Blog – Reading #2

Blog – Reading #2

  The author this week is Lisa Delpit and the article is called “Other People’s Children – Cultural Conflict in the Classroom.  I will be discussing three quotes I’ve taken from the text.

  Quote 1 - taken from page 21:   “they think they know what’s best for everybody, for everybody’s children”.  She is describing how white teachers think they know what the correct way or what the right answer is for every culture and for everyone’s belief.  She tells of how black teachers just nod their head as if they are agreeing with what the white teacher is saying even though the black teacher knows it is wrong.

  Quote 2 – taken from page 25:  “I have come to conclude that members from any culture transmit information implicitly to co-members”.  This goes back to the first quote in a way.  She explains that not knowing how a culture of people function makes things a whole lot difficult for a person from outside the culture to come in to that culture and function as they do.  She talks about how someone helped her prepare for her time with a Native Alaskan community, helping her made the transition a positive one.

  Quote 3 – taken from page 40:  “we must push and agitate from the top down”.  Delpit is telling us the only real way for change to ever happen isn’t from starting at the bottom but from starting with the people who are in power.

  I’d like to talk about how I agree with the third quote I’ve taken from the reading.  I have seen many times when trying to make change from the bottom fails.  A great example is how our government functions.  Many regular people “the bottom” have many great ideas for change but unless they can get the people in power with power “the top” to make the change a law, etc., the change never happens.

  I am including a link to an article where Dana Goldstein interviews Lisa Delpit on her writing “Other People’s Children”.  I was interested in seeing who Lisa Delpit is so here is a photo of her taken from the C-Span website.