Little Brown Brother - or - Colonization in the Global City

To borrow a little bit of history from John, the U.S. annexation of The Philippines began in 1899, resulting in an often glossed-over war in text-books, but one that would have huge cultural implications. You see, the annexation of The Philippines (as well as Guam and Puerto Rico), was the U.S.'s first foray into colonization, and the government now had a "task" of Americanizing its new citizens. 

The solution? Public schooling. For a time (and I am only speaking in the case of The Philippines; I don't know much about Guam or Puerto Rico post-annexation), schooling in The Philippines had been limited by the Spanish. Rich, landowners were the only people allowed to attend school. Interestingly enough, the Spanish treated Filipinos much differently than Americans did, insisting that the islanders were inferior. It was outlawed for any Filipinos to learn Spanish (and that is why they are the only former Spanish colony without a Spanish speaking population).

Americans, however, understanding the strategic value of land in East Asia, treated the islanders differently. They were "Little Brown Brothers."

As American citizens, Filipinos were exempt from the Immigration Act of 1882 (and the Chinese exclusion act), and could immigrate to the U.S. at their leisure. The American government in The Philippines began establishing a Public School system. The curriculum? Well, American History and English, of course! All public schooling in The Philippines was to be conducted in Standard English. Absolutely no Filipino was to be spoken. This is true to this day. Filipino children still attend school conducted in English (it is compulsory), and they still take American history (now schools all have Filipino History and Tagalog classes).

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How is the Little Brown Brother of more than a century ago and half the world away relevant to education today? 

Since the influx of "immigrants" after American Empiricism, schooling in America has had to react. A primary goal of public schooling is to develop upright American citizens. For a time, long ago, this explicitly meant citizens who could use Standard English, a language of historically white males, and who could understand the civics behind American History, also historically white and male.

We might not be actively trying to make our students white. I don't think that's in any school's mission statement. But it is a fact that we, as teachers, will emulate what we perceived as best practice from our past teachers, as did they. We are part of a lineage, and that lineage goes back as far as the time period I referenced above (even beyond that).

There has always been a need for the ethnolinguistic research that Marcia Farr is doing, and, it's great that it's happening now. Chicago is a mecca of world culture. Chicago Public Schools, though largely monoethnic, can have as many as 40 different languages spoken at home. As teachers, we are responsible for bridging the gap between the school and the home. We need to communicate effectively with parents and guardians so that we can reinforce good learning habits. In bridging that gap, however, we need to take care that we do not (unconsciously) promote a language of power OVER the home language. Likewise, in the classroom, we need to make sure that we respect all of our students language abilities.

How did Filipinos gain independence? Through Standard English. It was only when Filipinos were able to draft their own constitution (and subsequently build their own infrastructures), that The U.S. left the commonwealth. The Spanish ruled over The Philippines for over 300 years. The U.S. held the islands for less than 50 years. The key difference was in the use of language. The Spanish never gave the indigenos a tool to be equal. Filipinos never were able to assume any roles in the Spanish government because they could not speak Spanish. With English as a tool, Filipinos were able to infiltrate the realm of power and change paradigms.

We can do a similar thing with our students. If we are ever to see widespread change in favor of marginalized groups, we have to give those students the necessary tools to function with the privileged. We need to give them the tools to break colonization in the global city.

tl;dr - Be conscious of how we treat language. Give students of all backgrounds the tools to succeed through English language education. Also, look at these dapper Filipinos: