5/29 Delpit, "The Silenced Dialogue: Power and Pedagogy in Educating Other People's Children;"

Talking Points

1. "Why don't those people say what they mean?" as well as "What's wrong with them, why don't they understand?"(Delpit, p. 25)

 -These quotes say a lot. How are the minority cultures supposed to understand if no one is teaching or telling them about the "codes" needed to succeed in the upper-middle-class classroom of the culture that is in power? They do understand their families, friends, and neighbors. Not being told implicitly what the rules are makes it wrong. That puts students from other cultural backgrounds at a disadvantage in society.

2. "But that's the school's job." What the school personnel fail to understand is that if the parents were members of the culture of power and lived by its rules and codes, then they would transmit those codes to their children (Delpit, p.30) 

 -Children from marginalized and underrepresented communities  who do not live by the culture of power will NOT have those unspoken codes automatically transmitted to them. They will have to work harder for everything, often working twice as hard to achieve success.

 3."It's really a shame but she (that black teacher upstairs) seems to be so authoritarian, so focused on skills and so teacher directed. Those poor kids never seem to be allowed to really express their creativity. (And she even yells at them.)"(Delpit p.33) 

-Snow and other authors say that working-class mothers use a more direct approach when giving directives, whereas middle-class mothers ask more questions and use an indirect approach. I agree with these findings. As a person of color, I find myself being direct with the youth I serve.

 Delpit's Argument: When teaching other people's children, you have to be mindful of the privileges that you have been granted. Delpit argues that success in the classroom is rooted in the culture of those in power.

 

5/27 Colorblindness is the New Racism By: Maralynne J. Armstrong and Stephanie M. Wildman

 

One of the most overlooked aspects of privilege is not noticing it: color blindness. 1. “pervasive, structural, and generally invisible” (Law, 1999, p. 604). Many white individuals, without even realizing it, benefit from a world built to make them comfortable. They can walk through life without constantly thinking about their skin color, without second-guessing how they’ll be perceived or treated because of it.  Whites seeing race is merely noticing their whiteness; they need to learn about its accompanying privilege. (Case, Iuzzini, & Hopkins,2012) That alone is a privilege—being able to just be. To exist freely without the weight of race on your shoulders.  Being aware of privileges, color insight is a step towards white individuals recognizing that they have privileges that people of color do not.

2. “The white person has an everyday option not to think of herself in racial terms at all” (‘Flagg,1993, p. 969). As a person of color, I don’t get that luxury. Race is something I’m aware of daily, whether I want to be or not. It's not that I wake up and think, “Today I’m going to experience racism.” It's more subconscious. It's in how I prepare myself for meetings, making sure I am presentable and pleasing to the public. How I used to drive home from work and get stopped by the cops for no reason, or how my tone is interpreted as aggressive when I'm just being direct. How I interact in stores, being pleasant to the cashiers and customers alike.  How I carry myself in public spaces, period. I often feel like I have to work twice as hard just to be seen as equal.  Even in my current position, I see my supervisors' biases, especially in how they overlook certain behaviors from leadership, like tardiness or questionable decisions, without holding them accountable. As I prepare for a supervisory role, if I do the job to the best of my potential and fall in some areas, I hope to be treated with the same grace.

3. After President Obama, commentators described the US society as “post-racial” as if the election of a black man to President meant no more conversations about race were needed. (Colorblindness is the New Racism, Armstrong, and Wildman). Police brutality seemed to intensify after President Obama was elected. While many of us celebrated a major milestone for Black Americans, others saw it as a threat. I can’t help but feel that the rise in police violence against young Black people like Trayvon Martin  (13 years ago) wasn’t just random—it felt like a backlash, as if success for Black people meant failure for white people, which was never the case. We just meant that Black Lives Matter, TOO, in addition to white lives and all other lives.

That’s part of what makes this experience so exhausting. We’re always on alert. Meanwhile, many white individuals only seem to think about race when we’re around. But I sometimes wonder if they really care?

Privilege is simple: the ability to exist without your race being questioned. That’s something everyone should get to experience at some point in their lives.

5/22 Teaching for Social Justice

In a previous class I read about how classrooms were being considered a school-to-prison pipeline. School was where teachers and students alike were told what to do and when to do it. Rethinking what the classroom looks and feels like is something from the future, which is now. After reading Introduction: Creating Classrooms for Equity and Social Justice, I see that change is coming. Change is here—change for the better in classrooms universally. 

1.      "A social justice curriculum must strive to include the lives of all those in our society, especially the marginalized and dominated." This quote resonates with me because I have worked with school-age youth and see the disparity in their treatment, most likely due to implicit bias (unconsciousbias) amongst employees. I believe training is needed to see ALL the youth equally.

2.      “Curriculum should be rooted in children’s needs and experiences.” I work in a role caring for youth. The youth I served were always upset, crying, and sad, but after we built relationships with them and learned their wants and needs, the classroom became a safe space and a soft place to land when they were feeling down, unregulated, or angry.

3.      “The ways we organize classroom life should seek to make children feel significant and cared about.” We, as educators and youth workers, don’t know what happens in a youth's home life, so we should do whatever we can to make them feel significant and cared for in our presence.  We should bring kindness, softness, and our hearts to work each day to brighten up someone’s day who might not be having a good one.

 Argument Statement: Educators and youth workers can encourage growth in young people.

 

5/20 About Me

Hi, my name is Tracy. I am a wife, mother, sister, daughter, and a good friend to many. I just walked across the Murray Center stage to receive my Master's in Youth Development. My educational journey has been long, and I am proud to have undertaken it.

                                  

           

                                             
                  

I currently work at the Boys & Girls Club of East Providence as the site director for Oldham (PREK) Elementary  School. I will start a new position as the childcare director in June. I am both excited and nervous about beginning this journey. 

My current hobby is resting.💤Because I work two jobs, am finishing school, and am starting a new position, I lie down and relax every time I get a chance.