The Silenced Dialougue: Power and Pedagogy in Educating Other People's Children

This author Lisa Delpit argues that the white liberal education system is the uniform structure that teaches a certain formula which is only successful for a particular group of students. She describes a scenario of two different types of lifestyles for two different children and how it translates to learning and succeeding in a classroom setting. Delpit describes one boy being told to get in the tub and another child being posed a question closer to to tune of "are you ready for bed?." She says that these two different ways of being a parent create an authoritative form of direction showing them a passive way of being instructed and a direct way. She claims that this causes the child under the more direct influence of being told what to do as a problem when the liberal form of education that is typically in charge usually asks students to complete tasks or assignments passively. The minority groups do not understand that this is a direction and not a question because it is not how they learned to respect an adult or follow instruction. Delpit also describes the apparent issue of the linguistics of the educational structure by having "one way of reading and writing". She says that students must be taught this way to understand it completely and when they don't it's the fault of the education system and not the student- she says most teachers do not take responsibility for this and they ignore the student who needs help instead of taking initiative and trying to fix the problem at hand. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzBbZRtPuUs

Jonathan Kozol - Amazing Grace - Argument

Jonathan Kozol argues that the conditions of the individuals he reports on is detremental to the community and the lives of children. The author paints the picture of a little seven year old boy named Cliffie who has a child like wonder to him although he has seen the detrimental effects of an area stricken by poverty, drug use, disease and prostitution. The same area was seen through the eyes of Alice Washington, an older woman, who experienced a segregated and low poverty life. Eventually she arrived where she resides in the South Bronx where you may have to wait 3 days in a hospital waiting room. The author's main point circles around the unfair determination in which SSI is provided to people and how they declare if you are "sick enough" to receive benefits. Ms. Washington had cancer and three surgeries resulted from it; she tested positive for HIV and became sick enough to not hold down food or even eat at all. SSI did not deem her sick enough to receive help. Kozol meets with Lawrence Mean, a professor of political science at New York University who says "if poor people behaved rationally they would seldom be poor for long in the first place." But the story depicted by the author in regards to Ms. Washington does not describe her as irrational, it describes her as a destitute mother and woman who has not had the benefit of a blessed life through no fault of her own but the failure of the system of government that doesn't provide to people who need it. Cliffie's story is seen through the eyes of a child who has matured beyond his seven years of age by the destruction he has witnessed around him. He smiles at a tree named for lives lost and takes the author to a waste incinerator where he reports the limbs and body parts of other departed people who are burned away. The smell of the incinerator matches the words the boy relays. The sadness of the maturity and happiness of the boy in such a hard situation is apparent and relates to another argument the author states as a main concern for many people in the community- Why are so many children bearing witness to this horrible condition of existence?

The healthcare of the community is minimal to none- with three options to hospitals in the surrounding area one of them is so bad that a nurse at Harlem carries a card in her wallet asking not to be taken to Harlem in a state of emergency. With these conditions in any community there is no growth or room for improvement. The more it is ignored the more we see the next generation graduating to the same dreary fate. Some hold onto hope like Cliffie who is not too young to be victim but lucky enough to have avoided a personal experience but will likely loose his hopeful demeanor with his own demise one day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnLkT-PQZZ4

About Me

My name is Amanda and I started attending RIC last Spring after transferring from CCRI with my Associates in Fine Arts. I was originally going to aim for a BFA but decided having a BS in Art Education would be much more applicable and rewarding to a future career. Art was never a love for me until I was introduced to it through my high school teacher and ever since that senior year in high school I found an outlet that never left me. The inspiration of what my teacher awoke in me made me want to be that same model for someone else. This class has been an eye- opener to the struggles of education that children face and I feel that learning about it will help give teachers new ways to restructure a classroom. I benefit from the in class discussions and readings we have and hope to learn more!