Prompt 4: Delpit

I come from a small town in the woods with a graduating class of 104 students, all of which were white. I bring a lot of inexperience when it comes to living in a diverse society. This is a huge disadvantage because I have no idea what a black or Hispanic child has to go through because I am not one and never had any friends that told me stories of what it was like for them growing up. I don’t know if I exactly have a bias. It’s hard because I can only see what I want to see. If I see a Hispanic child acting rude I do not label all Hispanic children rude. My life was me working hard on my school work while my parents worked hard at their jobs to keep a roof over me, my sister and cousins heads. That is something I can relate a lot about with the class I am in now. They are of low income homes. I know what it is like to have a parent out of work and to live apartment to apartment. I know what it is like to have to take in other family members because their parents have gotten in trouble and now have to go to jail or drug programs. This is just part of my history. I cannot understand what it is like to grow up a certain race but I know and remember what it was like to just grow up. This is where I feel I will connect with my students in a socio-cultural classroom.

I only can refer to how I was taught which according to the author of The Silenced Dialogue Lisa Delpit is called veiled authority. I even do it now with my eight year old cousins. If they are doing something I think is wrong I ask, “Is that what you are suppose to be doing?” I am giving them a chose to say yes or no, but they know that if they say yes there will be consequences. However, in the classroom I tutor with my teacher uses a blend of veiled and non veiled authority depending on the student. If the student in question is one that rarely gets in trouble she will use veiled, but if the student is constantly being reprimanded she takes no chances and tells them to put something away or stop what they are doing.

Lisa Delpit the author of “Silenced Dialogue: Power and Pedagogy in Educating Other People’s Children” described what she called “the culture of power.” Even though there are five points all of which are important and interesting, one stands out when dealing with my history and bias. It says that “if you are not already a participant in the culture of power, being told explicitly the rules of that culture makes acquiring power easier.” To me this says that if you follow the roles you will get by, and that is exactly what I have done my entire life. Even in second grade when I moved to a new school I quickly adopted and just accepted the new rules. I do not know what it is like to not understand the rules like a non English speaker. I did not come from a totally different culture when I switched schools, just a different area. Some children are going to come from different places with different rules and instead of labeling them as someone with “behavioral problems” it would be up to me as the teacher to simply understand the problem and work with the child. Part of that working might be to see with what method that student best takes instruction and discipline. I might have to ask directly for a student to do something and not just assume that they know it already. We all know what assume does, makes and a** out of you and me.