True Lies in Brice’s Ways with Words Essay example -- Ways with Words

True Lies in Brice’s Ways with Words  Ã‚  Ã‚   In Ways with Words by Shirley Brice Heath we read about the author’s ethnographic study in the South during desegregation. The purpose of Heath’s study is to examine the ways people from different communities in the textile region raise their children. The way the children are raised according to Heath, affects the language development and the way these children learn to read and write in the school setting. In my paper I want to examine the way the church relates to the cultural differences in Roadville and Trackton. Cultural differences have ultimately created two separate learning styles. Reading Heath’s study creates curiosity as to how one book, the Bible, can be translated by two cultures in such differing ways that, â€Å"In short, for Roadville, Trackton’s stories would be lies; for Trackton, Roadville stories would not even count as stories† (Heath, 189). Heath says, â€Å"For both Roadville and Trackton, the church is a key institution helping to provide occasion and rationale for their approaches to being parents and to enabling their young to use language† (147). Both groups engage in regular religious activity, the Trackton people meeting every other week for group services, and the Roadville groups meeting at church on Sundays. Both groups meet in mixed age group settings, as well. And both groups believe the Bible is the Word of God. Yet differences exist. Trackton groups do not necessarily meet in a building. â€Å"Preachers, men of music, and the best playsong performers claim they cannot stick to written text. Seemingly thoughts which were once shaped into words on paper become recomposed in each time and space.† (233) Trackton preachers and song leaders feel stifled by the wr... ...ducation makes them unskilled at helping their children do well in school. Heath studied their struggles and identified significant ways to teach these children. As the study closes, we realize that to improve the education of the Roadville and Trackton communities, we would need to change the home environment, the religious traditions, and the culture of the communities to match that of the townspeople. To change the school to meet the needs of the students would not create a long lasting improvement. I for one find difficulty in judging one community as being better than another since each has its own value. Homogeneity seems to be an evil, but one that education in America both supports and at times seems to demand. Perhaps someday we will find a solution. Work Cited: Heath, Shirley Brice. Ways with Words. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1983.