The Silenced Dialogue:  Power and Pedagogy in Educating Other People´s Children 

by:  Lisa Delpit

Talking Point #1
     Delpit speaks of what can be done ethnographically to conquer the divide, communication blocks, in teaching styles between progressive white educators and educators of color.  She has named her proposal "the culture of power" which contains five parts.  It explains the aspect of power and how it relates to the differences between liberal educators and those of non white, non middle class teachers and their communities.  Delpit does not want to maintain the status quo which is to teach to the liberal middle class.  She wants each classroom to incorporate strategies that will be appropriate for all students regardless of their culture.  This seems like a difficult yet creative concept to balance teaching styles with curriculum and the standards which have to be achieved. 

   

Talking Point #2
     Delpit's fifth premise stated that those with the most power fail to acknowledge its existence and are uncomfortable and unaware of it while those with the least power are well aware.  I compare this to privilege and that those with the most privilege are colorblind and oblivious to their advantages in society in comparison to people of color who are well aware of their disadvantages.  No person is purely powerful or privileged while no person is totally powerless or unprivileged. If a teacher in a classroom is all powerful or the only expert; it would disempower his students.
     
Talking Point #3

     Delpit believes:  "Children have the right to their own language, their own culture." She believes that schools must change not the children.  Children should be allowed to express themselves with their own style and in their own language.  If children are pushed to the common liberal middle class way of teaching it would be repressive and a cultural genocide.  We must take responsibility to teach and provide for students, those of color, who do not understand the realities of power.  She provides examples of teaching "Formal English" and "Informal English" in comparison to eating at a picnic versus  eating a formal dinner.  However, one must still be taught to speak and write for success in order to have access to today's competitive job market and be successful in the world of privilege.
     
     Lisa Delpit argues that those with the most power must initiate the process of changing how educators communicate among themselves and how to best educate children of color by incorporating cultural aspects.