Other Peoples Children - Cultural Conflict in the Classroom - Assignment Example

Introduction America is known as the land of liberty but the racial discrimination still exists in the American society. The education system holds a pivotal role in shaping up of the society. Racial discrimination has become such an integral part of the society that nobody realizes it but it keeps making the rift between the blacks and the whites wider. Other people’s children by Lisa Delpit, Critical Pedagogy: Notes from the real world by Joan Wink and Identifying race and transforming whiteness in the classroom by Virginia Lea and Judy Helfand - these three books elaborate on this theme and help us understand the situation in a better way. Other People's Children: Cultural Conflict in the Classroom This book is about the status of black students and black teachers. The author, Lisa Delpit uses the term minority but that basically refers to blacks. She says that the schools do not provide same opportunity to black children and this is not fair. She gives many examples to prove her point. First of all she proves that there is diversity in the classrooms today. Children from both white community and black or colored community are present in the classroom. This situation may create an illusion that education is available to all the children regardless of race or color. But when we look deeper, we find that there are many differences in the treatment of children based on their skin color. Much of this depends upon the teachers and that is why she dedicates one full chapter to the teachers and how they can make their work more effective. Children may not understand the intricacies of the education system but they are heavily influenced by the teachers. That makes teachers roles even more important. They need to understand the diversity that exists in the classroom and be very careful to provide equal opportunity to each and every child. While talking about the biases of the education system, she mentions the over-emphasis being given on raising the fluency of the black children. According to Delpit, fluency has never been the problem for black children. The way black children have been writing and singing rap songs is a proof that they are quite fluent. But somehow this issue has been coming up and doing more harm than good to the black children. Delpit feels that this is not only an eyewash being done by the system to give an impression that they are also concerned about the black children and by helping them improve their fluency, they are helping them to catch up with the whites. Since that is not their problem area, so improving that is not helping them and at the same time not trying to find the real problem area which according to her is the lack of skills, these children are actually left behind. In fact it looks like a conspiracy to keep the black children away from the dwindling job pool of the American market. Teachers should understand this and divert their efforts to improve the skill level of the black children. Her message to the teachers is that they need not just do their job mechanically but try to understand the children specially the minority children. They should identify their problem areas and help them overcome it. Delpit has shown in her book that the white teachers have a bias against black children. This bias can be seen in the parents and children also. The basic thing is that the entire curriculum is biased against the blacks. In the name of progressive education all they do is keep harping on improving the fluency of the black children and help them find their voice but none of these things are of any help and it actually keeps them deprived of the jobs. It is a conspiracy, according to her, to protect the jobs for their own children. This bias in the society has made the black teachers very bitter against the white teachers. This affects their attitude towards the black children. Delpit explains in her book that teachers have to be very careful about their attitude towards children. Although they need to be very considerate but if they become too friendly then they may loose their authority. Children expect a sense of authority in the teacher and that must not be lost in the effort of being caring towards the children. Black teachers should retain their authority and help the black children to come up and find their place the white people’s world. They should not become too hostile towards the education system and should not let it reflect in their attitude. They must also pay attention to the content of the curriculum and must make sure that poor black urban children are not left behind. But she is quite critical about the NCLB, No Child Left Behind, as she feels it gives too rigid a way to teach. Teachers should assess each child and identify his needs and adapt different strategies for different children. Identifying Race and Transforming Whiteness in the Classroom This book is a collection of essays written by twelve different writers. These writers come from various backgrounds from America and Canada. All these essays are about the feeling of whiteness that spreads across the society and finds its way in the classrooms as well. The experiences cover classroom practices in K-12 and college that have been developed to support their work. This provides deep insight into whiteness as a culture. Racism has gone deep inside the people’s minds. These writers coming from different backgrounds have different experiences to share and show that whiteness shows its face in many different ways. People’s thinking is totally influenced by the society. Educators can play the core role to change it. These writers have explained different pedagogies that they have developed and also tell how it helped them. The whiteness has a power that can be felt inside people’s minds and also seen outside in the society. This power creates disparities in the society and also in the education system. This book does not convert the injustice done by the group into individual fault. It does not attack ‘whites’ for all the biased thinking, instead it takes the responsibility of this injustice to ‘whiteness’. The concept of whiteness has been defined by as an outcome of the social practices, norms, values, knowledge etc. These collectively give an identity to the whites and put them at a higher level in the social hierarchy. This makes a disproportionate structure in the society where the power is controlled by the whites. This book may be called anti-white but it is compiled by two white women. This fact should be an appropriate answer to this criticism. Another criticism that the book faces is about the powerless whites. It has been pointed out by these critics that there is a segment of white people also who are powerless and poor. Nothing has been mentioned about their plight in this book. As mentioned earlier the book talks about the power of ‘whiteness’ and not the whites as individuals. The powerless segment of white people has its roots in other causes. Their existence is not an excuse to wash off the accumulation of power by the whites. These thought provoking essays help the teachers to understand the mindset of the classroom. When a white teacher reads this book, he can understand how a black student thinks about him. They may not have anything personally against the black children or a particular black child but it is due to the social phenomena that they carry a biased feeling against the ‘whiteness’ of the teacher. According to Barbara Applebaum, this concept is connected with other philosophical issues and has many moral responsibilities related with it. This behavior is both individual and collective. She uses the term ‘complicity’ instead of ‘racism’ as she finds it a lesser threatening term. We may use different words but the fact remains that social behavior and thinking pattern is dominated by whiteness. Critical Pedagogy: Notes from the real world This book by Wink hits out at the education system and also the white dominance. Critical pedagogy does not accept the traditions and beliefs embedded in education. In the multi-culture environment white dominance creates cultural conflict. By tradition, it has been accepted that white people are symbols of power. It may not be spelt out in that way but it reflects in many other ways. This books talks about learning, unlearning and relearning. In the context of white dominance, it becomes all the more important to unlearn all the traditional education. Our education system talks about learning and re-learning but unlearning is not in their curriculum. According to wink, unlearning is very important for change in the mindset. The behavior of white children and their ways of interaction with other racial children has the under currents of this social pattern of power. It is a kind of social oppression being promoted through education. The way history is written is guided by social thought patterns. They talk about the development of the human race from the angle of the whites. The entire history is presented in a way that projects the white race as superior to others and in many places it also assumes that the whites are the only ones that can be called humans. The depiction assumes that the story of civilization is actually the story of the whites. The reason behind this is that the education pattern has been designed by the whites in form of philosophers, scientists, anthropologists, theologians etc. They defined the meaning of civilization and the transition process from ‘the state of nature’ to ‘civilization’. This is the journey from ‘sub-human’ to ‘human’ according to them. It gave rise to the social contract and developed the concept of equality, democracy and freedom etc from their point of view. The traditional society believes in these theories as God-given rights that are restricted to certain races only. These should be God-given rights but without any restriction. When the rights of reading, writing and defining were restricted to only one race- the whites, they did so from their point of view. By not opposing this, the teachers not only deprive the other races from defining things from their point of view but they also deprive the whites from getting the information from someone else’s point of view. Our language has such overtones that convey assumed identities. “Others” need not always mean non-whites. The Third World need not always mean a certain set of countries. Wink emphasizes the importance of independent thinking. If this is not promoted then we will not be actually educating children. Real education comes from understanding the world, understanding the people and without such enrichment, there can be no education. At the most the children can become literate. To make them really educated, critical pedagogy must be used and thinking should be encouraged. By questioning and analyzing, children can understand things better. The most important things for them to understand, is the world around them and the people. If this is not done then the influence of political system and social powers can not be removed from the education system. For the growth of the society it is important for both the child and the teacher to have an open mind and look at things from a critic’s point of view. Teachers have to take the initiative in this process and develop a critical consciousness. They must appreciate diversity and should not be rigid in approach. Looking at things from a new angle, reflecting, evaluating and applying should be the process that will lead to an enlightened society. Discussion All the three books are based on racism in the education system. It helps the teachers to understand the mindsets of other teachers and students. Just like the education system, the minds of people are also influenced by the social patterns. There are many things that we do consciously and there are many things that we do unconsciously also. A white teacher may create a distance in the minds of the black students and may not even realize it. But if he becomes aware then he may take extra effort to make him feel secure and not to be intimidated by his whiteness. As pointed out by Sleeter, skin color creates different types of assumptions in people’s minds. Even if a real estate agent has to show properties to a white man, he will show him a better locality ( Sleeter, 1994). The point is that the buyer and the seller both may be unaware of this phenomenon and do it unconsciously. Similarly if we do not analyze our behavior and children’s behavior we may keep on doing few things that may be sending out wrong signals. Here I completely agree with Wink when he says the unlearning is the most important part of the learning process. I think he is trying to highlight such unconscious behavior that has ultimately created a biased society. Now if we realize it and we want to change it then we will have to unlearn our previous notions, previous behavior and previous thinking. This is applicable to both blacks and white. Sleeter has also mentioned that such discriminatory practices affect the victim and the perpetrator both. (Sleeter, 1994). While whites are criticized for being the dominant part of the society, even the behavior and thinking of the blacks needs correction. Feeling inferior or feeling angry is not a healthy behavior. These unhealthy thinking patterns reflect in our interactions. It affects a black teacher’s attitude towards the white fellow teachers and he may behave rudely with them. One has to be careful and not have a personal grudge on the basis of a collective trait. For an unbiased society the dominance of whites needs to be controlled, at the same time the hatred of blacks also needs to be removed. There is a need of reconstructing the identity of whiteness ( Kincheloe et al, 1998). One negative aspect of these books can be that they may make the blacks very angry with the entire system. Anger in itself can be both constructive and destructive. If the black teachers take it in the right way and divert their anger to empower the black students without disempowering the whites, then it can set them on the path of progress. It is true not only in the case of black and white discrimination but in any case of comparison or inequality. A very apt example will be of two unequal lines. If we want to make both the lines equal to each other, we can either reduce the bigger line to match the size of the smaller line, or we can increase the size of the smaller line to match the size of the bigger line. Similar attitude needs to be adapted by black teachers and help in building a more balanced society. Multi-culture is a challenging situation for all the teachers. They may not have a prior experience of the same or more importantly any experience of correct handling of multi-cultural environment. According to Hollins, all the teachers must understand the cultures. Their understanding of their own culture and other cultures will enable them to handle the multiculturalism in the classroom.(Hollins, 1990). The same has been emphasized by other authors also and they have also stressed upon the need of knowing and understanding the cultural backgrounds of the students ( Levin, J., and Nolan, J., 1996). Conclusion As teachers we will have to accept and understand multiculturalism in the classroom. We need to treat this diversity with respect and equality. We may face challenges while preparing our instructional programs as all the children may not have similar grasping power. But we have to be careful about socially imposed ideas about black children. As mentioned by Delpit, it is always said that these children do not have the fluency and we as teachers may get lost in improving their fluency but that can be just an assumption. We must assess their linguistic abilities and provide equal educational opportunities to all the children. (Tompkins et al, 1999) As a teacher we do belong to a particular ethnicity but we should be tolerant about other cultures and appreciate their differences from us, if any. Some authors have been negative about the concept of multicultural education (McCarthy, 1990, Olneck, 1990) but many others have found it a helpful mechanism for equal and effective education. Their logic is that children must be made aware of the diversities that exist around them. This environment should help them come closer and have respect for each other. Some authors have suggested to use multicultural literature to make the students familiar with each other’s cultures. This improves their knowledge and also makes them realize that their friends may come from a different race or may have a different color but the human needs and emotions are the same( Tompkins et al, 1999). This sounds like a good theory but if the teachers themselves have a bias in their minds than it becomes difficult to implement it to its full effect. Unless they clear up their minds and accept all the differences with respect, they can not deliver their best. Racial discrimination is a chronic disease that has eaten into the social set up and made it hollow from inside. This hollowness is filled up with hatred and anger against each other in subdued or aggressive ways. As teachers we need to remove this from our hearts. It has been said that the keeping anger within and expecting things to change is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die. We need to cleanse our hearts and minds and not let this kind of discrimination reflect in our attitude. We do need to help the minority children since most of them are lagging behind from the mainstream white children but this should be in the spirit of making the smaller line longer as mentioned in the example above. Reference: 1. Applebaum, B., (1999), Is Caring Inherently Good, Philosophy of Education, ed Steve Tozer. 2. Hollins, E.R. (1990). Debunking the myth of a monolithic white American culture, or moving toward cultural inclusion. American Behavioral Scientist, 34, 201-209. 3. Kincheloe, Joe L.; Steinberg, Shirley R.; Rodriguez, Nelson M. and Chennault, Ronald E. (Eds.) (1998). White Reign: Deploying Whiteness in America. New York: St. Martin’s Press. 4. Levin, J. & Nolan, J., (1996), Principles of classroom Management, 3rd ed. 5. McCarthy, C. (1990). Race and curriculum. Bristol, PA: Falmer Press 6. Olneck, M. (1990). The recurring dream: Symbolism and ideology in intercultural and multicultural education. American Journal of Education, 98, 147-174. 7. Tompkins, G.E., Polland, M.J., Bright, R.M., & Winsor, P.J.T. (1999), Language arts Content & Teaching strategies. 8. Sleeter, C.E. (Spring, 1994). White racism. Multicultural Education, 5-8, 39. Read More