Response to Delpit

When it comes to Gee’s articles Delpit agrees with his argument that literacy more that reading and writing and that it is “part of a larger political entity”. However, once she went over his articles again she found two aspects of his to be problematic. The first one she mentions is Gee’s belief that people who have not been born into dominant families or lifestyles will find it hard to succeed in life and eventually become dominant themselves. Delpit finds this to be a disturbing statement because it gives no hopes for the teachers teaching these students and leaves the students feeling like there is no point whatsoever. His second aspect that she disagrees with is that once a student is born into a certain discourse and values it will be hard for that student to obtain another discourse and values. This can leave teachers feeling that they can not teach the same discourse to all of their students and will have to separate them.
Delpit proves her argument by giving examples of people from other cultures that were pushed and urged on by teachers to overcome obstacles in an alien environment. She does so to show that teachers can make a difference if they really want to. Delpit believes teachers shouldn’t shut out the students’ home language because it is important to the way they view themselves and their community. Delpit then moves on to say that the teacher needs to come to terms with the fact that there is “discourse-stacking” in our society. She says the teachers should then make their classrooms aware of what is taking place in their society as well.
Delpit’s argument is well thought out and has many good points. It wouldn’t make sense for teachers to teach the same discourse to every student when there are many different cultures around; especially in the United States. Thoughts and comments like Gee’s seem to intimidate teachers to take further action with their students; leaving the students to fall behind and do no better that what the society thinks of them. A student from a poor family or colored family can be just as smart and willing to learn as a student from the dominant discourse. The teachers just have to be willing to teach them and motivate them to do their best and succeed.