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Lisa Delpit pushes educators to reconsider how they teach students from different cultural origins in her ground-breaking book, Other People's Children: Cultural Conflict in the Classroom. As a teacher and supporter of minority pupils, Delpit draws from her personal experiences as a Black woman working in largely white classrooms. She does a great job of illuminating the divide that frequently occurs between teachers and their pupils, especially when the students have experiences that diverge from their own. This disconnection may result in misconceptions, poor communication, and ineffective student engagement. The core claim of Delpit's argument is that students' cultural identities are frequently marginalized by the country's prevalent educational procedures, especially for those from underrepresented backgrounds. She contends that in the classroom, these kids' language, morals, and communication styles are routinely discounted or undervalued. Delpit stresses that...

Today I read "Privilege, Power and Difference by Alan Johnson. The excerpt spoke about the topic of being different in this country whether it's your race, gender or sexuality. More specifically the problems faced when you are a race, gender or a sexuality that isn't mainstream or normalized. In class we talked about S.C.W.A.A.M.P. which stands for straightness, christianity, whiteness, able-bodiness, americanness, maleness and property ownership. These are all things that factor in to how you're viewed and treated in our society. In the excerpt by Alan Johnson he uses Rodney King as an example of how the color of your skin can change how you get treated. Rodney King was beat by white police officers and the whole incident was recorded. The cops who were involved were acquitted of all charges and got away with it. This example shows the power that comes along with being a white male in this country. If you take S.C.W.A.A.M.P and apply it to the positions of power in th...