Lisa Delpit's Other People's Children

 2nd Blog: Other People's Children by Lisa Delpit

Main Point of Discussion: In this work by Lisa Delpit, Other People's Children dives into the idea that due to a handful of issues teachers and students cannot get along on things they disagree with, specifically students of color against white teachers. She discusses how white teachers or white people involved in teaching a group of people who are not white, discredit or do not believe their students' personal experiences with things because the teacher has not personally gone through it or claims it "does not align with the data". Delpit reaches out the audience using examples from anonymous sources, and wants the readers, especially teachers, to use this information to create equal opportunities in the classroom. There should be no difference between class or discrediting a student's personal experience because it differs from personal philosophy and beliefs.

The 5 Main Ideas: To help push her points across, Delpit uses five main ideas that she further elaborates on throughout the article. 

1. Issues of power are enacted in classrooms.

2. Codes and rules of participating in cultural power.

3. Rules of cultural power reflect on those who have power in those cultures.

4. Being told rules makes it easier to access power.

5. Those with power are usually not aware of it or they will not acknowledge that they have power.

    It is important to acknowledge that these points are real and do effect quite a few people. Rather than remove these ideas completely, they should be talked about more publicly which can allow people to understand these issues and reflect on them. With these reflections, mainly for school systems, they are less likely to pop up in classroom environments. The emphasis is on school systems because the majority of them are focused on these ideas, leading to success with middle class white people being taught by white people. When people of color are introduced, they struggle and are not heard when trying to discuss personal experiences relating to the topic of discussion. 

Reflection: Overall, Delpit's article is a very well done, education read. I like the usage of the points to further describe her main idea in greater detail. I also 100% agree with the ideas that teachers will not agree with a student just because they either do not agree with them due to personal beliefs or because they have not experienced something that a student has. Even after I have personally experienced that, I still find that troubling, for a teacher and student should have a mutual trust for each other until proven otherwise. This article is very easy to understand in my opinion and I felt much more comfortable reading this compared to Alan Robinson's work. However, something I disagreed with was the ignoring certain types of people due to experiences with bad coworkers. Although I completely agree with not listening to people who do not accept their flaws in their work like teaching, not liking a race of people because of that may be a bit extreme. But overall, this was a very educational and well put piece by Delpit.

Link Related to Reading:

Study: White Teachers More Likely to Doubt Prospects of Black Students (nbcnews.com)