Other People's Children

“For many who consider themselves members of liberal or radical camps, acknowledging personal power and admitting participation in the culture of power is distinctly uncomfortable.”

A good friend on mine recently returned from Uganda where she lived and worked for two years.  She has changed.  The idea that the privileged have the benefit of not seeing their privilege comes up frequently in our conversations about her time there.  When I read this quote, it spoke to me because it’s much closer to home.  I was comfortable talking about my friend’s privilege in Uganada and our privileges as Americans, but this reading helped me realize that these ideas are much deeper and more connected to daily life.  Delpit wants her readers to think about power, whether you have it or not, and the ways your power unconsciously effects your actions.  As a white, upper class, educated woman, I have privilege and power, especially in a predominately white, wealthy city that still feels segregated.  White people don’t have to learn how to “pass” in white society.  While reading this text and another of Delpit’s books, “The Skin that we Speak” I think about bell hooks and her idea that black children, especially girls, have to learn how to be a million different people, depending on the situation they are in.  All school is a dual education of explicit and implicit knowledge, but for some, the implicit is much more challenging because it has more controversial origins. 

I think Delpit is incredibly smart because she is answering questions that I have been too afraid to ask directly.  I see myself as a liberal educator and it is uncomfortable for me to think about having power and to realize that some of my ideas about education, that I cherish so dearly, are exclusive.  It is reassuring in some ways as well, because she explains that in a classroom, there is a wide variety of culture and some of those children need to learn survival skills as well as other things.  It’s humbling—I have so much to learn.

Delpit re-enforces the idea that learning should be reciprocal.  Teachers need to listen to their students so they know who their students are.  To be truly progressive, a teacher must find a way to balance the needs of the classroom while still creating a community.