Teach Out Project: A Professional Development Using Shalaby's Troublemakers in Conversation with Other People's Children by Delpit

Two of the articles I plan to use as the framework for my teach-out project are "Troublemakers" by Clara Shalaby and the excerpts we read from "Other People's Children" by Lisa Delpit. 

In Shalaby's Troublemakers, Shalaby argues that the expectations that have been normalized within formal education are antithetical to the natural impulses of children, resulting in student alienation and the "systematic maintenance of the racialized American caste system." In detailing the experience of four school-aged children, Shalaby advocates for the need for schools to be places where students "can learn, together, how to skillfully insist on their right to be treated as free people" rather than complacent followers of the current social order, to learn how to be agents of freedom and change. 

In Other People's Children, Delpit argues that the voices of the marginalized and their lived experiences are often silenced when attempting to critique progressive pedagogies set forth by well-intentioned liberal whites, as they fail to understand the "culture of power" and the necessity of preparing students to face it while encouraging students to critique it. According to Delpit, the "culture of power," as it pertains to the educational landscape, is often perceived as the mechanism by which children are trained to adapt and conform to the norms of the broader hegemonic culture. In failing to adequately prepare students for the reality of the world around them while offering them a lens through which to critique said reality, marginalized students are done a disservice.

Each of these readings speaks toward issues I have noticed here at our school when it comes to unconscious bias, punitive expectations, limited student agency, and the disproportionate ratio of white educators to students of color despite our urban setting. In my brief but ongoing tenure here as a middle school teacher, I have observed students' hesitancy with choice time, minimal direction, and a lack of formalized instruction. I fear that our school's rigid structure has stunted the development of many students, inhibiting them from forming a sense of independence while simultaneously fueling an overwhelming desire for defiance. Scholars either take things too far or do nothing at all, exhibiting signs of functional freeze and lack of self-assurance. 

In considering Delpit and her claim that many educators fail to communicate expectations explicitly, opting instead for an indirect approach, this is, unfortunately, a common practice here. In many ways, we offer a nonexistent choice without realizing it, and then we punish students when they do not choose correctly, as they fail to recognize that there was actually no choice to begin with. In considering some of the conversations we've had here and the discomfort that has been expressed by some with being explicit, it seems that this discomfort stems from the awareness and guilt that forcing students and individuals to adhere to society's discriminatory cultural expectations is counterproductive to co-creating a reimagined society that uplifts cultural diversity and promotes equity. In attempting to dial back and not mimic these oppressive systems, I fear we may have overcorrected. This internal struggle contributes to the disconnect that often occurs between administrators and teachers, students and teachers, parents and administrators, administrators and students, and parents and teachers, which only serves to exacerbate behavior and erode rapport. Having witnessed instances of this firsthand, I feel we could all benefit from a bit of summer reading ourselves and professional development centered around the ideas espoused by Shelby and Delpit.