In the second half of Other Peoples Children, Delpit gives us a few snapshots in time and space in which she is participating in other cultures. During her stay in Alaska she was shown a different perspective of what it looks like for another culture to have to endure a new progressive approach to learning, and how it contradicted their cultural norms. Delpit has to look beyond her great wealth of cumulated knowledge to re-assess her role in relationship to the earth and her surroundings, a very humbling experience. When she visited Denali national park she talks about going to look at this "lifeless, inanimate mountain," she was stopped in her tracks when an older Aleut said to her "When you see the mountain, say "Hello Grandfather." The fact was brought up that this mountain had lived long before and would continue to live on long after. And to approach the mountain with due respect "a respect deserved for all it had seen." This made me immediately think of the Native American culture, and the mere fact that it and our inhabitants (especially in the Northwest) that we need to recognize that the culture and landforms were around long before us and they deserve respect. We are visitors, with a time expiration. That teaching and acknowledging culture is just not enough and to present others cultures as a foreign body is unacceptable. We must pay respect and learn to acknowledge it in the classroom daily.
That small section alone had so much in it to take away, chew on for a while and swallow. A lot of our attention around culture tends to lean towards immigrants (which we all are, or come from) while we sort of push to the side the native cultures we brush over. One of the passages on p.99 struck me, "Doing it was not sufficient; unless it was accompanied by words, it didn't count. How many times do we insist that children talk through some problem they have already solved? We think we are "checking for understanding," but could we merely be helping children to learn to ignore context? At first when I read this I thought to myself, wow this completely contradicts the way we are being taught to evaluate and discuss subjects, and then I went back to being a child, sitting at my desk, solving a math problem and my teacher asking me how I did it, I remember thinking, why? you don't believe that I did it? is it wrong? And it began the vicious cycle of questioning myself, which I tend to do constantly, especially with math to this very day!! Even when I know my answer is right. So on one hand I can relate to the frustration but I can also see how talking through a solution, piece of writing or any other subject could help to cement and idea and even help others to see through different perspectives.
The section really made me aware of knowing my students and how important it is for the individual and the whole class environment. I feel like I could be teaching in all the right ways, but if I have not connected to my students, all the good teaching goes under the carpet and all is lost. I know that in present time in our own class situations I feel like I know all of my professors and have made connections, thus in turn I try to put 110% of my time and effort into being respectful by coming to class, having the readings done and actively participating even when I am tired and feel beat down.
Aileen, I really liked your connection to the mountain portion of the book. When reading that part I was kind of taken back because I had never thought about nature that way, but after reading, it seems so obvious. I really like how the Aleut have a greeting for the mountain, it just continues the idea that everything around us is living and has a spirit.
ReplyDelete