"It takes a village to raise a child."

  As an educator, you hope that you connect with your students enough that they want to continue the learning process while they are outside the classroom.  Hopefully, this doesn't have anything to do with homework!  This would be the ideal situation. We forget that we have students in our classroom who go home and speak fluently in languages other than English.  These are the students who may not receive help on their homework from parents or older siblings, not because the parents are disinterested, but because they do not know the English language well enough to engage in that aspect of their child's life. The example of "Nan, a Cambodian elementary school ELL whose parents were not literate in any language."  was very touching because she could handle projects and work that she could do at home, because, "[she] was able to draw on her existing artistic and performance skills to compensate for her limited English, whereas at school she was not able to access them fully." (Hanenda, p. 338). I find this story so compelling because it just touches on the creativity, and resourcefulness that these children have to use to learn the English language or to just be good students. In Nan's case I wonder, if her classroom teacher could help combine her artistic skills to help enhance her classroom work and help her to become more fluent in English. If her teacher did this for her, then perhaps she would connect with the part of Nan's learning style that would enable her to become a better English learner or even just a better student who looks forward to learning.
     In my title I mention "It takes a Village to raise a child."  I think some of our schools forget what a resource we have sitting outside of the schools just waiting to be tapped into! When I took Curriculum Development for the Administrator last summer, Professor Hammond would mention how the Indian culture uses their communities to help with educating their students. Everyone takes part in the schooling of the students. They have a vested interest in all of the children, not just their own. What a wonderful experience it must be for those children to know that so many people care and how exciting it must be to learn, when you know so many people are pulling for you.   Hanenda touches on a similar concept when she mentions that " working class Latino families have similarly pointed to the existence of an extended network of support, noting that Latino families often engage in collaborative literacy activities in public spaces, such as the kitchen or the living room, and involve parents, siblings, cousins, and extended family members" (e.g., Volk, 1997;Volk & De Acosta, 2001). What an amazing resource for the children and also for the members of the whole family to be able to learn from each other.  They are able to practice literacy in their language and I wouldn't be surprised if they also get the chance to practice speaking and using the English language too.
     Other cultures or communities do similar things, such as the "Bangladeshi community in London's East End" (Hanenda, p.339).  In these families "outside the school, the children spent an average of 10-18 hours per week attending formal literacy classes. Some of this time was spent in Bengali classes that were offered either in the community centers or in neighbors' homes so that they could learn to speak, read, and write Bengali." (Hanenda, p. 339).  These students were now learning literacy in another language, not just English. I wonder if these students are taking some of the skills that they are using to learn this other language back with them when they get into their classrooms?  In some Korean and Chinese communities they offer classes and schooling to "not only help children to learn their heritage language and cultural values but they also provide a forum for sharing core experiences of being a Chinese or Korean American." (Hanenda, p. 339). These classes are a great way for people in these communities to gather and learn and keep their culture alive. They get to talk to one another and keep their cultural values from disappearing.   Another point to make about the Korean and Chinese communities is that they have "formed a sophisticated system of supplementary education, including literacy in heritage languages and English." (Hanenda, p.339).
     I also wonder if these students are then making connections and using their language skills that they are learning in these supplementary classes to continue speaking to their friends who they are meeting in the classes. Maybe they are texting to them by phone, or emailing on the computer, or even talking to them on the phone. They might even be doing this in their own language, or in English. If they are communicating and being able to do so with their friends and community members, then isn't that a great way of opening up the mind of a student being a continuing learner? If these students are comfortable practicing literacy in their own language, then I wonder how we can tap into this energy? What a wonderful learning community we could establish if we could embrace the community based literacy learning. Hanenda mentions "it is equally important for teachers to reflect what it means to help students to become literate and, on this basis, to create learning environments where students feel safe to express their ideas in a developmentally appropriate manner and to engage in critical discussion of substantive issues by using reading and writing as told for thinking." (Haneda, p. 343).  If these students are comfortable enough or feel safe enough to practice literacy learning outside the classroom, then we really need to look at what makes them feel this safe and comfortable. As educators our goal is to make our students lifelong learners, so if we could tap into this excitement of learning and being literate in a comfortable situation, even if it's in "another language", then isn't this when we have done our job correctly? Getting students and their families to be involved with each other and to learn skills that could help them learn other languages is an amazing concept!  If we could make these students feel as safe and comfortable inside the classroom, then think about how much more effectively we can teach them.  Having a "village raise the child" might be the perfect solution to making the entire community literate and help everyone learn from each other.