What is the best way to educate students of color? If you had asked me that question last week I would have said, “What do you mean? Teaching students of color vs. white students should be the same, shouldn’t it? Methods of teaching shouldn’t depend on the student’s race, right?”
Lisa Delpit explores this question in her article, “The
Silenced Dialogue: Power and Pedagogy in Educating Other People's Children” (This
definitely wasn’t an easy read – it took a lot of thinking and rereading to
take all 26 pages of thoughts, examples, and ideas and piece it all together
into one clear main idea– but I think I managed to find her central argument J
).
Delpit argues that students should be educated in a way that
allows them to express their own culture through language, but also teaches
them how to be successful in today’s American workforce. As she explains, American society has one
major “culture of power,” or one culture that dominates over all others (in this
case, a white, middle-class background). Even though the children in the school
system come from all different ethnic, racial, social, and religious backgrounds,
they are all taught to conform to the culture of power when they are in school;
that is, the same way of thinking, behaving, and speaking that is common in the
white middle-class culture. However, Delpit argues that the goal of education
should not be to erase all other backgrounds, but to allow each child to
develop their own culture, while also learning how to function and succeed
within the dominant American society as a whole.
An article by Tim Walker, “Closing the Culture Gap”
also explains the role of cultural diversity in the school system, and the
steps that teachers are taking to realize the impact of this diversity on
children’s education. One teacher, Devon Alexander, shares many of the same
arguments as Delpit: he says, “First
and foremost, let your students know that their lived experiences are valid and
valued. They have every right to hold on to who they are, what they know, and
what they live, even if sometimes they have to stop and work through
differences, but you also have to show them how to navigate our school culture
so they can succeed.”
Even though as first, I thought all children should be
educated in the same way (after all, we’re eventually striving for equality in
society here), I’m realizing that there are reasons that all children actually
should be taught differently based on the culture that they come from. The
story that Delpit shares about the Native Alaskan class learning two different
kinds of English – “Heritage Language” and “Standard English” - really struck
me as inspiring. Reading that taught me that it is possible for us to learn how
to express ourselves in our own way while also being able to speak and write in
a way that everyone can understand.
As a musician, I
think of it like music – everyone learns how to speak their own language, but
everyone, regardless of the language you speak, can learn to interpret music,
the “international language.” As Delpit puts it, "Children have the right
to their own language, their own culture. …It is not they, the children, who must
change, but the schools. To push children to do anything else is repressive and
reactionary” (37).
Picture sources: http://sonyawoodman.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/classroom-diversity.jpg, http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2544/3809460658_93f977c3f6_o.jpg
Picture sources: http://sonyawoodman.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/classroom-diversity.jpg, http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2544/3809460658_93f977c3f6_o.jpg
Julie! Excellent post. Honestly I had thought the same thing when beginning. Just having an open mind helps a teacher a long way. I love the article you brought in and the pictures! Keeping an open and healthy mind in teaching is definitely important though... Each person is their own enemy. :)
ReplyDeleteJulie!! I love the posts! The pictures were very creative! I like how you compared it to music. Teaching should be the same no matter what the color of the students are. It makes me frustrated that people even think like this.. Its something I guess we will never understand! I also agree with you Kaleena in your comment! "Each person is their own enemy!" Good job!! :)
ReplyDeleteJulie, I love your post and couldn't agree with you more. I think that the article can be compared to a lot of subjects like music and I like how you compared learning with music. I also had the same thoughts when beginning the article that it shouldn't matter what skin color you are everyone should be taught in the same way.
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