Other Peoples Children- Culture conflict in the classroom

 Hello bloggers, 

    This week I was able to read, "Other Peoples Children" by Lisa Delpit. This reading reveals the complex relationships between culture, power, and education, highlighting the firmly established but frequently unnoticed obstacles that keep minority children from succeeding in American classrooms. Delpit challenges us to reconsider what it means to teach and study in a truly equal setting by addressing the deep biases and beliefs in our educational system that support the dominant culture. serves as an important call to educators, legislators, and everyone else concerned with social justice to acknowledge and value the rich cultural diversity of every kid in our classrooms while also drawing light on the experiences and perspectives of students with disadvantages and their families. Delpit gives countless examples of teachers who believe that kids from lower-income families are stupid or disruptive when, in reality, they are only showing various ways of responding to and interacting with the content. Also, these children might not have learned the language at home as well as those from families with more money. After that, those students are ignored without ever having a fair chance.

    The main takeaway/message that I received from reading this was that students with disadvantages need to be taught how to thrive in the current social environment. With wanting to become an educator myself I believe that making sure you don't make assumptions and judge students off their background is important. Just because each of your students will be different doesn't mean that they deserve to be treated differently. Within a classroom setting a teachers job is to make all of your students succeed. Within my future classroom I think maintaining that mindset is very important. All students in a class have the right to be treated equally. I definitely found this story interesting to read, and also surprising. 

    Thank you for reading my blog #3, come back for the next one! 

- Maci Maiello