Prompt 4: Delpit

Becoming a teacher requires you to be aware of the diverse cultural groups that will be in your classroom. I think that each person’s cultural background and experiences can help them greatly in any environment. My personal history or sociocultural characteristics intersected with the students with its ups and downs in the classroom. The main thing I needed to take into consideration is that the way I do something isn't necessarily the only way. I needed to step back and observe the students before I jumped into it. Each person has different cultural backgrounds; we are all different when noticing that it's truly an advantage. By understanding the differences I feel it could help you as a teacher, especially in this classroom. There are so many different children in the classroom that you may assume the student know something when they don't. The misconceptions that I’ve been confronted with during this experience are assuming. I always think either they know what I'm looking for or they don't without being direct. I need to not only assume but ask questions.
I feel as though Lisa Delpit relates greatly to being a teacher. Delpit explains about the culture of power and how you need to be aware as a teacher of that. If a student comes into your class and starts sharpening a pencil as your talking they may not understand the codes of power. In other words you need to let them know they should not be doing that at that particular time. Without the student being aware, they will never know. This deal greatly with a classroom, not everyone is the same which in most cases they don't know the codes. This leads to the child giving up because they are lost. Delpit also says how without being told explicitly the "rules" gaining power becomes almost impossible. If the student is unaware of any of the codes they realize it, the teacher however may not which is a problem. With the simplicity of a teacher to explain the codes of power for his/her students will help the students as well. No longer will they be clueless and give up, but they will understand. This is why I feel Delpit truly understands what can happen to a group of individuals on different levels.