Prompt #2 - Delpit

Tutoring this week was really interesting. I decided to arrive at my kindergarten classroom about a half hour earlier than scheduled observe before Walk to Intervention. I came to notice how differently the students behave when engaging in various activities. For example, while Mrs. E took attendance and collected homework, the students knew what they should be doing. Some students were getting their homework, while others were sitting on the carpet reading a book. Of course there was one student who cared more to socialize in small groups than read independently. His name is Todd. I learned that he had just arrived at this school the week before from India. He speaks English but is still having trouble with learning the new classroom rules and curriculum. There is also another student who arrived shortly after Todd; Her name is Lucy. Like Isabel, she came from a culture where she was forced to protect her head from contracting head lice. Lucy would sometimes seclude herself from certain activities because she thought everyone needed to learn independently. Her mindset of how school was back home, traveled with her to her new classroom.

Both Todd and Lucy struggle with learning certain rules of the classroom. One could say that they lack the privilege of knowing the rules from day 1 like their peers who have the accepted and learned the rules. Without knowledge of their late comings, one could assume that Todd and Lucy are acting out or simply just do not want to follow the rules. However, in truth, their understanding of the rules is not like their peers in the sense that they have not completely learned them. For Todd and Lucy, they are most aware of the amount of power they do have because it is very limited. They have less power than their peers because they are constantly reminded of the rules. If they knew the rules like the other students, the existence of their power would be greater.

As Delpit described in her article The Silenced Dialogue, "If you are not already a participant in the culture of power, being told explicitly the rules of that culture makes acquiring power easier" (Aspect of power #4, p.3). After Mrs. E was straightforward with her response to Todd about reading independently while attendance and homework is conducted, Todd understands this and accepted it. Every so often, Mrs. E would have to remind both Todd and Lucy of certain rules but by the next week, they picked up on them with ease. I observed them socializing with their peers with more comfortablility and without hesitation when the time called for them to interact. "Explicit presentation makes learning immeasurably easier," as Delpit explains (p.4, Silenced Dialogue).