The Fine Line Between Helping and Cheating

Chapter eight, Helping, on Jim Cooper's Down on the Island presents a situation that can still be seen nowadays. Such event, as Jim Cooper calls it, is helping. Although, what he really refers to is cheating. In this chapter, he speaks about the fine line between helping and cheating and how shocking it is to him that Puerto Ricans use this technique very often, but don't realize its true consequences.

In order to understand how helping and cheating come to float, one must know the two learning methods established by Cooper, the cooperative and the competitive. In the cooperative method, students are encouraged to help each other in order to receive good grades. On the other hand, the competitive method provokes an urge in the student that makes him or her wants to be better than the rest.

More than in the competitive method, one can observe in the cooperative method that helping can come off as cheating most of the time. This is due to the extreme help some students provide to others that really haven't studied the material. Currently, I can relate to Jim Cooper's writing because, as a student, I have been a part of the helping as well as the cheating. Many times, when my high-school teachers would give the class a take home exam, a group would meet up and do the test together. In this situation, much of the helping as well as the cheating could be observed. Usually, when someone didn't understand how to solve a problem, another person would explain the procedure, but other times, we would give each other the answers in order to save up time.

We Puerto Ricans have an innate desire to help anyone who is in need, but we must face that there are moments when help can can come off as cheating and, in reality, we are not helping the person. Because of this reason, we must be aware of the slight difference between helping and cheating.

The English Program of 1950's

Imparting knowledge from one human being to another can be quite a difficult task when the teacher is not familiar with the education methods of a certain place. In the chapter called Teaching English on the text Down On the Island by Jim Cooper, teaching english is presented as major issue that is present in most of the public education system of the time. Jim Cooper, English Professor from Minneapolis in a college in Mayagüez during the 1950's, writes about how challenging it was to come up with an appropriate syllabus and decent method to educate a second language to the Puerto Rican people.

This, in many ways, relates with the universal communication model. If broken down, one can assign the intended meaning with the teacher's purpose to educate while the perceived meaning is the way the student captures the knowledge provided by the educator. Nevertheless, each meaning, either the educator's or the student's, is tied to each one's reality. For example, in the text, Jim Cooper, English literate, had every intention in having a positive influence on his student's knowledge in English. On the other hand, many students had little to no interest on the matter. This wasn't necessarily because the message intended by the teachers wasn't important, but because their shared space, the English program, wasn't developed correctly. For this reason, Cooper and the other professors modified certain details in order to make it more efficient. Their new program, although not perfect, developed a certain interest in many non English speaking students who attended the Colegio.

At the time, Jim Cooper's approach to solving such conflict made teaching English a more viable process that resulted in more people passing the class. All it took was a slight alteration in the student's and teacher's shared space (English program) in order to obtain a development in the education system of the 1950's.

The Place Where Antigua and Puerto Rico Meet

At times, one seeks to hide the imperfections that once were or still are present in the place we call home. Needless to say, one must open his or her eyes in order to face reality and be capable of finding one's true identity. In the short novel A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid, Antiguan-American novelist, the author, through autobiographical and fictional writing, writes about a small island called Antigua, a territory that was colonized by Great Britain, and that, after many years, in 1981, received its independence. Moreover, it is the place Jamaica Kincaid calls home. 

Kincaid divides her text in four short essays that generally speak about how Antigua has changed over the years. She narrates a journey through a tourist's point of view while hinting details that only an Antiguan would know, such as how some mansions were obtained by corruption or criminality. Likewise, she describes an old library that hasn't been repaired even after it was damaged by an earthquake many years ago. Also, the Antiguan novelist deals with her memories of what used to be Antigua and remembers Antigua being better than what she sees at the moment. However, throughout the text, she questions herself if the "old" Antigua truly was better than how it is now. Nevertheless, Jamaica Kincaid, recognises the beauty of her island and refers to her surroundings as a mixed blessing to the Antiguans. 

Jamaica Kincaid, as well as I, fears for the present and future of the place she calls home. Unfortunately, both islands, Antigua and Puerto Rico, meet in a place of corruption and decadence. They have shared a similar history, being colonies and having relatable political issues. Due to bad management, Puerto Rico keeps falling into the hands of retrogression and with the passing of time, it gets harder to help the island get back on its feet. Sadly, because of the corruption, Puerto Ricans continue to emigrate from their land in search of a better living and more opportunities, such as Jamaica Kincaid who left Antigua in order to become a writer. By leaving, one choses to leave behind a part of one's culture, race, and more specifically, identity.

I can easily understand why Kincaid refers to her surrounding as a mixed blessing, and I can also adapt it to life here in Puerto Rico. The reality of the matter is that the sun shines bright enough to gently tan my skin. The wind blows soft enough to make me cool, the beaches are as clear as water can be, and there is no other place I would call home. Nonetheless, I must face the facts and become fully aware that a part of my identity, as well as Kincaid's, is defined by the political, social, and economic devastation my island is going through. Antiguans along with Puerto Ricans must take action in order to maintain and protect the legacy of their culture and history. Or else, in a future not too far from now, the place Jamaica Kincaid, I, and many others call home, will no longer be where the heart is.

Puerto Rico

Antigua