The Silenced Dialogue: Power and Pedagogy in Educating Other People's Children

I had a very hard time getting into Lisa Delpit's The Silenced Dialogue: Power and Pedagogy in Educating Other People's Children.  I understand that providing quotes from educators of color and their feelings towards white colleagues and experiences, she is arguing that white people do not listen or take into consideration what those of color try to say to help educate children.  She explains this when mentioning the statements she collected since completing 'Skills and Other Dilemmas of a Progressive Black Educator' on page 23, stating, "I described the estrangement that I and many teachers of color feel from the progressive movement when writing process advocates dismiss us as too 'skills oriented'.  I ended the article suggesting that it was incumbent upon writing process advocates, or indeed, advocates of any progressive movement, to enter into dialogue with teachers of color, who may not share their enthusiasm about so-called new, liberal, or progressive ideas" (23).  While I can see why she is frustrated, I then felt confused and somewhat naive when it came to the five aspects of power that she proposed on page 24.  When we spoke in class of why it is difficult for some of us to see these different perspectives, Dr. Bogad made sense of it saying "fish may not see water".  I found myself questioning if this was the case for me while reading Delpit's discussions on these five aspects of power.  I found myself only agreeing and understanding the fifth one, "those with power are frequently less aware of- or at least willing to acknowledge- its existence.  Those with less power are often most aware of its existence" (24).  I can think of examples that help me understand this aspect in many scenarios, not just the situation of race (i.e., various levels of positions in the corporate world).  As far as the rest of these aspects, I had a very hard time understand what she was describing.  While I certainly do not consider myself someone of power, it left me wondering if I am blind to them for certain reasons, or if I just have not experienced such yet.
I did however, understand and agree more with Delpit when she was arguing that everyone cannot simply want the same thing for everyone's children as they do their own (28).  Delpit makes a great point when she brings up that "this is a very reasonable goal for people whose children are already participants in the culture of power and who have already internalized its codes.  But parents who don't function within that culture often want something else" (28-29).   However, it is almost as if she is making assumptions of what liberals and others want for their children, and her entire argument was examining the underlying assumptions of both camps in the first place.  This is why I found myself confused multiple times throughout this reading.
I was much more engaged in the remainder of the reading, when Delpit began to explain the reading programs and why they worked for some children and not for others.  I agree with her talking about the differences in children's home lives and how that effects children's learning, as well as how children from different cultures are spoken to differently at home and may have troubles understanding different cultures ways of instructing or displaying authority (paragraph 2 and 3 on page 34 on speech). "Both white and black working-class children in the communities Heath studied 'had difficulty interpreting these indirect requests for adherence to an unstated set of rules'" (34).   As a follow up to this idea, I really enjoyed the conversation between the teacher and 'Joey' on pages 42 and 43 on language diversity.
While it was hard for me to get into Delpit's reading at first, I actually very much liked it by the end of the reading.  There were many points and discussions that I was actively engaged and found myself agreeing with, while there were also others that I felt confused by or that I wished were described in different ways.  I would be interested in reading some of Delpit's other articles published as well.