Response to "A Conversation w/ Lisa Delpit"

I think that this article covers a lot of topics that need to be addressed between teachers, students and parents. Specifically, I find that Delpit's ideas about culture within writing might be controversial to some, but can be very helpful to others. She emphasized that people write differently from each other in order to better communicate, but this is because of our different experiences and backgrounds. She then went on to explain that many teachers expect less from students because of their own personal situations, such as poverty, or because they aren't up to the same standards as the rest of their class, or other kinds of set backs. Throughout the article, Delpit makes the point that teachers should use techniques and methods that focus on what students need to learn and know within their writing. She also speaks about how teachers, students, and parents should communicate with one another in order to find out what those needs are. She explains that some students may need more help than others, a point with which I completely agree. Upon reading Delpit's conversation, I agreed with many of the remarks she made. I think they could really be useful with childrens' learning experiences of writing, especially students who come from such diverse standpoints and cultures.

Response to "A Conversation"

I thought Lisa Delpit’s idea of teaching from a standpoint of the “culture of power” was an idea that most don’t think about when thinking about the equality of education. I had never really given this topic much thought, coming from a small town that was not very diverse, but I think she raises a good point. Many teachers are very systematic and teach by the book, or so to speak, instead of creating their lessons according to the abilities of their learners. There is an assumed cultural understanding that young students are thought to have, and in many cases, do not. It should not be the case that minority students are more susceptible to fall behind academically because the majority of teachers, Caucasian females, only fully understand their own culture. Classrooms should be more universal and revolve around the students’ needs to give everyone a fair shot at academic success.