"The Silenced Dialogue"

"The Silenced Dialogue" by Lisa Delpit was basically about different codes of power within school systems, I think. Some pages were missing so right when I began getting into different ideas the packet skipped two pages, so I was thrown off a bit.
One thought of Delpit's that stuck out to me was when she began explaining "dialect readers" which were "seen as a plot to prevent the schools from teaching the linguistic aspects of the culture of power, thus dooming black children to a permanent outsider caste. As one parent demanded, 'my kids know how to be black-you all teach them how to be successful in the white man's world.'" This quote was powerful to me because of the apparent assumption of some people that in the classroom kid's aren't being taught all of the different codes of power that would help them to succeed within the real world and not just be teaching them book smarts.
An idea that I thought was a revolutionary and creative way to teach kids was to relate topics they are learning in school to topics the kids are actually interesting in, as Amanda Branscombe did. As described "when she was working with black high school students classified as 'slow learners' had the students analyze rap songs to discover their underlying patterns. The students became the experts in explaining to the teacher the rules for creating a new rap song. The teacher then used the patterns the students identified as a base to begin and explanation of the structure of grammar, and then of Shakespeare's plays. Both student and teacher are expert at what they know best." I thought this was a really great way to corporate each individual student's knowledge, making them feel comfortable while learning, and in turn helping them understand a topic which most student's could honestly care less about.
"I am certain that if we are truly to effect societal change, we cannot do so from the bottom up, but we must push and agitate from the top down." This is very true because in order to make changes people need to put pressure on those who are in power and not on those who really can't do much to provide the change that we need.
Overall, I really found it hard to read "The Silenced Dialogue". It did not grasp my attention all that much besides a few quotes that stood out to me and I found myself becoming less and less interested after each page I read. Also, Delpit's language she used did not resonate well with me.