Right in the first few paragraphs of Rodriguez article "Aria", I could see connections to Lisa Delpit's article "The Silenced Dialogue". Rodriguez's article begins with a reflection of his childhood education. He describes his childhood as being difficult because he spoke Spanish as his main language and he grew up in a predominately English speaking country. Rodriguez explains that he had difficulty in school because he had a hard time using the English language and he didn’t feel that the classroom was very accommodating to his Spanish background. He explains that he viewed his use of the Spanish language as strictly "private" and he needed to learn the more "public" language which is English.
The connection I made to Delpit's article was when Rodriguez said "Fortunately, my teachers were unsentimental about their responsibility. What they understood was that I needed to speak a public language.". He refers to the "public language" much the same way as Delpit when she refers to "the culture of power". In this quote Rodriguez is explaining that his teachers needed to teach him the English language to help him succeed in the world. Delpit would explain this as his teacher explicitly teaching him the rules and codes of the culture of power. If Rodriguez was to succeed in school he had to learn the social norms of the English world. Delpit would have commended Rodriguez's teachers when they went to Rodriguez's parents and told them to start speaking English at home to help him and his siblings to understand the English language.
I thought this article was interesting because of the way Rodriguez believes that he maintained his personal individuality even though he was forced to sacrifice his primary language. I think this article can make teachers feel better about teaching the cultures of power because it doesn’t necessarily mean that students must sacrifice their personalities.
This is a really good connection to Delpit! I was actually thinking of the dominant language as being similar to Delpit’s “culture of power”. I wish I had thought I had to write my blog about this connection, too! Do you agree with Delpit and Rodriquez? Should children be forced to assimilate?
ReplyDeleteI don’t really know how to answer that question myself. I was brought up in “the culture of power” myself, would it be right of me to force a student to adopt my cultural norms? On the other hand, Delpit would argue that it is my duty as an educator to assimilate students.