Delpit Blog Post

“There are two major aspects of Gee’s arguments which I find problematic. First is Gee’s notion that people who have not been born into dominant discourses will find it exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, to acquire such a discourse……….The second part of Gee’s work that I find troubling suggests that an individual who is born into one discourse with one set of values may experience major conflicts when attempting to acquire another discourse with another set of value.” (pg 546-547) Gee is saying that it is almost impossible for anyone to acquire a Discourse that they are not born into and that if they do try to acquire so, they will experience major conflicts. In a way, I do agree with Delpit. Delpit gives many examples to prove that you can acquire a Discourse even if you were not born into that Discourse. For example, Marge had trouble with academic writing, reading, and talking but she got help from Susan and became one of the most sought-after research assistant in the college, Clarence Cunningham, who went to an all-African-American elementary school where the parents of most of the children never even considered attending high school, had a picture of about 35 students and almost all of them left their home community and achieved impressive goals in life, and Bill Trent along with his classmates who had no aspirations beyond their immediate environment yet completed college and were successful and notable. They were all able to transform their lives with the help of their teachers. Their teachers had faith in them and put that faith in their students. The teachers put in extra time and effort to help the students.

I believe that if teachers were to put in time and effort to help me and have faith in me, it will help me and make me want to learn more. Putting time and effort to help students does not mean spending more time than required. As long as the student know that you have faith in them and that you are there to help them when they need your help. I can honestly say that if it was not for my elementary teachers, I would not be continuing my education and would not be majoring in early childhood education. My elementary teachers were very nice and kind to us and they had faith in us. I went to a very diverse elementary. Our teachers knew that it was harder for us to learn because of our background. They took their time with us, made sure we knew what they were teaching us, and had faith in us, that if we work hard, then we can do it. I had a fourth grade teacher that was very nice to us, she was very patient and had a lot of faith in us, who had to move out of state and we cried when she told us that she had to leave because she was our best teacher, she understood us. I want to be able to help other students succeed and make a difference on life too, and that is why I’m majoring in early childhood education. I believe that early childhood education is a time in a student’s life where you can really make a difference in their life. They explore many new and different things and they start to decide what career field they want to do in the future.