"Lesbian Seagull"--The Song of the White Educator

I don't disagree with the ideas about the "culture of power" found in Lisa Delpit's "The Silenced Dialogue" nor do I disagree with her point that those who have grown up outside the dominate culture should be explicitly taught the rules of said culture in order to access more freely the power inherent in that culture. In fact, I think the idea that some children come to school instilled with the "accoutrements" needed to succeed in a certain culture while others (because of their racial or socioeconomic background) do not, is something that every educator should give serious consideration to.

I do however take great exception to Delpit's characterization of black and white educators. Her depiction of white educators verges on the cartoonish. Delpit's insinuation that all black educators are disciplinarian task masters who demand their students behave and learn while all white educators are liberals whose sole purpose in the classroom is to safeguard kids against icky rules and explicit instruction is just silly. I laughed aloud when I read the following example of a"typical" statement"made with the best of intentions by middle-class liberal educators" (28) :

It's really a shame but she (that black teacher upstairs) seems to be so authoritarian, so focused on skills and so teacher directed. Those poor kids never seem to be allowed to really express their creativity. (And she even yells at them.) (33).

She yells at them?! The horror! After reading this, I immediately thought of Mr. Van Driessen from Beavis and Butthead. Below is a clip from the movie Beavis and Butthead Do America in which Mr. Van Driessen is trying to help students cope with their feelings by singing them an absurd song called "Lesbian Seagull":



I realize that the clip is a bit hyperbolic but so are Delpit's examples. When she reports that several black teachers she'd spoken with had concluded that "many of the 'progressive' educational strategies imposed by liberals upon black and poor children could only be based on a desire to ensure that liberals' children get sole access to the dwindling pool of American jobs," (29) Delpit does not even attempt to temper such an emotional response with any rational academic insight. Instead she goes on about liberals "good intentions" masking their true "unconscious motives" (29). Unconscious motives? Is Delpit moonlighting as a mind reader? This really counts as research?

And the problem with such histrionics, is that they overshadow Delpit's main argument--that educators should not assume that all students come to their classrooms with the skills (both academic and social) needed to excel. That it is our job to explicitly inform students about what it is they need to know in order to be successful in the world at large and how they can learn it. This is an excellent point. But it gets lost in Delpit's attempts to paint the liberal (aka white) educator as the big dog in the small room who keeps knocking things over with its wagging tail.