Delpit's Difficult Dialogue

            Lisa Delpit’s argument in “The Silenced Dialogue” is that we need to open up more dialogues between cultures in the classroom.  She stresses the lack of these discussions when there are black or poor children (not part of the dominant ideology) in predominately white middle classrooms (the dominant ideology).  As we learned in the Johnson reading this week, it is important to have these conversations about the dominant ideology and how it affects our classroom, even if there are some painful truths we have to face.  Delpit does that exactly – she discusses how black students are typically misunderstood and taught poorly by some teachers, even at the highest levels of learning.  Her overall message is clear by the end of the article.  However, there are a few examples along the way that were hard to swallow, or at least seemed difficult to connect to the main point.  Eventually, I came to a realization why she did this throughout the article.  I had to work through a few of these bizarre points first to come to this epiphany.

                 The first quote that struck me as peculiar was:

“Several black teachers have said to me recently…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” (29).

            The first thought I had been: people actually think that?  I realized Delpit wouldn’t write this if it weren’t true, but it was still hard to swallow.

If there are black teachers who think this way, is this because other teachers don’t listen to criticism, specifically that they lack the ability to make black and poor students aware of the cultural codes they lack and need if they want to succeed?  Or is it because they’re not particularly good teachers?  Are they only good teachers with students of white backgrounds? 

The first time I read this it seemed like it was hard to believe.  It only became a little clearer what she was going for after reading the whole article.

            Another quote I found alarming was:

“People of color are, in general, skeptical of research as determiner of our fates.  Academic research has, after all, found us genetically inferior, culturally deprived, and verbally deficient” (31). 

Apparently, I’m not aware of the general research that states these ideas about blacks.  Again, I was taken aback by the quote, and tried searching for reasons the author would put the sentence in the paper.  Research says black people are inferior?  I thought it was a cruel, bigoted idea, not something found in high academic research.  Was Delpit writing about this to enrage her readers?

           

The last shocking quote was about discipline in the classroom.  Delpit was writing about how black children react to how a teacher deals with management.  She wrote “To clarify, this student was proud of the teacher’s ‘meanness,’ an attribute he seemed to describe as the ability to run the class and pushing and expecting his students to learn” (37).

I initially thought: does this mean we have to be meaner/stricter with black students?  Wouldn’t that be setting us up for a lot of problems, like being called racist?  I then considered she was trying to make the point that teachers need to be direct in the classroom when giving instructions, and that middle-class teachers are more likely to give indirect directions.  I think that a bad teacher gives vague directions and a good teacher gives clear directions, regardless of race.  But we should be aware that black students need more direct directions even more than white students, and I think that was the point she was going for.    

Once I got to the end of the reading, and Delpit was giving her overall thematic message, I began to understand why she was being slightly rabble-rousing.  She writes that good, skillful teachers, “understand the need for both approaches, the need to help students establish their own voices, and to coach those voices to produce notes that will be heard clearly in the larger society” (46).  I interpreted this to mean we need to use multiple approaches to the classroom while also considering the cultural differences around us. 

I think she used the more extremist perspectives and viewpoints as ways to make us aware that there are other thoughts on the classroom, and they may not be very nice.  It makes the person reading the article reconsider a lot of the preconceived notions about the other side of the article and why they would think that teachers are holding black and poor children back.  Being culturally flexible is the mark of a great teacher, someone who will actually make a difference.

I agree with Delpit’s argument, although if I were making it, I would probably not go about it the same hyperbolic, potentially enraging way, simply because it might turn people off to her main point before they get a chance to let it sink in.  I thought Johnson’s more conservative approach made me less apprehensive to his overall message. 

The article recommended working with students with what they’re experts in.  If you’re an English teacher working with black students, it may be a good idea to work with hip-hop and link it to Shakespeare’s sonnets. 

It reminded me of a profile I readon Jay-z that was written by the wonderful Zadie Smith. 

First off, Zadie Smith has written a couple brilliant novels, my favorite being White Teeth, which touches upon the way culture values are different across generations, cultures, people, etc.  The main family in the story is originally from India and they have immigrated to in London.  Much of the story concerns how the children fit into the British culture while trying to abide by their more traditional parents and how both sides struggle with the differences.  The book is hilarious and heartfelt and attempts to break through the dominant ideological glass that we discussed in class last week.

I thought it was cool that Zadie Smith profiled Jay-z, since it seems like she’s aware of the societal implications of his music, and I was particularly struck by page three of the article.  I thought this quote gave credence to the discussion of how dominant ideology works and how there could be a day when the white heterosexual male isn't the dominant ideal:

“Years ago, Martin Amis wrote a funny story, “Career Move,” in which the screenwriters live like poets, starving in garrets, while the poets chillax poolside, fax their verses to agents in Los Angeles and earn millions off a sonnet. Last year’s “Watch the Throne,” a collaboration with Kanye, concerns the coming to pass of that alternative reality. Hundred stack/How you get it? Jay-Z asks Kanye on “Gotta Have It.” The answer seems totally improbable, and yet it’s the truth: Layin’ raps on tracks! Fortunes made from rhyming verse. Which is what makes “Watch the Throne” interesting: it fully expresses black America’s present contradictions. It’s a celebration of black excellence/Black tie, black Maybachs/Black excellence, opulence, decadence. But it’s also a bitter accounting of the losses in a long and unfinished war. Kanye raps: I feel the pain in my city wherever I go/314 soldiers died in Iraq/509 died in Chicago. Written by a couple of millionaire businessmen on the fly (“Like ‘New Day,’ Kanye told me that — the actual rap — last year at the Met Ball, in my ear at dinner”), it really shouldn’t be as good as it is.