Other People's Children

“Diversity of thought, language, and worldview in our classrooms cannot only provide an exciting educational setting, but can also prepare our children for the richness of living in an increasingly diverse national community.”

This quote for me frames the challenges, hopes, and yes, fears I will face as I enter the teaching profession. Delivering curriculum which is relevant and accessible for all learners is something that I desperately want to provide. That means challenging myself to understand individual students’ needs, as well as recognizing and embracing multicultural backgrounds and their implications for teaching and learning. What tools and experiences do I have which inform my practice in this regard? I fear that, like many who are part of the dominant culture of power, I have a lot to learn from others before I’m able to be a competent practitioner in the increasingly diverse and multicultural melting pot of our classrooms. At the same time, I’m very hopeful about the promises for educational benefits and better outcomes for everyone communicated in this quote.

Delpit wants us to consider, and reconsider, the instructional paradigms driving our system of education. She wants us to understand that the perceived “rightness” of methods or outcomes is not absolute, but is relative to those who hold power. Producing prose or telling stories in Standard English is right, only because it is considered correct by the dominant majority in this country. But our students come from many backgrounds, and this diversity and a host of extra-school factors governs and informs these students’ worldviews, their ways of communicating, knowing and learning.

Her message is that these differences are important, that they impact the relationship between students, their teachers, and their overall educational experience, and that these differences, when treated with respect instead of disdain, have an enormous potential to provide “an exciting educational setting,” to enrich the classroom lives of all participants.

One of the things I will take away from Delpit that will influence my classroom is the overriding message that teaching with multicultural awareness will provide all students with important skills they will need to navigate our “increasingly diverse national community.” We as educators have an obligation to equip all of our students with the knowledge and skills they will need in our society, and interacting with people of varied backgrounds is one of those crucial skills. Recognizing and giving voice to students of all perspectives, languages, cultures, etc. is an important part of delivering these skills as well as delivering rich educational experiences.