Other People's Children

There were many passages in Other People’s Children that stood out and made me reevaluate my philosophy on teaching and where my preconceived ideas were coming from. This book allowed me to step back and think from a completely new perspective about teaching and the effect my teaching style and philosophy would have on students from different cultures. The part of the book that made me sad was that it seems like teachers are not open to new approaches to teaching and feel that the liberal constructivist approach is best and there are no alternatives. Lisa Delpit says “Educators must open themselves to, and allow themselves to be affected by, these alternative voices” (Delpit, 46). This is a key point, now that educators have read this book they need to open themselves up to different teaching strategies and realize that all students, just as liberal theory suggests, need individualized teaching and part of that is related to their culture. Delpit also states that these changes need to happen not only from the bottom-up but more importantly from the top-down. It is the administrators and superintendents that have the cultural power, and they can and must initiate the change in the classrooms so that all students get the best education for themselves.

I feel that the author wants us to consider several key points in the first part of her book. First is that there are dominant cultures in America and the educational style that works for these children and leads to success in American society is what is taught in the schools. These students have the cultural capital to succeed and Delpit wants to make sure that all children in America get that opportunity. Secondly, this form of teaching does not work for all cultures and may have negative impacts for students of color; a key distinction is skills oriented vs. process oriented and also direct and indirect language. Delpit also wants educators to realize that these children need to opportunity to gain the skills to compete in society but they should not be forced to loose their cultural diversity and language style. Lastly the author wants educators to be aware of these inequalities and help to make a change by being open to alternative forms of teaching.

A lot of what I have read in Other People’s Children will influence my teaching style. I will be more aware how culture influences students learning styles and try to teach each child in away that seems to work best for them, even if that means moving away from a liberal approach to teaching some of the time. I think it will be interesting to work with a classroom with mixed cultures and trying to find a happy medium of direct and indirect language that works for all students. I was always aware that teaches needed to think about their students’ cultural background but before this book I did not realize how drastic learning styles could be depending on a child’s upbringing. That idea will be very helpful and useful when I am teaching.