In this collection of essays, Lisa Delpit (1995) provides her views that ôother peopleÆs children,ö that is children of color, are taught by white educators whose curricula, pedagogies, and teaching strategies focus on the norms, values, and customs of white culture. In this first section, Delpit (1995) provides information that searches for how best to teach African-American children how to read and write. She engages in the process approach versus the skills approach in teaching children to read and write. She maintains that many African American students fall behind their mainstream peers in literacy because educators place the focus on fluency and not on skills acquisition. She insists parents of students of color want their children to maintain their own language style but to be taught the codes of power. In this manner, Delpit (1995, p. 46) undermines the process-approach/skills-approach debate by suggesting that ôthose who are most skillful at educating black and poor children do not allow themselves to be placed in æskillsÆ or æprocessÆ boxes.ö She insists there is a need for a combined approach.
In this section, Delpit (1995, p. 21) discusses another important factor that under serves non-mainstream cultures of students, the ôsilenced dialogue.ö In this process, teachers of color who suggest alternative pedagogies, curricula and strategies for teaching students of color are silenced. This has the adverse impact of shutting down the very individuals who are connected to the cultures and contexts in which many non-mainstream culture students exist. Delpit (1995, p. 25) also discusses another phenomenon, the ôculture of power.ö The culture of power is a reflection of the rules, values, norms, and worldviews by those with power. These are exhibited through linguistic forms, communicative strategies, and presentation of self, (Delpit, 1995). Students of color are put at an enormous disadvantage by being ...