Cultural Conflict in the Classroom

When reading "The Silenced Dialogue" by Lisa Delpit many things crossed my mind. Did different teaching styles really impact children of different races and cultural backgrounds? These are things you never really think about while you are sitting in a classroom listening to the teacher, but they are things you need to think about when you are standing at the front of a classroom teaching other students. The term the "silenced dialogue" refers to how white people in the education field do not always listen to those of the African American culture. It states the fact that we silence the people that realize something is different for certain children and they need to do something to fix the issue at hand. Every day there are classrooms full of students of mixed races and some children may not be getting the attention and respect that they deserve from teachers.

In the first day of my internship at a Providence Elementary School, I have seen teachers that give their all to children 6 hours a day 5 days a week and it was so good and heart warming to see. Teachers more so now a days are placing their children in groups based on knowledge of certain materials and have a teacher or teaching aid with them going over material that they need to know in order to move on in their education. The classrooms that I will be in and very mixed and it is something I have not been used to and accustomed to. I grew up in a neighborhood where every house looked the same, all the families were white, and we all did the same things each and every day.

The few things that really stood out to me were when the author said, " It is not they, the children, who must change, but the schools. To push children to do anything else is repressive and reactionary." I think it is very easy to put the blame on people when we are not in the situation. It is easy to silence people when they say things that we as people do not want to hear. We put a stop to them and block them out so we can go on living life they way we want, in denial. Teachers are the ones that are in charge of changing the racism and teaching tactics in the classroom.