneself. And, of course, it was agreed upon that it was entirely unacceptable for anyone of any

other race to use the n-word at any time. What was most interesting about this discussion is

that it very much revealed the my students perception of the power dynamic that exists between

the races in their experiences, and also created an out-group which they sought to separate

themselves from of other black people who use the n-word and are in their view simply

ignorant. To the students who participated in this discussion the n-word was far from just a

derogatory term. With it came the weight of generations of structural oppression which had

been imposed upon African Americans throughout the history of the United States.

Tuesday, March 21st

Throughout the semester I have seen a tapering off of the number of students who show

up to lessons. At the beginning of the semester, we had ten students, but now we are seeing only

three regular students. All the other students have simply stopped showing up for one reason or

another. I find this very unfortunate because they are missing out on completing an education

that could potentially help them considerably. I spoke to the coordinator of the Harris Literacy

Program, Dr. Naimah Wade, about this, and she said that this is a problem she has seen

consistently with this programs target population. For some reason or another, the type of people

who are in need of the services the Harris Literacy Program provides have a difficult time

sticking out the program for the full duration. There seems to be not one simple explanation for

why this is the case, but transportation appears to be a very relevant contributing factor. At the

beginning of the semester, we were consistently passing out bus passes to those students who

needed them to get home and get back the next lesson, but internal bureaucracy within Wayne

State concerning funding made it difficult to continue obtaining and passing out bus passes as the

semester went on. Also, another factor seemed to be that the priorities of some of the students
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seemed to be misaligned with what we as teachers would most want them to be. Those who had

jobs were more interested in maintaining their job than continuing their education which could

potentially land them in a better job, and those who had families had to put their families ahead

of their education. Of course, these priorities are understandable given the circumstances these

students are in, but one cannot help but hope that these students will return to education when

they are able to. After all, initiatives like the Harris Literacy Program can only be effective if

students are to do their part by showing up to lessons and putting in the time and effort needed to

learn.

About halfway through the lesson, a job recruiter showed up. All but one of the students

jumped at the opportunity, and quickly prepared themselves for the impromptu interview.

Because of this, the rest of the lesson was effectively cancelled which while initially frustrating,

was alright once I reminded myself that the purpose of the Harris Literacy Program was to

educate the students to make them more employable, so if they were able to get a job while in the

middle of the program, that goal was simply accomplished early.

Tuesday, March 28th

The main focus of this lesson was to review for the final assessment which would

measure how effective of a job the Harris Literacy Program did at improving the English literacy

skills of the students enrolled in the program. The students who were still coming to class at this

point seemed very confident in their improvement throughout the semester and were excited to

prove themselves through the assessment. Unfortunately, this seemed to result in a bit of

overconfidence as they found themselves stumbling over review questions posed to the class.

Though this difficulty was made evident, the students did not lose heart and eagerly took notes

on the topics they had forgotten. While I was not exactly surprised after working with these
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students all semester, I was pleasantly impressed once more about the enthusiasm with which the

students approached learning. All of them saw an education as a way for them to improve their

circumstances and so took learning very seriously and with much enthusiasm. In many ways this

is different from the view of education I was used to seeing, especially throughout high school

and even into college in which students are simply interested in the end goal of earning a grade

in a class and eventually a diploma, instead of expressing genuine interest in learning and

bettering themselves through education.

One of the students who had interviewed with the job recruiter last week was fortunate

enough to land herself a job with Forman Mills. All of the other students were very

congratulatory and it was very clear that the student took great pride in her accomplishment. I

was immensely myself that already, one of my students was able to prove that the initiative she

had taken by enrolling herself in the Harris Literacy program was already paying off and she was

taking the first steps in bettering her circumstances. One sociological concept I was able to see

demonstrated today was anticipatory socialization as the student began to imagine what

behaviors and responsibilities she would have to undertake in her new role as an employee. The

other students helped in this process of anticipatory socialization by giving accounts of their

own experiences in similar jobs and offering suggestions to how she should act and the types of

clothes she should wear. In this way, the other students were helping prepare her for her new role

as an employee and it was interesting to see the concept I had learned about in class

demonstrated in front of me in a real-life situation.

One more thing the accomplishment of my student revealed to me is the prevalence of

unemployment within the community from which the students I was teaching come from. Of

course, I knew objectively that the students I was working with faced a high unemployment rate,
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but I had not fully considered the human face of that unemployment and what it was really like

to face the prospect of poverty and losing a place to live or things to eat simply because there is

an inadequacy of well-paying decent jobs in the area. To my students, being able to get any

job, even such a low-paying and low-status job as a floorperson in a retail store was a huge

accomplishment. To my students and the culture they are from, being able to have any job is

esteemed earned status, while in the culture in which I grew up, the esteem of a status was

largely based on the social status of that job, not simply the binary of having a job or not.

As this was my last day as a tutor for the Harris Literacy program, I was able to reflect

upon my experience as a tutor and consider the sociological factors which went into my

experience as a tutor for the program. One thing I know for certain is that I experienced a certain

level of culture shock when I entered my role as a tutor for these students, and found myself in

a world with a set of social structures which I was aware of, but unfamiliar with on a personal

level. My experience with culture shock came into play when I would hear students discussing

things such as drug use, incarceration, teen pregnancy, and unemployment in such casual terms

which seemed very strange to me. In my socialization experience growing up in a suburb of

Detroit, these things were hardly discussed causally and if one did, one was often met with the

social sanction of people looking at one in a negative light, or at least the fear of this sanction

would keep the discussion of topics such as these to hushed tones and a manner of speaking

which dissociates oneself as much as possible from such topics. To my students, however, these

things were a part of the norms that exist in their experience and so the socialization they

received, while did not exactly encourage such behaviors, certainly looked down on them less

than my culture had and met them with less severe sanctions. This observation did a lot to
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reveal to me the differentiation between the culture I had been raised and socialized in and the

subculture that comes with living in the impoverished, urban areas in which the students live.

One thing that particularly surprised me is that in the discussion of topics such as drug

use, incarceration, teen pregnancy, and unemployment, the students recognized the structural

determinants which led to such outcomes with much clarity, while the perspective imposed on

me growing up in the suburbs focused much more on individual agency as a determinant for

such outcomes.

In the case of drug use, my students tended to see drug users and even drug dealers as

victims of sorts. In the cause of drug users, they were often seen as victims of predatory drug

dealers who seek to hook them on addictive drugs which essentially ruin their lives while giving

the dealers a reliable flow of income. While the dealers were seen as predatory, there was also

some sympathy for them as the structure of their circumstances had, in many cases, forced them

into the informal economy to make a living and provide for themselves and their families. My

students recognized, the lack of jobs in the formal economy in their area as well as the

difficulties that came with the jobs such as low pay, job insecurity, and long work hours. All of

these represent structural barriers which limit peoples ability to exercise their agency to better

their lives through involvement with decent jobs.

My students perspective on incarceration appeared to be very different than my own

perspective which was derived from the norms which existed where I grew up. To my students,

incarceration was seen as something that was very common, and though unfortunate and

ultimately a result of individual decisions (agency), was also reflective of the structure in which

they lived. My students exist in a place where the consequences of the policy of mass

incarceration were especially evident, while due to my social position as a suburbanite, I was
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largely able to ignore these consequences. Because they are able to see the consequences of mass

incarceration, they are able to recognize the role structure plays in incarceration. Where I grew

up, incarceration was rare. I did not personally know anyone who was incarcerated and it was

spoken of as something that only happens to people who are very different from the type of

people who were around me. People who had problems with drugs of other problems were sent

to councilors who could help them, while in my students world, people who had problems more

often than not ended up in the criminal justice system. For them, this is just a reality to be dealt

with, and is largely seen as a relatively normal part of life.

I also found it very interesting how my students discussed the culture of poverty as a

culprit for many of societys ills while at the same time distancing themselves from that culture.

This is ironic because all of them, if not impoverished, were a part of the lower class, and so

their culture is inherently part of the culture of the poor. Despite this, they pointed to the culture

of poverty stereotype in which people are unwilling to work, and are largely ignorant of decent

ways to improve themselves and their circumstances. From my outside perspective, this seems

very hypocritical as the students, more than anyone, should know and understand the structural

side of poverty, and that while it may be a contributing factor, the culture of poverty is far from

the only culprit in exacerbating the issue of poverty. In some ways, the students seemed to view

themselves as superior because they were making the effort to better themselves through

education in the Harris Literacy Program and so were far outside the culture of poverty.

Unfortunately, however, though the students had shed themselves of the culture, the structure of

poverty remains. Though they have certainly bettered their chances of improving their

circumstances, there is far from a guarantee that they will be able to be socially mobile and able

to enter the middle class.

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During my service learning, I was able to recognize that I was only a small part of a

much larger effort to impact the issue of adult literacy both in the city of Detroit and throughout

the county. While I only was able to make a small impact on the problem, I felt I was truly able

to positively impact the lives of the students I worked with, and that in itself was tremendously

rewarding. I really enjoyed doing my service learning as unlike some other service I have been

involved with in the past, this was much more rewarding as I felt as if I was directly providing a

positive impact to the students I worked with. Most important to the learning component of the

service learning, I was able to see for myself the consequences of the structural barriers that

hold back many people in similar social positions as my students in impoverished areas.

Through the agency of both myself as a volunteer as well as the agency executed by the students

by enrolling themselves in the Harris Literacy Program, an effort could be made against these

structural barriers. In all, I am very thankful for the opportunity to be a part of the solution for

adult illiteracy in Detroit, and I certainly hope to take on additional volunteering roles to help

this issue in the future. Being able to see the problem firsthand instead of learning about it

abstractly and impersonally in the classroom was invaluable and I was able to grasp the very

human consequences of a broken system. In many ways, I was able to put a real life face or

situation to what I learned in my sociology class, which really enhanced my experience in the

class. I am tremendously thankful for this opportunity and feel that the service learning has truly

changed my perspective of social issues within Detroit.