Rich Mursheno
Cultural Autobiography
Mccall
Fall 2010
I grew up in Mays Landing , NJ.” My town of Mays Landing falls between a very
wealthy area and what most people would call a “ghetto” area. Surrounding my town is
Pleasantville and Atlantic City to the left and Linwood, Somers Point to right. Northfield is not
very diverse, but does have some diversity in socio-economic backgrounds as well as race. I
attended Hess Elementry for grammar and middle school and Holy Spirit High School. Although
religion never played a big part in shaping my cultural upbringing, race and socio-economic
class heavily impacted the way I interpret and accept changing and different cultures today.
Atlantic City and Pleasantville are the areas that would be considered not wealthy. There
are parts of Atlantic City such as the casinos, expensive restaurants and shops that might lead
people to believe that Atlantic City is a wealthy area; however, having such easy access to
Atlantic City has proven otherwise. There is glitz and glamour of course and there are the
attractions that draw wealthy people to Atlantic City, but the local residents are not so fortunate.
From personal experience you cannot go into Atlantic City without seeing a homeless person or
coming in contact with a homeless person. People on the streets are constantly begging you for
money or food. They use guilt tactics such as signs that say “war veteran” or “haven’t eaten in
two days”. It is a hard thing to grow up around, and from this one may learn judgment skills.
As an educator it is important to recognize what is going on in with your students. If a
child falls asleep in class, it may not be that they are simply not paying attention to the lesson.
Not only did I learn from the streets of AC that not every person that claims to be needy is, but I
also learned judgment skills as an authority figure in a classroom from a personal experience as a
student. In fifth grade I went to school one day with a small stomach ache. Some mornings I
Rich Mursheno
Cultural Autobiography
Mccall
Fall 2010
wake up with stomach aches so I assumed that this was no different and that the stomach ache
would go away. Around the third mod or period that day, I started to feel like this stomach ache
was different. This particular school day was a science lab day for me in which the first part of
class was lecture and the second part was experimentation. During lecture I could barely keep sit
up and could not pay attention. My teacher scolded me and when I tried to ask if I could go to the
nurse he said no. I made it through lecture and began to feel increasingly ill. We began our
experiment and I raised my hand again and asked to go to the bathroom. My teacher’s reply was
still no. About five minutes later I threw up all over the lab table, twice in the lab room, and once
walking down the hallway. I was hospitalized for a week with a serious case of the flu.
What I took from this experience is that it is important to take note of your
students’ normal dispositions. As an educator you must watch for issues from illnesses to
problems at homes to learning disabilities. I think the culture of many classrooms today,
especially those that are a learning community has changed. As a teacher it is important to notice
that the cultural roles of a classroom, such as the teacher being the implementer of discipline,
have shifted and may require more patience and understanding. Changes in a student’s
disposition, work ethic, attendance, or physical appearance could indicate a change in their
lifestyle or health. Recognizing these traits are important because a child may need further
assistance such as an IEP or counseling that I as an educator could aid with.
I went to a regional high school, so my grammar and middle school was strictly
Northfield students. The school I attended was called Northfield Community School. When I
attended grammar school it was not diverse at all. All of the classes were entirely white students
Rich Mursheno
Cultural Autobiography
Mccall
Fall 2010
or mostly white students. As a child you do not recognize the lack of diversity in your classroom,
but looking back now I realize that my classes up until fifth grade lacked diversity. Around the
year 2000, or when I hit fifth grade, housing developments in my community began to boom.
Three new housing developments went up and our student numbers began to increase. I started to
branch out and become friends with different cultures. I was not only friends with different
cultures but out of my four best friends two were black and two were Hispanic. I spent virtually
every day with them, mostly playing basketball. In fifth grade is where I experienced my first
encounter with racism.
My house became the basketball court to play at for my friends and me. While playing
one day my Hispanic friend Javier and my white friend Jimmy got in an argument over a foul.
The argument escalated and the two boys began to yell; however, Jimmy then yelled something I
did not recognize. Jimmy said “Stop being such a spic.” Later that day I had asked my mom what
the term “spic” meant and she replied that it was a derogatory term used for speaking about a
person of Hispanic ethnicity. As an educator I believe it is important to recognize and value the
differences between students. In the book Affirming Diversity, Nieto and Bode state that “to
tolerate differences means to endure them, although not necessarily to embrace them.” (Affirming
Diversity 5th Edition 2008 Sonia Nieto, Patty Bode; page 426). In the teaching profession, you
must understand that while acceptance may not always be the answer, tolerance is a healthy
outlet. Nieto and Bode explain that cultural differences in learning may be especially apparent in
three areas: learning styles or preferences, interactional or communication styles, and language
differences (2008, p176). It is vital to impress upon students and growing minds that differences
Rich Mursheno
Cultural Autobiography
Mccall
Fall 2010
in race and ethnicity are important and should be recognized as unique and an imperative
contribution to a successful society.
The other side of my town consisted of the towns Linwood and Somers Point and was the
other two towns that attended my regional high school. Attending Mainland Regional High
School provided a culturally rich experience. If you had background on the three different towns,
you could go through the hallways and pretty much pick which town each student came from.
The kinds of clothes students wore, they type of language they used and the way they carried
themselves were identifiable traits that went with each town. Linwood is a very wealthy area
where most of the student’s parents include doctors, lawyers and business executives and the
medium household income is above the state average. Linwood students were the kids that wore
name-brand clothes, spoke with words like “dude” and “sweet”, and for the most part carried
themselves with a sense of arrogance. Somers Point is a town that has bars in it, as well as
subsidized housing. People in Somers Point tend to be looser and less worried about the way
they impress upon others. Somers Point is much more culturally diverse than Linwood or Somers
Point because of the subsidized housing. Somers Point students tend to sag their pants, wear
baggy clothes, use verbiage such as “nigga” or “fly”, and carry themselves with a sometimes
unapproachable demeanor.
I stand somewhere in the middle. My family is middle class and can sometimes afford the
finer things in life and other times cannot. In going to a multi-cultural school, I learned to be very
accepting of all different economic statuses, races, and ethnicities. Nieto and Bode describe
multicultural education by saying, “It challenges and rejects racism and other forms of
Rich Mursheno
Cultural Autobiography
Mccall
Fall 2010
discrimination in schools and society and accepts and affirms the pluralism that students, their
communities, and teachers reflect’ (2008, page 44). I feel that this mindset will apply to my
teaching I do not judge based on color or background and feel that is not only a very important
thing to have acquired but I very useful tool as a teacher.
In high school I dated another student of Mainland Regional High School that lived in
subsidized housing in Somers Point. His name is Max and he grew up living in subsidized
housing, or the Somers Point Village his whole life. Not only did he live in subsidized housing,
but his mother was a single parent. By dating Max I viewed what it were like to be without
certain accessories that many students have readily available to them. When Max was presented
with certain assignments he did not always have access to the tools he needed to get them done.
He did not have a computer in his house and did not have always have access to a computer.
Even group projects could become somewhat difficult for Max because he had a pay-as-you-go
cell phone that frequently ran out of minutes on top of the limited computer access. This
experience was very important as to how I will evaluate my students.
This experience taught me that I did not have any biased views toward people who would
be considered “less fortunate”. I was willing to help Max out whenever I could drive him
anywhere or allow him to use the resources that I had access to. Max also tended to struggle with
grades and I was always willing to help him no matter what.
These experiences with different cultures and changing classroom culture have helped to
define to future teacher I strive to be. It is important to know your students and what their
personality includes to gain the ability to be able to detect possibly issues. Another vital
Rich Mursheno
Cultural Autobiography
Mccall
Fall 2010
characteristic to recognize, consider, and accept is each student’s individual background. Each
student may not have the same resources, and as an educator you might have to adjust your
assignments or the time you spend in a classroom to allow each student a fair chance to complete
assignments. The traits of the culture of a classroom that have changed should also be
recognized; it is no longer important to lecture students for an entire day or to be the sole
implementer of discipline. I recognize that as a teacher I want to apply learning community
principles in which all students can feel included and equal. Looking at self-culture is a
necessary step for a future educator to recognize the way they want their culture to be impressed
upon the growing minds they will encounter and help to shape as teachers.