Lisa
Delpit - Other People’s Children
Power, privilege, and change,
change, change! After experiencing what
I consider a good day of teaching, I can’t help but feel deflated after reading
the articles such as the ones written by Johnson and Delpit. After my brief pity party (and maybe a glass
of wine), I accept that I do fall into the categories that Johnson would call
‘privileged’ and Delpit would consider to be “the culture of power”, but
ultimately they are not saying that being these things are bad. Rather both authors are suggesting (as Delpit
states), “Teachers are in an ideal position to play this role, to attempt to
get all of the issues on the table in order to initiate true dialogue” (pg 47).
Instead of feeling defeated, I now
feel challenged to be more culturally sensitive. On Thursday I was working with one of my
students to pick a picture from the Internet to use in a project. After looking over multiple pages I found
myself becoming frustrated because she was skipping over plenty of pictures
that I thought suited the assignment perfectly.
Finally, she found one that she wanted to use and in a moment of
exasperation I asked her why that one instead of the many other pictures that
she had already skipped over. She looked up from the computer screen and simply
stated, “because she’s black.” There I
was, ready to accuse her of wasting time and in reality she had a purpose in
all of her searching that had completely escaped me.
Celebrating Black History Month and
reading books where the main character isn’t white aren’t enough to address the
cultural differences present in many classrooms today. In her piece, Delpit discusses the difficulty
of entering a new culture and shares her own experiences in visiting Papua New
Guinea and Alaskan villages. She states,
“I have found it unquestionably easier, psychologically and pragmatically, when
some kind soul has directly informed me about such matters as appropriate
dress, interactional styles, embedded meanings, and taboo words or actions”
(pg. 26). Last semester I was introduced
to a website http://www.culturecrossing.net/
which does exactly that. Through
utilizing the “Getting to know your World” drop-down menu, it is possible to
select hundreds of different countries and learn basic facts about the country
as well as the style of communication, dress, and other aspects of that
culture. I have found this website to be
very useful in gaining knowledge about other countries, but there (of course)
isn’t a drop-down for the “culture of power”.
I am affiliated with a school that has 92% white students and
100% white teachers (at least at the high school level). While there is not much diversity reflected
in my district, there is a lot of diversity represented in my classroom. After reading this piece, I am going to
strive to be more culturally sensitive and aware in attempt to try to meet the
needs of all of my students. This is only a small step in the direction that Delpit suggests that we, as educators, should make, but it is a solid first step that I feel comfortable I can be successful in doing.
"Instead of feeling defeated, I now feel challenged to be more culturally sensitive."
ReplyDeleteGreat attitude Christina! Being culturally sensitive is something that I have tried to instill in my students on several occasions. It can be difficult when the population you work with is 91.5% white but I am always trying. This is a hot topic in my class because learning about culture is actually part of my curriculum as I am a Spanish Teacher.
Your example about searching for the picture on the internet is so poignant. And great reflection making sense of it now in light of these texts. You are right that this can be overwhelming and deflating in so many ways. But beginning to see yourself as part of the solution allows you to have some agency rather than just feeling like you are stuck in your own privilege. (And you figured that out all by yourself!) :)
ReplyDeleteCA,
ReplyDeleteSome people (myself included) learn best by deconstructing a topic and then spreading all the bits and pieces out in front of them. After examining each piece, they then work toward putting the idea back together again. It's not exactly the same, but your feeling of deflation makes me think of this. By reading and discussing and having your attitude, you'll most certainly once again, inflate.
GK
another random thought: I wrote the first day in response to "why you decided to do a masters in ASTL": Professional certification. after only two weeks, that anwser is one of the dumbest things I've ever said.
Yes, I do feel like we only include safe points of diversity in our classrooms, like you said, the black history month and the occasional non-white protagonist in books.
ReplyDeleteIt reminds me of myself as a senior in high school. I was taking AP English and a great portion of the books were centered around women. I remember getting quite frustrated with the material, especially because I was one of two men in the class.
Now that I look back, I realize pretty much all the major books in high school that I identified with up to that point were about white men (Huck Finn, Catcher in the Rye). That was my teacher's argument at the time, for her selecting this material, but it isn't until recently that I can see she was trying to open up our perspective to other points of view. She was opening up the dialogue, much like Johnson and Delpit are trying to do!
Corey did you go to Plymouth South High like me? Same story... I was SO FRUSTRATED with Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl because I could not relate to the author or main character. Great point! I was furious over this and it was what, one of 8 books we read that year. The majority were probably written by and about a white male. Oh, to be enlightened...
DeleteNo, Seekonk High. I think it was The Joys of Motherhood that frustrated me most, but then again, we read Gatsby and Grapes of Wrath that year, so I suppose I was being a typical over-the-top 17 year old!
DeleteRegarding "initiating true dialogue.." I would just like t point out how difficult and uncomfortable it can be; not because of your attitudes or the students, but how this STUFF (attitudes, perceptions, misinterpretations, stereotypes, dialogues...) can be interpreted by administration. Madonna brought this up last week and I had no issue with it. I'm considering a different tune. At this point, maybe I should be grateful that I teach math.
ReplyDelete