Perhaps what stood out to me the most as I read through the
excerpt from Delpit’s Other People’s
Children was a quote she pulled from the mother of a black student. The
mother, frustrated with the “white liberal educators” who were pushing “dialect
readers” in an effort to demonstrate their valuing of other cultures,
exclaimed, “My kids know how to be black—you all teach them how to be
successful in the white man’s world” (29). This quote, I feel, pulls together
Delpit’s ideas about the “Silent Dialogue” and Johnson’s ideas of power and
privilege. Those with privilege and power, especially once they’re made aware
of it, must work to both enable those without privilege/power and mark and
overcome gatekeeping points alongside students.
What also stood out was Delpit's explanation of how explicit
instruction to promote understanding the rules of the culture of power makes it
easier to acquire a measure of that power. Knowing the rules—knowing how to
live in the white man’s world—is one of the first steps in gaining the power
and influence necessary to agitate for change. Knowing the rules is knowing how
to play the game, and I often find myself uttering the phrase to my students, “Sometimes
you just have to play the game,” when they become frustrated with their
immediate lack of power.
As a new(er) teacher that is the product of a 21st
century liberal education, I sometimes check myself on my use of power. One of
the most profound memories I have of student teaching was issuing a test and
watching all the students silently and intently work on their tests. In that
moment I thought, “Holy s**t, they’re doing exactly
what I want them to. It’s like I
have control over them!” Reading through Delpit, I have a much firmer understanding
of what that control means, where it comes from, and ideas on how to use it in
an effort to bestow that control unto the hands of my students.
Chris,
ReplyDeleteI have to say that I have said to my students more than once "you gotta play the game guys!" I agree with what you're saying that, unfortunately, in the world we currently live in, in order to really make a difference/change you often have to go by the "rules" and then once you get that "position of power" that is when you can bend/break the rules you are trying to change. As a teacher, we hold a lot of the rules in our hand, and we need to work with these students to not only learn how "the game" works but also what they can do to be the change to get rid of "the game."
Chris,
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing the article that includes the interview with Delpit. After reading it, there was one section that stood out to me.
The section "I happened to be in a room a few years ago with a researcher—a very good researcher—who had looked at similar kinds of work and had come to a similar kind of conclusion. While we were in the meeting, I made a list of words I knew many 3- and 4-year-old low-income, African-Americans kids would know—like “po po” [slang for “police”]—but it was unlikely she would know. I gave them to her, and she looked at me like, are these really words? It dawned on me then that one of the problems is that if you don’t know the culture, you may not know what words kids do know. Granted, they may not be words that would be validated in school, but it may be the case that children’s vocabularies are greater than we anticipate."
How do we as educators, get others to understand that just because something is not understood by them, that the child does not know anything?
Hi Chris,
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing. I also was intrigued by the quote, “My kids know how to be black—you all teach them how to be successful in the white man’s world” (29). This was eye opening to me. I thought Delpit brought up some great points about teaching our students how to change their language in certain settings. It reminding me of the idea of code switching and teaching our students why they need to "play the game."
To Jackie's comment: I remember a friend pointing out that the SATs focus on words that wealthy and/or white kids are more likely to know. They told me, if SATs had word problems on things like "hoopties" (see link below for definition on Urban Dictionary), that would actually put richer kids at a disadvantage - but they never do. At the time, I didn't know what the word meant. That was so ludicrous to my friend - who had grown up in a neighborhood with many a hooptie - that he had to ask if I was being facetious.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0ahUKEwi9wdWCzKLWAhXm8YMKHf61CvwQFggoMAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.urbandictionary.com%2Fdefine.php%3Fterm%3Dhooptie&usg=AFQjCNHKvswqv2kpPrUKUUyynquZAS5iOg
Really like your insight about what controls may be,especially in the position you have as a teacher. Wondering if the kids did not have the same thought, perhaps in that moment they feel they have control what they are doing!! we can go in circles!
ReplyDelete