Other People’s Children: Cultural Conflict in the Classroom

By Lisa Delpit

Lisa Delpit writes about the communication block that exists within our educational system.  There is a disconnect between the white liberal educators and people of color.  Delpit writes about what she calls “The culture of Power”.   The five aspects of power are as follows:

1.  Issues of power are enacred in classrooms.

2.  There are codes or rules for participating in power; that is, there is a “culture of power.”

3.  The rules of the culture of power are a reflection of the rules of the culture of those who have the power.

4.  If you are not already a participant in the culture of power, being told explicitly the rules of that culture makes acquiring power easier.

5.Those with power are frequently least aware of-or least willing to acknowledge-its existence. Those with less power are often most aware of its existence.

Even when black people, or others who are outside the culture of power, try to explain their point of view the white educators are not hearing them.  The result is that those who are outside the culture of power stop communicating.  Delpit states that this is hard for most liberal educators to acknowledge.  However, success will only be achieved if this is accomplished. 

Author Vivian Gussin Paley writes in her book White Teacher “The further away the teacher is from the child’s cultural or temperamental background, the more likely it is that the wrong questions will be asked.  The child instinctively knows the questions are inappropriate but soon figures out that he must be the one who is inappropriate.  Thus he begins the energy consuming task of trying to cover up his differences.” (Paley, 9)

There are points of view in the article I found both interesting and consistent within my classroom. 

“To deny students their own expert knowledge is to disempower them.”

Erin Gruwell teaches at an urban high school in Long Beach, California.  In her book Freedom Writer Diaries, she gives her students journals to write about their own experiences. The students congruently read The Diaries of Anne Frank and Night by Elie Wiesel. 

Gruwell successfully provided them an outlet for the students to express their angst.  They were experts in their own writing.  As a result her students learned about the hardships that other young adults have had in world. 

“Actual writing for real audiences and real purposes is a vital element in helping students to understand that they have a voice in their own learning.”

The Philly Youth Poetry Movement (using the power of the spoken word) is accomplishing this by creating a safe place for kids to be themselves; a space to find the value of their own voice.  They are enforcing twenty-first century skills; why am I learning this? and Why is this important?

 “Many people of color expect authority to be earned by personal efforts and exhibited by personal characteristics.  In other words the authoritative teacher person gets to be a teacher because she is authoritative.”

I have found this to be true in my classroom.  In my student’s world, authority is earned like Erin Gruwell.  I too have students who come to school with ankle bracelets on; students who have been to the training school more than once.  Some have parents who are in prison.  Other are homeless or have been at some point.  In my experience these kids, for the most part, like boundaries and structure.  They feel secure and happy in my classroom.  I have high expectations for all of them.  The majority of them try to achieve my expectations.