Down on the Island

Book written by the journals Cooper kept during the transition from Spanish driven teaching to bilingual teaching in Puerto Rico. Specifically he recounts what he remembers and has written down while he was a literature professor at the Universidad, Mayagüez campus. He was born and raised in the states and was considered a continental because of it. The two chapters we discussed in class were only the seventh ad the eighth. Nonetheless, you can get a pretty clear view on his stance with Puerto Rican culture and customs.

            Cooper starts off by detailing that he always felt like an outsider and somebody that never belonged. I would excuse that if he didn’t try to really immerse himself in the culture he was surrounded with. He made it seem as if he took part out of obligation and not because of want. Immediately you are also privy to the indifference of Beckwith when it came to education and thought the Puerto Ricans were basically beyond saving and could never be educated. The way he expresses himself about certain customs, such as when inviting someone to their house and the fact they offer more food than can be consumed, it seems he is almost making fun. At first he merely states them but as he continues explaining his experience it takes a joking mood and not in a way that includes the Puerto Rican audience.

            Apart from his encounter with the different culture and customs he was ill prepared for, he also experiences problems with the implementation of the bilingual curriculum. The Department of Education decides to institute the same method as the University of Michigan where the teacher only speaks English during class and the class repeats. The same teaching method still used in The French Alliance and even in UPRRP with other languages. The problem with instituting this method on the island was the fact that the English teachers did not know how to pronounce the words and they were teaching them. So you had the blind leading the blind. Even though there were representatives going to Michigan to get oriented and taking the necessary courses to implement it n the island they were still in complete denial. When Cooper tries to talk to on of the leaders in the program to point out the major flaw with the method she acted as though there wasn’t a problem. Completely ignored the worries and critics of the professors and went on with the practice of the Michigan method.

            The funniest instance was when he encountered cheating in tests. As was stated he was born and raised in the states and there they would bring up and teach their students to be very competitive with grades. Therefore when they were evaluated looking over to the neighbors test would be considered cheating. In Puerto Rico, looking over and letting your friend look at your exam is considered the right thing to do and not cheating. In fact it was considered to be helping his friend and taught since high school that it’s the right thing to do. To the Puerto Rican teachers the important part was that the student learned and if that meant looking at the friends or neighbors paper then by all means. One thing that shocked me and will be questioning my older family members about is the fact the students and family would basically bribe or try to bribe the professor for a good grade. It was very shocking, to say the least, to even think of people doing so no matter the time so explicitly and with no shame.

            In the end I concur that it must not have been a very easy adaptation by Jim Cooper, nonetheless he could have tried more to be a part of the culture as opposed to forcing his own just because we became a colony. We are, by all means, apart from the United States so, when travelling, they should learn more than just "it’s an American colony and we’re technically bilingual". Something that United States Americans still don't practice wherever they travel. Jim Cooper could be given the title of an “ugly American” but merit where merit is do he did try and help the implementation of the new language when he really did not have to.