Entre les Murs

"According to Flynn, these kinds of negative first impressions seem to be a vicious circle in high 

school classrooms.  Students like Tina go into a class challenging the teacher to teach them— 

they have a standoffish attitude that seems like hostility but which is actually, according to Phil, 

more of a challenge to earn their trust.  But some teachers perceive that attitude to be hostility, 

and they respond in kind." - Tina: A Portrait of Literate Awareness 

Christie S. Johnson 

While reading Christie Johnson's Honor's Thesis on literacy and its application in tutoring "at-risk" or "difficult" students, her problem defining literacy was what jumped out at me the most. This was partially because I myself have had many difficulties defining literacy - is it being able to read? to write? Or more broadly, is it simply able to understand and communicate effectively? Or is it how Johnson seems to see it, an double-sided issue of acting and reflecting? All of these questions are important, especially in this age of literary crisis. 

However, another aspect of the article stood out to me after having viewed a film for my French film class later this week. The movie, "Entre les Murs" (directly translated to "Between the Walls"; its English title is "The Class") details a year in a middle school on the outskirts of Paris, one of the arrondissements that deal with poverty and increased immigration. The movie hit many chords with me, but most relevantly for our writing class was its depiction of the often vicious circle of student-teacher interactions in difficult classrooms. Just as Johnson notes, a sense of hostility comes about when students "challenge" teachers to in turn challenge them, and this is detailed sometimes painfully in the movie. One of the students, Khoumba, has a very strained relationship with the teacher, M. Marin. At first I did not understand her hostility and then his responding hostility, but placing it in the context of Johnson's article it makes perfect sense. It is a simple yet large problem if miscommunication - Khoumba was wanting to be viewed seriously and to be challenged, but her stand-offish attitude just seemed like insolence to M. Marin, which caused him to treat her with even more condescension, exacerbating the problem. 

This is mostly a problem in the classroom, and I am not quite sure how the Writing Center can help or what role it can play in decreasing miscommunications between students and teachers. Does anyone have any ideas?