Monday, February 10, 2014

Silenced Dialogue

This article by Lisa Delpit was a little bit harder for me to interpret. One of the main concepts in the article that i found interesting was how black students interact with white teachers versus black teachers. I selected these quotes because I thought they supported the white teachers versus black teachers idea and which students learn best from each type of teacher.

Quotes:
"I am also suggesting that appropriate education for poor children and children of color can only be devised in consultation with adults who share their culture. Black parents, teachers of color, and members of poor communities must be allowed to participate fully in the discussion of what kind of instruction is in their children's best interest. Good liberal intentions are not enough." (page 45)

Delpit voices her opinion that the parents of the children who are poor or children of color should come together and decide what is the best way for them to learn. Instead of the people who know nothing about their lifestyles because they most likely don't know what their life is like at home. I think that its a good idea for the white teachers to consult the black teachers because they are the ones who would know more about what an average black students life is like. 

I personally saw this first hand when I was volunteering in the classroom that I do my service learning project in. My teacher is a very short white lady and she was speaking in a different tone than I had ever heard a teacher talk in. But I noticed it was to the black children, granted they were not doing what they were supposed to be doing. She would give them direct orders in an almost yelling tone and they would do it, I knew that they wouldn't go home and tell their parents that their teacher yelled at them because that was probably how their parents speak to them on a daily basis.

“Several black teachers have said to me recently that as much as they'd like to believe otherwise, they cannot help but conclude that many of the "progressive" educational strategies imposed by liberals upon black and poor children could only be based on a desire to ensure that the liberals' children get sole access to the dwindling pool of American jobs.” (page 29)

This quote supports the fact that the white liberals only want whats best for their children not the children of the other races. I see this as white supremacy a little bit because the white people are in charge of most of the school systems so they naturally would hire white teachers who then don't know how to handle students of other races making it difficult for the students to get an education which they need to get a reasonable job.


This article I found raises the question of whether a student learns more from a teacher of his/her own ethnicity.

(2004) http://educationnext.org/the-race-connection/



This was from 2004

2 comments:

  1. Hey Mariah! Nice post! I really like how you got to relate this article to your service learning project already! I find it so surprising that even today, a teacher could treat her students differently because of their race, i just don't get it! And i totally agree with your point of view. The chart you added at the end goes along really well with the article too! Good job :)

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  2. Hi Mariah! I agree with Danielle's comment; it was really cool to hear that you saw this happen during your service learning project, and that you could understand why the teacher was speaking to the black students differently. I love the chart too, it adds a nice visual for your topic. Great post!

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