Prompt #5: Delpit

When teaching in a classroom we learn that not all parents are the same. Watching parents walk in and out of the school doors as I wait for my class, I get to observe many different home values. One thing I witnessed was a conversation between a mother and a teacher about her son. The teacher said that she had asked the boy to pick up the mess he made with the alphabet letters and he refused. She said he just ignored her and went on playing with the blocks and pretended she wasn’t there. When she finally got mad at him and said she would call his mother, the boy got very upset and started crying hysterically. The mother was furious and started yelling that she asked him to pick up the blocks, she didn’t tell him. She went on to say that if you ask someone to do something they have the option to deny them.

This is just one of the problems I can imagine that teachers go through every day with parents. The mother did not agree with her form of authority, and the teacher was actually speechless and wasn’t sure what to say. If I were in that situation I think I would probably admit that I was wrong. It does make sense that if you ask a child to do something they have the option to say no. But if you tell them to do something, there’s no question that they have to do it. You need to always show respect for the parents and even if you don’t agree with what they’re saying you need to at least show that you understand their point of view. And NEVER under any circumstance tell them that they are wrong, because nobody is ever wrong. Everyone has their own reasoning behind their actions or ideas and as a teacher you need to respect that and take that into account.

Lisa Delpit talks about the culture of power, and one very important part of the culture of power is children’s background and family life. She starts off saying that there is a culture of power in white-middle class homes that ensures the status quo so that the power stays in the hands of those who already have it. “The power” is referring to having parents at home that will teach you the values you need to know for school; the value that the teacher is the higher authority, and has the power, and that they need to respect that. Delpit is saying that those who are given the culture of power at home have different values when they walk into the classroom. She uses the example that at home a colored mother would say, “Go take off your clothes and get in the bath tub.” There is no doubt that the mother wants her child to go take a bath. But a white mother might say, “Don’t you think it’s time for your bath now?” This tone is very indirect and doesn’t show authority to the child. It is the same situation in classrooms. If a white teacher says, “shouldn’t you start your test now?” a colored student most likely will not react appropriately. Colored children are used to the straight forward authority they’re given at home, and we need to accommodate that into our teaching. Basically what Delpit is getting at is that we need to provide these children the content that other families from a different cultural background have at home. We need to ensure that each classroom incorporates strategies appropriate for all children. We need to take into account that not all parents teach their children the same values and we need to expose children to all different views in the classroom. We absolutely cannot make them forget about the values their parents have brought to the table, but we must simply expose them to our own set of values and open up their eyes to new things. As for us teachers, we have to see their values as well and open up our own eyes to new things.