Blog Post #3: Delpit- Educating Other People's Children

Other People's Children: Cultural Conflict in the Classroom 
By Lisa Delpit  

Three Talking Points

1. "But parents who don't function within that culture often want something else. It's not that they disagree with the former aim, it's just that they want something more. They want to ensure that the school provides their children with discourse patterns, interactional styles, and spoken and written language codes that will allow them success in the larger society" (Pages 28-29). 
"My kids know how to be black- you all teach them how to be successful in the white man's world" (Page 29). 

• In these two quotes, Delpit draws attention to the various discourses and language patterns within schools that breed students to be successful in the white man's world. In the modern world, parents want more for their children in their education where their language codes are treated as assets instead of deficits. 

2. "Children have the right to their own language, their own culture. We must fight cultural hegemony and fight the system by insisting that children be allowed to express themselves in their own language style. It is not they, the children, who must change, but the schools. To push children to do anything else is repressive and reactionary" (Page 37). 

• Schools must adapt and change in order to adequately serve and effectively educate the students in front of them. Students have the right to express themselves authentically using the language that aligns most to their identity. Schools need to encourage students to use the language that they are accustomed to instead of shaping students to be people that they are not.

3. "The dilemma is not really in the debate over instructional methodology, but rather in communicating across cultures and in addressing the more fundamental issue of power, of whose voice gets to be heard in determining what is best for poor children and children of color" (Page 46). 

• Delpit's position is to be a voice for the voiceless, particularly for disadvantaged students and students of color. Her position is that there is a power struggle that exists in American schools between educators and students. How can educators be open to truly listening to students of color? How can we push all students to be their true and authentic selves without molding them to be something that they are not? How can we incorporate more student voice and input in our classrooms? 

Argument Statement 

In her work Other People's Children: Cultural Conflict in the Classroom, Lisa Delpit argues that the relationship and interaction between white educators and "other people's children," or students of color, demonstrates an unjust power imbalance in the American classroom. The various dynamics of the power struggle result in prejudice and ineffective education for disadvantaged students. Delpit argues that the educational framework must be altered to change this narrative between educators and students of color so that these students may be prepared for great success in their own world, not the world of the white man.