A Blog for DELPIT

 "A" Blog for Delpit

Other People's Children

The Silenced Dialogue: Power and Pedagogy in Educating Other People's Children

The reading for Delpit was amazing. There were a couple of specific moments that I really appreciated her words and she so clearly conveyed educational problems I have had difficulty explaining to others. For example when explaining the first "culture of power" aspect, "issues of power are enacted in classrooms." She briefly lists "power of the teacher over the students... to determine another's intelligence or 'normalcy.' " The next line essentially explains the cycle of poverty, the achievement gap etc. by calling out the connection to school and the workforce. Naturally this is a much deeper issue than her brief explanation but I appreciated her "if/then" summary. I also really appreciated her inclusion but separation of low-income children. During past experiences in community work, I often found people lump poor, BIPOC together as if every black family is poor and every poor person is BIPOC. In my current work I am learning the difference between a BIPOC community and a poor white community and while both have educational challenges, they have different needs.

Personally, I deeply connected with her past experiences working in Native Alaskan communities where she relied on and needed others to inform her of the unspoken, or already known cultural norms. I do work with local Indigenous youth and families and rely on a team of people to share their cultural beliefs and practices with me in order for our programs and initiatives to b adapted to best serve their community. It was also upsetting to read the differences in authority by culture - for white people, a position is typically viewed as authority but in black communities it is earned through certain skills or characteristics. What I find upsetting is that white educators do not "hear" what black parents are saying when they try to explain how to manage their children in the classroom. I experienced this in my beginning years as an assistant site coordinator for a very diverse afterschool program. When I began to speak more like a particular black-young man's grandmother, and give direct orders and specific consequences that allowed more conversation between my staff and his guardians, he was no longer labeled a "trouble maker" from myself or my staff. 

Finally, I am grateful to Delpit's action steps, asking people to acknowledge that power exists for some and not others, specifically for white people to acknowledge their power and to hear others. She beautifully explains how we listen with our own beliefs and how challenging it is; "to put our beliefs on hold is to cease to exist as ourselves for a moment." Delpit reminds us that humans are of rational thought, though we may not understand their reasoning, personally, when it does not align with our own values and beliefs. Lately, I have been thinking more about the dehumanizing culture we find ourselves living in and trying to unlearn these practices and ways of life. In order to practice a humanizing and loving culture, I must recognize that everyone has unique experiences and values that they carry with them. My dear friend does this and I admire how she is able to put herself in the shoes of others and approach them in ways they understand so as to educate them the lens of race, equity, inclusion and antiracism. (this is work her and I both do)

The author Delpit argues that cultural relevancy is an important skill to have in order to teach our children for success in the larger society. While she does not use this terminology, she explains thoroughly that  both "skills" and "process" approaches to teaching are most successful in educating black and poor children. Delpit also asks that white people acknowledge their power, hear those in the minority with "open hearts and minds" and use their power in the advocacy of systems change from the top - down.