The Skillful Teacher

Cultural Suicide
Cultural suicide describes the process whereby students are punished
by their families, peers, and communities for what appears to be an
act of betrayal; that is, to be seen to be changing as a result of par-
ticipating in learning. This risk forces itself onto the consciousness
of students of color in high school, as taking education seriously is
condemned as “acting White” (Bergin and Cooks, 2002). It is felt
particularly keenly by students of all racial backgrounds who are first
in their family to go to college and also by many adult learners. 
Cultural suicide is something that also affects working-class students
who “often become alienated from their families in direct propor-
tion to their procurement of new ideas and attitudes” (Casey, 2005,
p. 35). As a result they “feel their identities shattered, and find
themselves psychologically adrift” (p. 35). Students intuitively sense
from their intimates and work colleagues that if college prompts
them to begin a critical questioning of conventional assumptions
and beliefs shared by their peers, they (the students) will risk being
excluded from the culture that has defined and sustained them up
to that point in their lives. Just showing how much they are learn-
ing, growing, and changing, even if this involves no criticism of