Bog # 4 Other People's Children; Cultural Conflict in the Classroom

                                                    

                         Other People's Children; Cultural Conflict in the Classroom

                                                                 Written by Lisa Delpit (1995)

Argument Statement:  Students must be taught the codes needed to participate fully in the mainstream of American life, not by being force to attend to hollow, inane, decontextualized sub skills.  Appropriate education for poor children of color can only be devised in consultation with adults who share their culture. Black parents, teachers of color, and members of poor communities must be allowed to participate fully in the discussion of what kind of instruction children receive.

This article, Other People's Children starts off differently than the other articles we've had to read for this class.  It starts off with an interview.  It is with a black graduate student expressing his thoughts and experiences attending a prominently white university.  The article then interviews a black woman teacher as she recalls her personal experience and difficulty when trying to express her ideas and opinions to 'white' educators as to to what the best organize reading program should be.  She wants a reading program that would meet All groups of individuals in a learning environment, especially black students.  Next, the article shifts to a native Alaskan woman in the education department of University of Alaska trying to talk to her professor about the frustration she feels in not being heard by others.  She then speaks of her inability to understanding how to teach in a way that best suites the needs for the children in her classroom.  This 'Silenced Dialogue' is felt when others around you just don't listen to your thoughts and ideas of how something should be done or taught in the classroom.  These three individuals mentioned above were advocating for students within their own race,  not the white, middle class, homogeneous groups that some of our reading programs are developed for. Their frustration could be heard in their arguments that the reading programs they are being made to teach do not match the population of students they are teaching.  What is best practice? I feel that to be a very difficult question after hearing their arguments. 

Lisa Delpit than goes on to mention the 5 aspects of power seen within the education system.  These are:

1. Issues of Power in the Classroom:  This is the power of the teacher over her students, the power of publishers of textbooks over dialect, point of view, curriculum, and how the world is presented.

2.Culture of Power: Those that speak the same language, communicate the same way, write and dress a certain way, are considered to be part of this 'culture of power'.   

3.Following the Rules of a Culture: Those that come from middle to upper-class homes with educated parents typically go to better school, have more supports, do better, get better jobs, and therefore have more comfortable lives.

4.Explicitly Being Taught the Rules of a Culture:  If you are new to a culture, being explicitly taught what to say, how to act, and behavior allows you to learn, be aware, and fit into this culture much easier than leaning by yourself.

5. Having Power vs. Not having Power:  People with power typically don't feel like they have it while people without it, see this clearly and know that they do not have the same rights as individuals with power.

Teaching Point #1

The article switches gears and starts diving into literacy instruction.  The article mentions a literacy program called DISTAR.  The DISTAR Reading program is a very structured, scripted reading program that teaches phonics and comprehension. This reading program is designed for a small group of readers who struggle and are typically in an interventionist group, TIER 3.   Click here to watch a lesson:  DISTAR Reading.   I had not heard of this program but after watching the clip, it reminded me of a systematic, reading approach we used in my school back in the early 2000's called SRA.  The article mentions that soon after it was introduced, the classroom teachers thought it was a terrible program.   After time, many teachers in my district felt this way about the SRA Reading program as well and it was discontinued.  Delpit does not speak in her article of the program and its effectiveness,  what she does mention is that educators didn't like it because they felt it to be "fascist."

"I want the same thing for everyone else's children as I want for mine." With this quote, Delpit goes on to write about the two sides of this argument.  One side is middle-class liberal educators and the other is educators of color. The black community felt this way of teaching would 'doom' black children and instill in them a permanent outsider caste.  I felt this comment from the black community member to be a little 'over the top.' In the video I chose to include on the reading program DISTAR, there are many races seen in the video.  The tone of this comment was one of anger and outrage.  I do not agree that this program emotionally scared children but was only trying to close the gap with struggling learners.   In today's classrooms, there are now tiered intervention systems.  In today's world, a program like DISTAR would only be used with student that needed remedial support.  

Teaching Point #2

"Several black teachers have said to me recently that as much as they'd like to believe otherwise, they cannot help but conclude that many of the 'progressive' educational strategies imposed by liberals upon black and poor children could only be based on a desire to ensure that the liberals' children get sole access to the the dwindling pool of American jobs." (Lisa Delpit pg. 29) This quote made by black teachers made me a little upset.  This article is very different from the ones previously assigned in that it it looking within the educational system.  As an educator, I get very defensive.  My job is to prepare each and every individual in my classroom to succeed and they are each treated as equal.  I want the best for all my students and would never treat one child differently than another.  Every child gets what works best for them, regardless! 

The article mentioned 2 activities that would make a reading program successful:   

1. The teacher is not the only expert.  Let the students have a part in teaching what they know and sharing the different modalities that they learn.  For example, using the words to a rap song to learn more about the patterns of language.  

2. Instead of using direct whole class instruction, break the lesson up into a short mini-lesson where as after, the teacher had conferences with children in order to better their writing.  

Teaching Point #3: 

Towards the later part of the article, Delpit presents the argument of whether or not issues of culture and community context should be taken into account when deciding on what and how to teach children of the minority class.  She states, " Children have the right to their own language, their own culture.  We must fight cultural hegemony and fight the system by insisting that children be allowed to express themselves in their own language style.  It is not they, the children, who must change, but the schools. To push children to do anything else is repressive and reactionary." (Delpit pg. 37).  Personally as an educator for 28 years, I don't know how I feel about this comment.  There are standards in our curriculums put in place that we need follow.  This insures that systematically instructional standards are uniform across the United States, children are learning the same skills across the grade levels. 

'Formal English' was a new term mentioned in this article that I've not thought of before as a teacher.  The realization that not everyone throughout our country has the same grammatical structure or language as I do made me think.  I enjoyed the part of the article with students from a village in Alaska being taught about the different types of language with the exercise of the picnic, with students being able to  speak their native dialect. Then the student were trained in speaking to one another in a more structured  way, like a formal dinner party. 

The conversation  between a black teacher and a southern black high school student was also an 'eye' opener.  The teacher and student are talking about dialect.  At one point, the student questions whether there is a right way and a wrong way to talk, should there be a 'White English' and a 'Black English?'  When questioned by the teacher about who decided what's right or wrong, the student says, "I guess white people did."  Our country was founded by white men, with the Declaration of Independence being created and singed by 56 white males and our countries government being controlled mostly by males. This is a fact and unfortunately set the foundation for our country, whether we like it or not.  This was mentioned in Johnson's article, Privilege, Power and Difference.

In conclusion,  I agree with Lisa Delpit's argument that when deciding on a curriculum, the decision as to what is best for a specific population needs to be agreed upon by all.  This means parents, teachers, school administrations and the community need to take into consideration what is best for that individual population of students.  We need to do what's best for the students!