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‘Words Have No Borders’
New Writing Report Offers Voices on Immigration, Language and Culture
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Students across the country put their immigrant and second-language experiences into words for a new report published in June by the College Board’s National Commission on Writing for America’s Families, Schools, and Colleges. “Words Have No Borders: Student Voices on Immigration, Language and Culture” is the seventh report from the commission and the second in the Student Voices series — the first, “Letters to the President: Students’ Voices,” was released in March.
Students coming to the U.S. from Brazil, Morocco, Togo, Bosnia, Vietnam, India and many other nations have risen to the challenges of learning English, navigating American culture and succeeding in high school. Their poignant stories tell of trials and triumphs, loneliness and prejudice, inspiration and compassion; their writing is a reflection on their achievements.
“I was good at math. When the teacher, Mrs. Delany, asked the students, in my opinion, easy questions, they would get stuck. I knew the answer, but I didn’t know how to say it in English,” wrote Ouissame T., who came to America from Morocco, describing his early years in school.
Viola P., who learned to read and write in Italian schools, wrote about her experience learning English. “Starting school in this foreign land, I would find myself falling into a deep sinkhole of letters, having to then desperately spell my way out.”
Award-winning author Edwidge Danticat wrote the report’s introduction, drawing on her experience as a Haitian-born child growing up in Brooklyn: “When, as a new arrival in the United States, my heavy Haitian Creole accent made me too shy to speak, I could always pour my soul out in my notebooks and journals, and even in class assigned essays. To have anyone ask me to express myself, on paper, in my new language, was as thrilling as watching snow fall for the first time.
“Words have no borders. Every experience deserves a hearing. Everyone has a story to tell and we are all the better for the telling. Like so much in our world, the immigrant experience is being redefined every day, one singular individual at a time.”
College Board President Gaston Caperton says in his introduction to the report: “… underlying all these stories is an unmistakable current of hope, courage and hard work, clearly illustrating that, as in the past, these students are among our nation’s greatest assets. As you read their words, you will be given a sense of optimism and inspiration, so important to all of us in these challenging times.”
The majority of the work is drawn from submissions requested by the commission from 41 high school teachers. Other pieces were drawn from the Letters to the Next President: Writing Our Future project, which was co-sponsored by Google and the National Writing Project. These are supplemented by quotes from students in focus groups conducted by Research Images, LLC in four diverse communities across the United States.
To view the complete report, visit www.writingcommission.org.
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