In a third grade classroom in Providence, RI there are cases of people sacrificing private identity for public identity. The teacher in the room I tutor in, is a good example of this. Her appearance is that of a Latino, or of European decent, her skin is darker and she has dark hair. Her last name ends in a vowel, which is common with Italian and Spanish names. Only in some of her words can you hear a very slight accent. It is very well hidden so I could not decide what her background is. Many of the office workers speak Spanish. There are also several students in my class who roll their r’s when reading to me in English. They sound like they are bilingual however the only language spoken in this classroom is English. With an exception of one particular time which caught me off guard.
While discussing, with the teacher, the lesson plan she realized she left something on her desk for a student who was about to leave for the day. Before she walked away from me she said, “I’ll be right back, uno minuto.” I responded with “okay” but I am glad she did not get to see my shocked face. After this I re-evaluated the situation and realized she said those simple words so fluently and such commonly used phrase without hesitation. I came to the conclusion that this whole time she has been hiding her true identity. This teacher hides her private identity everyday at work and trades it in for a public identity.
There are signs around the school, one will be in English, then one right next to it saying the same thing will be in Spanish. Even though this is the situation, in the actual classrooms it is not acceptable to speak a language other than English. This is where the idea of public identity continues to arise.
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