Blog Post #2 Other People's Children

 

                                                     Other People's Children: Lisa Delpit

Argument  - This Author, Lisa Delpit argues that there is a disconnect between teachers and students, predominately between white, middle class teachers and students of color. She argues that there is a culture of power, in which there are certain things in society that people, more specifically white people acquire whereas other groups are left behind. She urges teachers that already participate in this culture of power to teach these unwritten rules to their students who did not learn this information at home, breaking down this barrier of power and making all students at an even playing field. She also makes the point that class makes a difference in education where middle class students perform better in schools than lower class students, eluding to the fact that the education system is conformed to better suit these students. 

Lisa Delpit explained this culture of power further by breaking it into five major points. She argues that it is important to acknowledge that this culture exists, and instead of trying to erase this culture, we can teach it to students that did not know of this culture beforehand. It is evident that in the Unites States specifically, there is a group of people, (Straight, White, Men) that participate in certain advantages and powers in society. This power has even trickled down into the classroom, where you see a pattern of middle class students performing at a higher rate in school than lower class students. It is argues that this is because the institution of the education system has been centered around this culture of power in which middle class students benefit from. Some examples of this power being enacted in the classroom is the misconstruing of world history being shaped by textbook publishers, Most notoriously the story of Christopher Columbus. Lisa Delpit argues that it is not only important to acknowledge these powers, but furthermore, to teach students that would not formerly know about these powers, that they exist and what they mean. 

Comments: 

 One point of her explanation of the culture of power that suck out to me the most was "The rules of the culture of power are a reflection of the rules of the culture of those who have power." This is important to note because it is easy to stereotype and tear down those who live in lower class neighborhoods, resulting in them going to a "poorer school". I have had the privilege of going to private school for high school, and also had the privilege of visiting public schools in rural areas for my class for the first semester of college. There were clear differences in the teaching styles, speaking volumes to the culture differences in which these schools were places. There were no examples of using multiple languages to teach students in the classroom at the private schools, whereas I saw that on many occasions when visiting these rural schools. It is clear this is because upper-class private schools tend to predicate themselves on acquiring those that are participants in the culture of power. So, an English speaking first classroom is a reflection of this culture of power being emitted in the classroom.  

Hyperlinks: 

https://www.apa.org/monitor/2015/02/class-differences#:~:text=%22Class%20affects%20whether%20someone%20is,lack%20in%20their%20daily%20lives.