Post four: Reflection about chapter eight (“Helping”) of “Down on the Island” by Jim Cooper.

Jim Cooper in chapter eight “Helping” of “Down on the Island”, describes the difference between two concepts copying and cheating. Cooper exposes the fine line between helping and doing the work of another person. He contrasts the American culture with Puerto Rican culture with precision and excellent examples using the educational model of competition versus cooperation. The author also exposes how the problem of cheating has personal basis in Puerto Rico that begins in school, family and friends since childhood. For example, the author exposes that starting in first grade teachers encourages their students to receive help from their classmates.

As I mentioned in the previous post, the readings of “The Roots of Caribbean Identity: Language, Race and Ecology” by Peter Roberts and “Down on the Island” by Jim Cooper are directly linked, however, this time both authors agree about how the culture can represent the identity of a country or an individual. For example, Cooper contrasts the cooperative and non-competitive culture of Puerto Rican families and schools with the competitive attitude of American families and schools. Base on my own experience, I am midway between cooperative and the competitive models, because I think you can help your friends but you cannot do their work. I have never copied on a test because I think that a behavior of that magnitude could be very stressful and it goes against my ethical values as a student. Cooper describes how the hospitable culture of Puerto Ricans is related to the concept of earning a grade versus giving a grade. I agree with Cooper in that sometimes students think that because they establish a friendly relationship with the professor, the professor is obligated to give him a good grade. Most people always resolve everything with Cooper phrase: "Don’t like him or her?", but the point is that giving a grade is not related with personal relationships. People should learn that grades and most things in the life are not personal. You should be “buena gente”, i.e. good people, but you always should do your own work or accept your responsibilities.

I think that the traditional communication model would be a good connection with this Cooper’s chapter, because I perceived that Cooper had problems when he was trying to give the message about the difference of helping and cheating to his students. He discovered that the real problem was in trying to explain to his students that helping their friends is a good thing but they should not help them on a test. I also perceived in Cooper’s reading that the people he intended to explain why he gave the grade of D or F to the student don’t understand him or not perceived his meaning. 

Post three: Reflection about chapter seven ("Teaching English") of “Down on the Island” by Jim Cooper.

Christopher Colon discovered Puerto Rico on November 19, 1493. Then on July 25, 1898, during the Spanish-American War, the United States of America (USA) took Puerto Rico as a colony and they keep this relationship until present. Puerto Ricans first language is Spanish because it was our first colonizer (Spain) language and the second language is the English for our actual colony relation with the USA. Puerto Ricans always have had the problem of the English learning. The known author Jim Cooper expose in “Down on the Island” the overall problem of English learning in Puerto Rico. Cooper summarizes in chapter seven (Teaching English) his experiences, as an educator, with the English teaching system in Puerto Rico. Cooper also exposes in the reading how the policy on English language teaching in Puerto Rico has always been involved with the Puerto Rico politics.

Definitively, the readings of “The Roots of Caribbean Identity: Language, Race and Ecology” by Peter Roberts and “Down on the Island” by Jim Cooper are strictly linked, because both expose how the language is the pillar of a society. Robert and Cooper describe how the language is a factor of identity in a person and how the political identity can influence the vernacular language of a country. Roberts describes how the language is a universal human factor and "a factor of place". In Cooper reading, language was taken as a factor of place, which is determined by the geography. For example in Puerto Rico the vernacular language is the Spanish because we have the Spain culture. We can add that Puerto Ricans are considered Hispanic and Latin because our geographical territory culture and language is very similar.    

I am absolutely agree with Cooper when he describes the big mistake of the Department of Education of Puerto Rico of adapting the “oral/aural” method in the public schools of Puerto Rico when this is a system from the University of Michigan (an USA university). This is very true because for example my mother is product of a public school in Puerto Rico and when she graduated she didn’t know English. She learned English in the University. Also, in my own experience my English classes in my private school were not enough to help me learn English, because I did not assist to a bilingual school. I had to travel to USA to learn English and improve it. I went to a intensive English summer program at State University of New York at Oswego (SUNY-Oswego) to learn English. The problem in Puerto Rico with learning English is that you can learn English in the school but, as Cooper mentioned in his reading, you just learn it for a test or the class and you never practice it again because in Puerto Rico people don’t speak in English, you always heard people speaking in Spanish and is weird listen someone speaking in English. Therefore, the students learn the language in their school but they just use it for few ours per week in the English class and that is it. In my personal opinion, you might think that when you want to learn something you need to practice it in fact to improve it. The only way to learn English from my personal experience is learn with a good professor that teach you good grammar, writing, reading and oral skills and finally use these in your daily life to practice and improve it.