The Silenced Dialogue

Connections

In The Silenced Dialogue by Lisa Delpit power in a classroom has to be demonstrated differently with different classrooms in order for the teacher to retain power. Different upbringings in the household during childhood create differing responses to how power is understood. One method of keeping order in a class may be effective in some classes, yet in others it has no effect. In middle school I saw this firsthand. There would be some classes I had were a simple reminder to do our work was all it took to bring everyone back in line. In other classes the only way that the class could get settled down would be when the teacher got loud and yelled. It seems like the teacher has to get a good idea of how to control the class very quickly. Another teacher I had once used a relaxed method at the start of the year. He continued to use this method for quite a while with no good results. When he finally changed and tried to take charge more aggressively none of the kids took him seriously. What was even worse was when he told students to go up to the office for their misconduct they refused to and ultimately the power in the classroom was in the hands of the students who sought to abuse it. A replacement teacher was sent in to relieve our current teacher before the Christmas break.

The question is how does a teacher efficiently take control of power. As demonstrated my old teacher did not take control soon enough and even when he did try too it was too late and there was no way off taking it back. Delpit describes the differences that race has on what methods to use to keep power in the class. Again, how can a teacher make the call of how to teach without racially profiling or being unfair to students in the class.http://www.natcom.org/CommCurrentsArticle.aspx?id=4074