While my husband and I were waiting for Modern Family to come on, we watched an episode of The Middle. It's a comedy about a working class family trying to hold it together. One of the characters on the show is an eccentric, nine year old, boy named Brick. In this episode, Brick, who would rather be reading than doing anything else, has been allowed by his new teacher to skip gym. This is a decision that Brick's parents, Mike and Frankie, disagree with as they have been struggling to get Brick to socialize more. Thus it is decided that Mike will go and speak with Brick's teacher to resolve the issue.
What follows is straight out of Delpit's 'The Silenced Dialogue"--a progressive, white (of course) teacher who believes he knows better patronizing a parent and belittling his knowledge. There is even some great back and forth between the teacher and Mike about how to get through to Brick--Mike advocating explicit commands ("you could just tell him 'I'm the teacher. You're the kid. Go to gym.") and the teacher preferring a more implicit approach.
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