"...a black mother, in whose house I was recently a guest, said to her eight year old son, 'Boy, get your rusty behind in that bathtub.' Now, I happen to know that this woman loves her son as much as any mother, but she would never have posed the directive to her son to take a bath in the form of a question...Consequently, as Heath suggests, upon entering school the child from such a family array not understand the indirect statement as a direct command. Both white and black working-class children in the communities Heath studied 'had difficulty interpreting these indirect requests for adherence to an unstated set of rules."(Delpit 34)Lisa Delpit wrote a piece titled. Other People's Children, in order to discuss a theme that she labeled the "culture of power". Delpit describes the "culture of power" to be a a set of five issues which highlight "silenced dialogue" which provide members of the middle to upper class with cultural capital in schools. One of the aspects of "culture of power" which Delpit focuses on is interactional styles between teachers and students. She claims that teachers carry into their classrooms interactional styles from their home life. She goes on to make the claim that people from the middle and upper classes introduce discipline and generally communicate to their children indirectly as a way to de-emphasize power. Members of the working class, on the other hand, are generally much more direct with directions to their children. Like seen in the quote above, a mother from the working class would be more likely to form a direction as a demand such like, "Boy, get your rusty behind in that bathtub" where a mother from the middle or upper class would be more inclined to state the direction as a question such like, "would you like to take your bath now?". This large gap of interactional styles has a strong impact on students who are placed in classrooms with a teacher of a different social background.
There are an overwhelming number of teachers from the middle class who use indirect directions with their students and expect all students to obey equally. This places students who are raised under a more direct and demanding authority at a very strong disadvantage. Unfortunately, children who do not understand these forms of directions are often confused as being disobedient. What Delpit is trying to show here is that the "culture of power" of indirect interactional styles places children from working class families at a disadvantage in the classroom. While students of the middle and upper class take to these passive directions better than others, the example quoted above exemplifies that interpreting indirect demands are more difficult for any student and that all would prefer direct, clear, demands. It is the responsibility of all teachers to become aware of "rules and codes of power" such as their personal interactional styles and work to determine ways that are unbias for students of all backgrounds, classes, and cultures. In this particular instance, Delpit claims that the best way for teachers to provide their students with directions is to use authority; to give clear, direct, demands.
During my very first visit of my service learning project I was able to decipher between teachers who are clear and direct with their students from teachers who are cruel and demoralizing. Because the school's reading coach, who was also my supervisor, was absent on the day of my first visit, I was asked to observe a random second grade classroom. As soon as I walked into the room I noticed that the students desks were set up in groups of four to six except for one boy, who was placed alone in the front and center of the room. I also noticed that all of the students in the class were talking amongst one another and settling down from recess while the boy sitting alone was staring relentlessly at a worksheet. When the teacher of the class, Ms. Brown, began showing me some of the student work, she explained that the the boy sitting alone, named Kyle, is very behind in his literacy skills. She even claimed that he is unable to write his own name, which is a skill that is available to most students of the kindergarten level. Soon after describing the constant struggle Kyle faces in her classroom, she loudly informed him from across the room that, "You do not have all day to do that worksheet. You have had that worksheet for thirty minutes; that is twenty more minutes longer than any other student". Though I was struck by her tone, I considered the possibility that I was unfamiliar with her teaching style. Approximately fifteen minutes later, Ms. Brown gave her students a spelling test. There were three columns on the test; each with a particular sound: Ae, Ay, and Ai. The students were not only asked to spell the given words (such as pie, clay, and stay) correctly, but they were also required to place the words in the correct column. Kyle looked very lost by the activity, which did not surprise me after hearing how behind his skills were from the rest of the class. After the forth or fifth word was orally given to the students, Ms. Brown noticed that Kyle was not writing any of the spelling words down. Instead, he endlessly stared at the blank worksheet in complete confusion. As a way to take charge of the situation, Ms. Brown stood over his isolated desk and demanded that he write down the word 'way'. "Write it; Write it Kyle; Write the word 'way' on the paper" she persisted in front of the rest of the class until Kyle completely gave up by putting his pencil down and covering his face with his hands in embarrassment. I believe that Ms. Brown definitely crossed the line between being clear to being mean. Because she had talked with me privately before this incident, I know that she is aware of Kyle's needs and skills. I feel as though Ms. Brown knew that Kyle truly did not understand how to complete the assignment and yet she pushed him to the point of humiliation. Humiliation and isolation are never productive ways to teach students and even though Lisa Delpit would agree that Ms. Brown provided Kyle with clear directions that he could understand, she was intentionally demanding that Kyle obey directions that he was incapable of.
ReplyDeletePowerful story. And I am not sure that Delpit would agree -- I think the teacher's instructions we not clear enough given the columns and such. In any case, we all agree that humiliation is never a good teaching tool!
ReplyDeleteWhat is more concerning is that the teacher being female humiliated and dominated a young male.This is contributing the the disengaging of our males both black and white from school. Their maleness and consciousness is being discouraged and demolished by a totally female dominated k12 system. Not enough is being discussed about this.
ReplyDelete