Teach Out Project

Aiming for Bullseye

 My preparation for this Teachout activity began mentally in September, at the start of the school year. I had been collecting good passages from texts; and, I was waiting to learn new things from this course - which I happily selected due to the title, Social Issues in Education.

I have been in discussion groups with other educators from the Providence Schools District and I have volunteered to be the Equity Ambassador at my school to meet with other Equity Leadership/Ambassadors to grow conversations about Equitable Education in Providence (and beyond) by bringing PDs to staff. I plan to discuss with a group of students (SBG) and regulars at Book Club to bring up good texts to build better conversations that will include the students’ thoughts and concerns about Equity. 

Preparing to do this I aimed to reach out first to students who are enrolled in the Senior Research course in order to work collaboratively and minimize the pressure of a solo project. The group began with four students who had failed the course last semester, six currently enrolled and wanted the collaboration, and then gained six students not yet enrolled, therefore would receive early credit for the course. The established rules were to come every fifth period the first week of March, and meet each Wednesday for six weeks during the Advisory hour. Including the hour practice before the hour PD, the total meeting time came to 17 hours.

For our meetings, I had preselected excerpts from eight pieces, to discuss and analyze one each day we met: 

James Baldwin's A Talk to Teachers

TREC’s 4I’s of Oppression

Robin D’Angelo’s White Fragility

Mark Anthony Gooden’s Five Practices for Equity-Focused School Leadership 

Gholdy Muhammad's The 5 Pursuits of Culturally Responsive Teaching

Lisa Delpit’s The Silenced Dialogue

Alan Johnson’s Privilege, Power, and Differnce

Armstrong and Wildman’s Colorblindness is the New Racism

From the group’s own discussions, the students built creative and meaningful activities along with a representative slide or two to lead the audience of educators’ thinking.  I led the students to deciding on activities by engaging them in some of which I had myself been engaged as a scholar in Social Issues in Education and meetings with the PPSD Equity Leadership Department or Zom’s with Dr. Muhammad. For example, I used Jamboard to ask questions regarding class lessons which brought the students Joy - whether real or what one would be like if they could engage their peers. To introduce S.C.W.A.A.M.P., I had the scholars carousel using chart paper so that they can jot thoughts for each term making up the acronym. I flipped images on the screen to discuss BLM; and I presented the statement “Students should not use more media during instructional learning” and “Only Juniors with a C+ average should be allowed to go to prom” to introduce the Taking A Stand activity Professor Bogad led us through to discuss equatibility and fairness during the course. 

The scholars completed graphics organizers to demonstrate their understanding of texts and to prepare for discussion;; thus they had phrases and lines quoted with explanations of their analysis on a certain author’s text every meeting. During the meeting, they had to decide which questions they would ask the educators about the specific text,  how many slides and how to design them to present that text, and which activities would be best to discuss each text topic to prepare for the day of the PD.

The scholars also made connections to their personal experiences as students or LatinX or Black people; they connected to YouTube videos or Instagram posts; and they connected activities they had engaged in during other classes to make more sense of the materials for themselves, and/or to lead the professionals in.

The day of the workshop PD, the students were nervous; but that did not show when they ran the whole hour moving from topic and activities as they had planned. The staff was pleasantly engaged and stood after to congratulate each member during each small group’s presentation as their were 4 rooms.

I couldn’t have felt happier about how successful the students felt and the positive feedback I heard from my colleagues. It definitely was an awesome experience.

Our S.C.W.A.A.M.P. winner was a young, single-mother and educator. Scholars also learned that Jewish do not categorize themselves as White and that not all of the teachers own property during this “Move Up the Ladder” activity.

 

Last school year, I joined an Equity Leadership team in the district. It gave me a chance to draw plans with others to bring equitable change in my school. Therefore, I'm glad that I got to select this course to complete the social awareness credit I needed to complete my masters. 502 has helped me to increase the resources at the Equity Leadership table and become the Equity Ambassador at Central. So, I enjoy having to talk about equitable issues in education with students. This year I helped seniors produce this slide deck. They're proud of the outcome of their discussions and look forward to presenting to teachers in a week. 

Ignorantly oppressed or oppressing ignorantly?

Would we still have the same stuggles if every citizen/person in the United States received "empowering education and powerful literacy"? As a country, I believe that the quality of the education is what draws many from around the world to come to the USA. But, then the education they sacrificed much to receive is also just enough to domesticate them.

 "The status quo is the status quo because people who have the power to make changes are comfortable with the way things are." The people who live feeling comfortable are, as Patrick Finn makes a point in Literacy with an Attitude (1999), the people who received an empowering education, and don't have to change anything because they are the "haves." Those who do not live comfortably are "the working class [who] do not get powerful literacy...helpful for the struggle." Finn realized that how he was preparing his teachers was just to remain in the status quo, and not to get ahead any further in life.

 What the status quo is today is that if you're a young minority, you are most likely to live in dense populations of housing for people in poverty, and attend subpar schools where you receive "free education" to learn "domesticated education," to not be another statstic of the school to prison pipeline. In the second chapter of Finn's article, the advances shared show levels of status gained by education received. The poor (without means to elite education or practices) end up in hourly paying jobs. Those who received education of empowerment drew more empowering literacy to build their own, I think this is comparable to the ones who built valley start-ups in the 2000s, our influencers through the 2010s to the present, and they are AI business leaders today. Again, most gaining access to empowering literacy, and the "tutoring" to develop that knowledge into healthy salaries are more whites than people of color because of how long racism has separated and disparaged people who were kept from becoming properly educated in this country. The scales aren't clise to even now that education is a "free and proper right."  

Ideologies of one race being smarter than another have ran for centuries. Teaching to change those negative or competitive as much as they are derogatory ideologies about skin color and physical features continue to separate and stereotype peoplenonsensically when we should just celebrate the differences among the Human Race as Jane Elliot has preached for five decades. Elliot has inspired teachers and has great answers to questions such as is posed in the Queering Our Schools article. How to create classrooms and schools where each child, parent and staff member's unique beautiful self is appreciated and nurtured? Elliot shares her notions in her interview.

Raised by parents who migrated because of the educational and financial opportunities offered in this country made it difficult to associate with friendly classmates when we came to live in South Providence, RI in the middle 80s when many Caucasians: Portuguese, Italian and French, lived in the neighborhood.  It was Us and Them, made clear as our Italian neighbors on Burnett Street moved away and the Portuguese sisters I knew from school were transferred. Definitely left negative impressions in my mind, though I didn’t dwell on them. The familial bias was especially transparent when I announced my crush on Keith, a name most at home couldn’t pronounce, and when he stepped close to the house door, he wasn’t welcomed to come in because despite being my similar complexion, Keith was going to “dañar la raza.”  That took me a decade to process.  Building my own prejudices as to whom to trust and not trust came to bring me to de-categorize the family’s opinion. White teachers were caring and just as well as smart. They shared their own struggles which made me understand that their realities was not TV Land.  Each helped me believe in my potential, and to not fear the English language but rather to accept it as a challenge to be able to become exceptionally proficient (before high school I was somewhat aware of my conscious decision though I had not learned the language to express my choices until a few years after the start of my professional career) as I saw them. Due to this recognition of these biases and negative views of others at home, as well as the belief that “We’re not smart enough,” often spoken by my mother, I have a clear understanding of what Paulo Freire meant in Pedagogy of the Oppressed when he stated that “the oppressed, instead of striving for liberation, tend themselves to become oppressors, or “sub-oppressors”” (Freire 2011).  I believe that my family (maternal specifically) felt oppressed and overcame some level of the oppression to in turn feel superior than others (if not inferior and therefore feared being oppressed by them) and to some extent want to oppress them to not acquaint with groups outside of their own. An irrational safeguard which, by the way, backfired when each of the four children interacted and procreated with cultures non-Latino/X.

How do we embolden Mentalities? On paper we have all of the rules we need to respect each other mutually and increase our academic practices fairly, peacefully, equitably according to state and federal rules such as those of Rhode Island's Education Department Guidance But, as Finn delineates through John Anyon's descriptions, the "hard-bitten...practical and down to earth" (p.9) teachers are probably right. Finn having taught middle school 30 years prior to instructing adult professionals has lost touch with what's going on in class practices. However, that Finn's adult scholars scoff and "are not amused" when he says that "poor students" are "not well educated" is proving another cycle of resistant ideology. As Finn explains about Anyon's research through classroom visits at both poor and affluent neighborhood schools in Chicago, not much has changed through decades of traditional education because "knowledge [has been] presented as fragmented facts isolated from wider bodies of...lives and experiences of the students" (p. 10). The teachers' mentality of their way is the best way and that students have less abilities/creativity to do work as when they skipped math book sections, is another exemplar of the oppressed ignorantly oppressing the youth who "have not." Then the teachers in affluent schools skip teaching correct history although they presented more opportunities for creativity and critical thinking through activities "having relevance to life's problems" (p. 13). Not knowing any better, because how would students know they are in the dark until they are taught "to see, the students are engaged satisfactorily because "good grades lead to college and a good job" (p. 14).

I do believe that the quick sharing technology we have now has brought us as a human race to learn more about each other across large distances than we could otherwise have learned or taught. It is a testament of spiritual resiliency and the ability to self-empower. Many are advancing intellectually well without being academically institutionalized to learn what has taken many others of formal education and attaining a certificate to do. They believed in their dreams more than in the traditional path story which reminds me of what Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie shares in her TED Talk, The Danger of a Single Story (YouTube 2009)

It would be lovely, and it's many people's dream to end poverty and hunger, 'if we could raise the levels of literacy so that we would have no poor, just rich, richer, richest" (Finn, Preface). But as individuals, we must embrace how different we each are from one another and build confidence in who or from where we are to not believe that an educational system is the best way (or only way) to empower ourselves and live as a Human race.

Instead of Ladies & Gentlemen

 In the Queering Our Schools article, by the time I got to read what "they" commented after the horrible bus ride experience that could have ended Sasha's life statement that concluded " "I'm going to keep wearing a skirt. It's a big part of who I am." I honestly had to re-read the sentence to figure out who "they" are because it escaped me that Sasha refers to self in plural/third person.

I am respectful of others and don't care that there are all of these labels - LGBTQ+.  But, then again, I struggle to address by pronouns, and don't see why I can't address an audience as "ladies and gentlemen."

I remember the first time I had a student who wanted to identify as the other gender when I had known this child as the other sex for a year prior as my daughter's friend of a certain name. Now the name and gender was for me to learn as if I had just met this person. In a way, that's how I handled honoring this person's life change, Curiosity got the better of me and I had to learn all about this person, to make sure I didn't bruise the teen's mental fragility as well as deny the teen's self-identification requests. The teen took the role of the opposite gender (as it was in my mind)for my daughter's Quince, as elegant as if had possibly taken the court part of the opposite gender.

When I had a City Year assistant need a placement, I invited them to my class. They helped my class become better acquainted with the use of the plural pronoun, and what the terms non-binary, non-conforming and queer meant. I appreciated the lessons because I knew none of this vocabulary, and was ignorant of the vast sexual orientation spectrum.

A question to myself is am I as ignorant of my sexual orientation privileges as people who call themselves color-blind are about racism?

As an educator, I too want nothing more than to "create classrooms where each child, parent, and staff member...is appreciated and nurtured." And, only through education am I going to be able to help my school do that. I have read many works by some of the literary greats named in the article, not knowing (or caring) about their sexual orientation. Only in the past few years have I read literature about sexual orientation matters. My 15 y.o. daughter gave me the YA novel Love Simon, suggesting that it would help me to "get a clue." Then she prepared a list that I should read about teens expressing developmental frustrations regarding sexual orientation. 

As in the essay, I do believe that by "emphasizing empathy" we (educators) can talk about controversial and other sensitive issues with youth. "Community is built by working through differences" in any relationship and societies and schools are just networked relationships.  To empathize comes easily because, as pointed out in the text, we need to invite youth to voice their needs for social changes. Some of the examples given, "don't line bys separate from girls," "include books written by LGBTQ+ (about LGBTQ+)," refer to "parents instead of mother and father," and bring in guest speakers who are well educated on the topic, and or can share personal experiences about the topic. In doing so, schools can also bring their own staff to "come out," or have parents visit without hiding same-sex partners or their queerness to concur with the main idea that "A school that's a protective community for LGBTQ adults is a school that's going to be safe for [all] kids."

The article Being There for Nonbinary Youth Sometimes the "T" in LGBTQ  gets overlooked expresses what has seemed to be most difficult to have a conversation about, transgenedered people. I learned a lot of my ignorance in my own reflection of this piece. What does Eli mean that he's "cisgender?" And, Eli assuming one thing about another person because of the person's physical characteristics and demeanor, as Eli thinking that his "big red truck with a gun rack on it" driving principal would be least empathic about Eli's sexual status, would be something I'd think of a person described this way.

The most important point made by the piece is that there needs to be a reflection of oneself for one to know that the future holds a place for one to feel welcomed and understood.  "When kids like me grow up, ther's an adult version of me doing what everybody else does....there for me to see and know that there's a place for me to walk when I get older...Not letting kids see that can give them a subliminal sense that there is dead end to their identity..."  It's no different than a Black or Colored student wanting to read about his/her cultural experiences by people who share the same culture. "With every sex class we have that's not inclusive, and every English class where there's no inclusive literature, there's another trans kid that feels alone."

I will soon be watching the documentary It's Elementary to see about learning more about how to address the issue of inclusivity and the LGBTQ community in my school. 

 Mean time, his was helpful and it's something I'll play to invite students to talk about sex orientation.

I have a lot to learn about preferences of pronounce as much as of sexual orientation being half a century old, and not knowing of many bold people as I see and meet regularly today. However, I am open to learn, and I believe that People are People  so I make room for them at my office, classroom and as guests at my home. "Making this effort validates young people's core identity and solidifies their safety."

 

Talking About it

What I have in mind for this project. 

 The activity in mind is a student and educators conversation about Equity, Race & Privilege. Among the articles, I want to use Johnson’s Power & Privilege; The Four I’s & Delpit’s Other People’s Children. What most resonated with me is Delpit’s cynical work because it is about much of the struggles we faceas educators, wanting to change what’s unjust but, going with the flow or “status quo” instead because we don’t know how to effectively change what's unjust. Lisa Delpit's great stance is that "if we are truly to effect societal change, we cannot do it from the bottom up [administration or educational systems to teachers of children and students themselves], but we must push and agitate from the top down" (p. 40). Delpit's strong argument for thus change is to focus more consideration of other's cultural assets to then consider how to teach effectively. "I suggest that the differing perspectives on the debate over "skills" versus "process" approaches can lead to an understanding of the alienation and miscommunication, and there to an understanding of the "silenced dialogue" (p.24). Not considering the other's culture is a main "Issue of power in the classrooms" one of the five aspects that Delpit refers to in what she calls "the culture of power." 

 Thus is whom I want to interest 

I have been in discussion groups with other educators from the Providence Schools District; and gave volunteered to be the Equity Ambassador at my school to meet with other Equity Leadership/Ambassadors to grow conversations about Equitable Education in Providence (and beyond) by bringing PDs to staff. I plan to discuss with a group of students (SBG) and regulars at Book Club to bring up good texts to build better conversations that will include the students’ thoughts and concerns about Equity. 

 Format I think will work. 

 I will be working with a class of about 20-25 students to discuss Equity. From my own readings of texts, from this course, Mark Anthony Gooden’s Five Practices for Equity-Focused School Leadership; and Gholdy Muhammad's literature on the 5 Pursuits of teaching which is just a guide to teaching to students' strengths as people with backgrounds and community understanding so that they can express their natural intelligences while sharpening academic skills.

 I will produce a slide deck to distribute to a Google Classroom where I will post excerpts for this student body to read and answer the essential question, What is Equity in Education? And other guiding questions about each piece. The passages won’t be long (considering Ss’ attention spans) but they will be a few (@ 10).

 From our conversations about the texts, we will draw a slide deck (my thoughts will be the Ss’ guide for them to add/edit) and add small group activities using Human race (to do some kinesthetic visual with S.C.W.A.A.M.P.) & Jamboard to discuss excerpts from the research authors’ texts. I liked the way Lesley collaged the excerpts on a slide last week; so I may borrow that instead of just the Jamboard frames per group, or do both. 

To start, the Take A Stand activity is great. I also really like the idea of doing a Start & finish line to separate Ss (then they’ll do it with the teachers, compare finish line ) each acronym of S.C.W.A.A.M.P. The participants move to a new line if they relate to the term. ex, Move up one line if you are American" and have “What does it mean in Education & life in America?” conversations. 

How I want to end, is by having the students listen to each groups’ takeaways from the readings & activities to post on a shared document for the school body.

 After the PD, I’ll have to celebrate the students’ with a dinner party. 

American Assimilation

 This week what has most jumped out for me is others' feelings toward assimilation to American societal values.

In Richard Rodriguez' s piece Aria, the narration reveals his coming to terms with his bilingual experience, "I would have been happier about my public success had I not sometimes recalled what it had been like earlier, when my family had conveyed its intimacy through a set of conveniently private sounds" (p.38. p.2). He, like I, probably never saw a teacher present a board as I set for my Hispanohablantes in classes he attended to facilitate his learning. And, in all sincerity, all of this studying reminds me of how important it is to help non-Hispanohablantes also feel as welcome in my classroom.

This language that Rodriguez proposed as one's home language being "private" and English being the "public" language is easily understood as English seems to have become the formal language (informally) of many countries, even of the United States where few others are heard without criticism.

 At a young age I had decided to  master the English language because my folks, Mama especially, was intimidated by it, learning it, expressing the English she learned so much that her four children spoke to one another in the new language and -much like Rodriguez' mother - Mama also "grew restless, seemed troubled and anxious at the scarcity of words exchanged [with her] in the house."  However, in my case, although Mama's voice was also the "public voice for the family" and always called Mama, she became bitter from being left out. That's how I feel now knowing how many years she has lived listening and learning English to change so little of her home language use and accent.  Perhaps it's much easier for me to relate to Rodriguez' anecdotes as I also felt as if  "I didn't even pay much attention to my parents' accented and ungrammatical speech," until "I was out in public" with them.  

While I do agree with Rodriguez' claim that English is the public language, I hadn't felt that "I couldn't believe that the English language was mine to use" (p.34. p3) which probably caused the silent phase he describes. I had to use it or feel less than. I think this is what many others who came to this country probably believe and it led them to not teaching their own children their country languages. I have met many Italo-Americans who don't speak Italian although they were raised by their Nonas and many Latin-American people raised by their abuelas who do not speak Spanish.  English represents a political and social power. I wanted it as many others determined to learn it for a "better life."

Telling of his struggles communicating with the nuns who educated him in his youth contrasted much with Xavier Pierce's anecdotes about Aaliyah in the piece I read last week in which Pierce spoke of the strength of not assimilating or being required to. Rodriguez' nun teachers came to his home to reinforce and ask his parents to "encourage your children to practice their English when they are home" (p.35. p4). Pierce wanted to return to educate where he was educated because although there were cultural differences, they were not quite barriers to growing to be secure in one's identity while comfortable in the new culture; and I like Pierce conclusion that educators seem to understand "Building spaces that are inclusive is not one size fits all. It took generations to build these expectations, and my hope is that it does not take as many to shift them in a way that welcomes learners of all walks of life."  This somewhat connects to Delpi's argument that teachers are responsible for students' empowerment in using their cultural assets and understanding the social codes. While there are many teachers today who are "unsentimental about their responsibility" (p. 34. P3).

In the same vein, Rodriguez' reflexive conclusion asserts that multilinguals' languages should be respected as assets, an argument I stand closeby now that I also understand "that there are two ways a person is individualized" (p.39). So, it drove me to reading his original memoir. That aside, Rodriguez conclusion connected to Virginia Collier's piece Teaching Multilingual Children.

Although Virginia Collier posed a distinct counter argument to Rodriguez' Aria about language, they do concur that one's first language serves to better help develop the learning of a second or new language. when she states that "One must teach in two languages, affirm the cultural values of both home and school...respect and affirm the multiple varieties and dialects represented" (Otto led2004. Tongue-tied. p.222. P4). As the video encourages on the use of translanguaging strategies.

References:

Pierce, Xavier. If I Could Rewind That Morning - Rethinking Schools

Rodriguez, Richard. (1982). "Aria: Memory of a bilingual childhood.  Hunger of memory. The education of Richard Rodriguez.  Collins.

2-sided Oppression

 I got into If I Could Rewind That Morning by Xavier Pierce on the Rethinking Schools site.   I wanted more details than "I wanted to save her....I don't know what was said...I failed her." Especially, since the rest of the passages communicates how for the narrator the school he returned to work at  "created spaces where wonder and self-identity are married with rigor and high expectations for learning. I remember coming home in 1st grade to talk to my family about the meaning of metacognition as a result of a well-facilitated discussion about the importance of artist statements. The overall atmosphere of this school brought me back as an adult. I recognized the impact that the school had on me and the ideas I carried throughout my life and I wanted to be a part of that." 

What the narrator sees as bullying is vague, and not thoroughly illustrated and gave me the sense that since he was okay and returned to the school to work knowing he's one of "two specks of color in the field of white"  that Aaliyah would be alright too.

I browsed for two hours during the span of three days but returned to the - Teaching for Black Lives in a Rebellion recorded Zoom from 2021. I hadn’t immediately gone to it because the book discussed, Teaching for Black Lives, is on my to-read list. Given the events and movements that birthed the book, I speculate on much of its content. But, I want to get into the book without others’ ideas.  "Affirm our Black students"- Jesse Hagopian, is the strongest message of the panel's discussion. As an ELA teacher,at a large urban school populated by 82% Latinos and 14% African-American, the time is always right for that. Changing the "African-American" term to represent Black people in this country is also long overdue.

The image conveys what Peirce referenced in his article - the "Normal" schooling. This immage, presented on the Zoom during this chat, resonated with me because it took me to reflect on my positionality, how early in my academics I was a student bestowed a scholarship to attend a choice school out of my neighborhood to one where lawns were mowed and houses spread long not high; and I looked into different shades of green and blue eyes looking back at me while they touch my hair I did not ask if I could touch their hair fluffed with the breeze. We talked about us, our foods, and why I didn't have a pet dog. I learned that not everybody had arroz con pollo for dinner. The time I attended that school expanded my worldview during childhood. It wasn't all fair; but I'm grateful for that time and those other curious kids I met who taught me to think differently and otherly; they learned from me too - which hopefully still lingers.

As Dyan Watson stated during the Zoom, "What a privilege it is to learn alongside our students." Honest reflection teaches us to take note of what is as ugly as the acts of policing Black bodies, even while on Zoom meetings, as the pandemic presented, which the Teaching for Black Lives Rebellion Zoom panel discussed brought me to think about. "Black bodies are under attack...and it is incumbent upon educators to see what the national picture looks like in terms of violence against our Black students," was another great point brought up by Hagopian in his description of the event of an eleven-year-old girl being thrown against a wall by a White SAO for a milk carton it turned out she never even took, led me into a rabbit hole.  First, I remembered the many videos of violent adult-on-children incidents like these I watched on Instagram while in quarantine. Then, scrolling through X, there are numerous posts of students fighting against one another (which is not new). But, now I recognize the side effects of brutality being normalized and how it conditions young people to react with physical action to express emotional upsets, as well as the rolling out of restorative justice practices without appropriate consequences.  Covertly, this to me was another great point brought about in the panel discussion. It feels to me that there is no adequate appropriation of consequences because of the lack of community building between races back during the integration of schools. The lack of conversations, organization, and humane conditioning (of how to trust how to share, and how to love one another) was all bottlenecked and is still fizing as we see in these horrific accounts.

Because I work with a large population of colored students, I feel as a mother hen, always coming from the offensive in my positionality in relation to my White staff.  We do all get along, yet there is a guard I carry because I often hear an off-hand remark to which I have to respond in defense of my students, to check the teacher. I look forward to the day I don't feel the need or desire to wear these shirts.

The Rethinking Schools website is now bookmarked on my account and I subscribed to its magazine. I also scrolled through the book titles and read some synopsis to jot another two titles on my to-read list. I am glad to have Rethinking Schools as a resource for my work as Equity Leader and to spark conversations about racial Justice.

References:

Teaching for Black Lives During the Rebellion (youtube.com)

From Delpit's "Silenced Dialogue"

 

I had to mull around the belief that "Those with power are frequently least aware of its existence" (p.24). Because, especially when it comes to schools and the classrooms, rules set in place are by the administrators and/ or teachers, seldom by students who most probably don't get to have a voice when it comes to the "publishers of textbooks and of the developers of the curriculum to determine the view of the world presented" as Delpit makes clear. If the students' voices are not echoed in these choices and rules, how then can the decision makers not be aware of their power over the children? Too often I have walked by a classroom and overheard the teacher's tone be more than instructional, totally taking advantage of his/her authority before I intervene with a reminder to rationalize and consider another (the youth's) position.

Lisa Delpit's great stance is that "if we are truly to effect societal change, we cannot do it from the bottom up [administration or educational systems to teachers of children and students themselves], but we must push and agitate from the top down" (p. 40).

Delpit's strong argument for thus change is to focus more consideration of other's cultural assets to then consider how to teach effectively. "I suggest that the differing perspectives on the debate over "skills" versus "process" approaches can lead to an understanding of the alienation and miscommunication, and there to an understanding of the "silenced dialogue" (p.24). Not considering the other's culture is a main "Issue of power in the classrooms" of the five aspects that Delpit refers to in what she calls "the culture of power."

When my son was still 4 in kindergarten, I was called to the principal's office. I thought my son had done something severe that he wouldn't tell me about for a request for me to come in to be made.

"He's talking out of turn and easily distracts the others from their work," is what the principal wanted to tell me, deemed important for me to take action of by his classroom teacher.

It had only been a few weeks of school which met half-days (8-11:30). Give me a fuckung break, is what I thought. But I explained to the principal that Gabriel hears everyone in the house talking at the same time while there is music playing loudly and he plays with his cousins, never being asked to be quiet - a cultural thing probably making him feel it's too quiet and still in Miss X's classroom, where none look like him. I tried to make this clear to his teacher after school. In didn't want my son awkwardly silenced. He was going to be 5 in November and knew his shapes, colors, alphabet and numbers. He was writing his first and last name and could tell his house phone and address. He also could share and say "Excuse me" and "Thank you" before asking questions and after receiving a response. He had learned that at home, less for her to have to teach him. I learned to choose my battles.

I grew up being taught by non-colored, I learned about cultural customs and values of the Polish, Irish, English and Canadian-French from them as they didn't "deny me access [of themselves] as a source of knowledge" (p. 32) for me to understand their perspectives. I don't remember being asked about my culture much, although they all seem to respect it. So, they learned little from me and only after I was in early adulthood did I get to name that ache of something missing, which was wanting these teachers I admired to understand that My name is not funny, although I like you calling me Nikki; I don't make those sounds at home; I never knew Cristobal Colon was Christopher and a savior of the new world; and that I go home for a warm lunch and an episode of Chespirito before Math class. But, experiencing this lack makes me keen to exercise patience in trying to learn from others and consider their cultural assets as well as age.

This in itself is a way to continue constructing Interpersonal oppression, where the newcomers (from other countries) "feel diminished" as they are asked to value "the culture of power" Delpit expressed and their own cultural values are not even questioned.

The language becoming familiar to what Delpit explains in Other People's Children is Cultural and Historical Responsiveness. These terms (which are being discussed at professional developments country-wide) connects to Dr. Gholdy Muhammad's literature on the 5 Pursuits of teaching which is just a guide to teaching to students' strengths as people with backgrounds and community understanding so that they can express their natural intelligences while sharpening academic skills. Both authors' literatures support the main point that while teaching, if one uses texts that reflect children's identity and encourages their criticality, one can bring joy to children's learning.

In my own classroom, I try to reciprocate being a source by sharing my experiences and asking about theirs. Often thus happens when there's a reference or an allusion to an event or person far from their time and place (ex. 9/11 or Elvis). Sharing what one knows can better lead them to connect to a familiarity. This puts me in the spectrum of advocacy and self-reflection.

Out of kindheartedness, many teachers do claim "colorblindness." I myself used to think, well that is an awesome outlook or attitude when I heard White peers say "I want the same thing for everyone's children as I want fir mine" (p. 28) because I thought this meant that these teachers would allow students to use their primary language to learn without judgements, and explain the true history of how something became part of an unjust system in America (like Black being a race). Only in my recent academic pursuits am I realizing that "Colorblindness is the New Racism" (Deconstructing Privilege, 2013). In this essay authors Margalynne J. Armstrong and Stephanie M. Wildman make the strong point that "Seeking colorblindness means Whites fail to see how whiteness has privileged them in so many societal interactions. Endorsing colorblind ideology allows White individuals to express egalitarian principles while still enjoying a status quo that advantages them relative to people of color. This white privilege will continue because a colorblind present does not erase the modern-day effects of racism and white privilege" (p. 66).  My new understanding is that White peers do want to build rapport with others without acknowledging that many injustices are still in place by using their colorblindness as a bookmark of the denial White Privilege because "the culture of power is already in place" (Delpit, p.28).

References: 

“colorblindness is the new racism”: Raising awareness about privilege using color insight. (2013). Deconstructing Privilege, 62–79. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203081877-12

Delpit, L. (1995). Other people’s children: Cultural conflict in the classroom. New York: The New Press.

The four “i”s of oppression. (n.d.). https://www.trec.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/The-Four-Is-of-Oppression-v821.pdf

YouTube. (2016, November 19). Peanuts’ teacher calls out Charlie Brown & Linus - “Wah Wa Wa Wah Wa Wa” - 1969. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxC_AjFxS68