Ohhhh.... Delpit

I dont even know where to start on this peice. If you just read the surface, it seems very confrontational and it reads as if she is being very accusational and judegemntal. It hurts to read, and it's hard to see past this. On the underbelly of the piece, however, i undertsand the point that she is trying to make. That not every teacher has cultural competance, and that if you are raised with privilage and think the only way to teach is with one "language" then you will never be able to reach all your students, especially those that were not riased with that privilage, that may not understand that "language" and to them you need to keep this in mind.
I heard another FNED student with a different instructor say the other day that doing service learning in an underprivilaged school is a waste of their time. That becasue they are planning to teach in a very specific envirement, close to that of their own upbringing, it would not benifit them to have an alternate experience to that which they have had all thier life. It hurt to hear that, becasue I can appriciate how good it feels to know that even in a dominatly midlle class white school, there are teachers that are willing to speak to more then middle class straight white students. The simple agknowlagement in class that other people exist, as dumb as that may sound, can mean so much for making the classroom a more comfortable place to be.
I also think about the experience I am able to have as a member of ALLIED, a class on campus for underrepresented students in education majors, and how much of a better person that has made me. In ALLIED, we are able to have thses open conversations about what words are tolerable, what references hurt, what it feels like to be singled out as a student, what it can be like to be underprivilaged, etc. The professor often comments that being a white female she almost doesn't feel "qualified" to mediate these discussions alone, but doesnt realise that by the mere fact that she is enthusiastic about running the class, and open to the idea of having the conversations, she is VERY qualified. Relating to students of different backgrounds is not about have to BE a member of their group to understand them, but simply being able to LISTEN to what they have to say and use their constructive criticism to better your classroom.
This is unltimatly what Deplit is saying. Though at times it may feel like she is singiling out those of us wo are members of privilaged groups as "bad", she is really just trying to get across that we need to look past our own experience and teach to our fullest potention in an effort to include everyone. She is begging for us to not only listen but to hear those around us when they offer to better us as teachers and speak everyone's "language" to our students. I completely agree with her that cultural competance is one of the most important and benificial things for teachers to include in ther repitoire as they share their knowlage with their peers and students.