Relation to " The Culture of Power"

Life is filled with written and unwritten rules. For example, the highway has a written rule for the speed limit. The rule here in the United States is 55 or 65 miles per hour; and according to the written rule if you exceed the speed limit you are in violation. What about the unwritten rule??? If you go the same speed limit as the flow of traffic your odds of getting a speeding violation are small.



Our personal lives also have written and unwritten rules. For example one of my written rules is being able to take care of myself so I can take care of my family. The unwritten rule might be sleep, exercise, and a diet might be the first things I would toss aside when the demands of life increase. I believe that my written rule is family first. The unwritten rule might be that my job has me running in circles that I cannot be home when I need to.



I believe that written rules are about intentions, about how we want things to be. The unwritten rules are about reality and how things really are in life. Terri Hamilton a reporter for The Grand Rapid Press states we need to teach students that there are two sets of rules. Their old rules that are part of their culture and if you take away these rules it might hurt the child. But they do have to learn what she calls "the middle-class" rules...they need to know how to fight if you live in a poor neighborhood, but if they bring that rule to a work place they could get fired. It's like knowing the rules of two different games.



Nobody is saying they have to lose their culture, you just have to know how to function in both worlds.....I totally agree.....how does everyone else feel about this statement????

I was raised in a middle class family in East Providence; my friends were from different cultures, Italian, Portugese, Cape Verde, and Jewish. My parents own a diner where everyone would stop in for a cup of coffee or just to get the latest news. My father was very active in the city and still is....he is Chairman of the Heritage Days events that the city hosts every year. Being politically connected he had many fund raising events that the family would need to attend....I would be socializing with all the big wigs of the city...I was taught the rules of power at a very early age. My mother would tell me how I should act in public, what to say and what not to say, and that less is more.....at first I wasn't sure what she meant by that but as an adult raising my own children I totally agree with that statement. My relation to the "culture of power" definitely comes from what I was taught by my parents and what I experienced on my own throughout the years.

Delpit argues that students be taught the "codes" no matter what the color of their skin or what type of culture they come from....everyone must learn the "codes" to live in the "mainstream" of American life. I agree with Delpit but unfortunately not every student gets the same "rules and codes". Teachers can help by preparing a student so that they can achieve the same as those who already know the "codes". As a teacher I want to be able to reach out to those students who don't know the "codes"....the power to educate.