Blog 2- Other people’s Children-The Silenced Dialogue

      This week we read “Other people’s children-The Silenced Dialogue” by Lisa Delpit, a reading that focused on issues with power in the education system. Students come from all sorts of different backgrounds, and speak different languages and Lisa brought attention to the “culture of power” which benefits the typical white, middle-class students. “Those with power are frequently least aware- or least willing to acknowledge- its existence. Those with less power are often most aware of its existence.” (Delpit 26.) Lisa stated this and it is in relation to Alan Johnson’s speech and short novel which also touched on the obliviousness from white people and their privilege. Delpit has 5 main aspects of “the culture of power” that she brought up and the first stated, issues of power are enacted in the classroom. The way I interpreted this was different ways another group could have a higher4 level of power over the other such as the power of teachers over their students. The first three of the aspects are used in the sociology of education and they focus on the power between liberal educational movements and that of non-white, non middle class teachers and communities. I do believe as a white person I understand my privilege as I see oppression towards other groups, and especially when I visited and observed other classrooms here in Providence I even had better opportunities with my education as I was growing up. Some students come from low-income families which doesn’t make them any less than the other students from the middle of upper class and knowing that Distar was being used to question the ability of non- white students while learning was disappointing. The approach that Distar was using was described as “The teacher is supposed to use continuous eye contact, finger snaps,, hand claps and other gestures…”(Delpit 27). Distar had discouraged students and had them lose motivation to continue a lesson although it was not because of their instructional efficacy, but because of the “expression of explicit power in the classroom” (Delpit 28).

    While reading this I understood the power behind her message and no, race is not the only deciding factor of power in the classroom, but I would not have portrayed that as her message. Lisa Delpit expressed how marginalized student of color are taught in the classroom and how language and power both play a factor in how they are taught. Another scenario that caught my eye was when one East Indian man went in for a interview for an all white committee and it quickly turned to a fail because the interviewees became more and more indirect with their questions and made them nearly unanswerable which tripped up the applicant and he did not get the job. This was a prime example of abusing their power as an all white committee and therefore added to the culture of power. After reading this article I really feel knowledgeable about the culture of power, and intend to stop the cycle rather than continuing it on.