They are my kids too...

The book "Other People's Children" by Lisa Delpit raises an interesting arguement that we as educators may not have been atuned to before reading this selection. Delpit writes about the "silenced dialogue" and the power that language has over our students. I have to admit that I read this same article when I was an undergraduate and at the time felt no real connection to the material. But now, after having been teaching for a few years, my feelings are very different. Right off the bat, the wording of other people's children put me on guard. When I think of my students I do not think of them as someone else's child, I think of them as my own child. I try to treat them all as my children. Reflecting on and thinking about dialogue in my classroom, it is a place where I try to make everyone have a voice. I was shocked by the many student reflections in the article about not being heard. It made me wonder if my students feel that way too. Am I hearing their real voices? Or am I hearing the voice that they have been taught to share? I love the explanation of ethnographic analysis, the giving voice to alternate worldviews. This I think is crucial in the classroom. Listening to the experiences of different cultures and ways of life enrich my classroom tremendously. Yes, I teach Catholicism, but hearing about the religious experiences of my students who are not Catholic make my class so much more interesting and full. The five aspects of power were interesting to me for a few reasons. I want to talk about a few of them. "There are codes or rules for participating in power; that is, there is a "culture of power."(25) This is a reality of the society and world that we live in. I understand that the culture of power may not be the culture that our students are accustomed to, but I would argue that if we do not teach them within the constrains of this culture of power than we are doing them a disservice. We are not preparing them for success after they leave our classrooms. If my students lived in the bubble of my classroom for the rest of their lives and could be successful without every leaving my room, then yes I would say that I could teach to them in the culture that they were accustomed to. But because that is not reality if I do not speak to them in the proper manner, or expect them to speak in that way, I feel as though I would be setting them up to fail in a situation in the world outside of school. Delpit speaks about this when talking about the Native American student and her writing.She writes that "to bring this student into the program and pass ehr through without attending to obvious deficits in the codes needed for her to function effectively as a teacher is equally criminal"(38) So where is the line? How do we gauge between allowing our students to speak/write/communicate in the way that they are most comfortable with and teaching them the "proper" way to speak/write/communicate? The next aspect, "The rules of the culture of power are a reflection of the rules of the culture of those who have power" (25). While I agree with this statement, I find it interesting that Delpit speaks about middle class children and the structure of teaching geared toward them. I would argue that if the middle class is shrinking then they are no longer the majority-so shouldn't the structure change to reflect that? "Teachers do students no service to suggest, even implicitly that "product" is not important. In this country, students will be judged on their product regardless of the process they utilized to achieve it" (31). This statement spoke to me as a result of our conversation about SCWAAMP. Being an able-bodied member of society, one that can contribute goods and be productive is important to the culture of power. Thinking about this culture speak in language makes me think that instead of making the classroom more inclusive of difference it just sets up an even bigger segregation or divide. I also feel like it could be insulting to a student to speak to them in the same manner as say a parent. I feel like acting in this way could just set up more stereotypes toward a certain culture or race. In my reading, I subscribe to a magazine called "Teaching Tolerance". They also run a website version of the magazine. In the issue for this month, there is an article called "Is My School Racist" Intereseting read, along with the other resources on the website.