The culture of power can be described as the group of people whose way of talking, writing, dressing, and interacting is accepted as the norm. This in turn gives them supremacy over others who are not the same. The culture of power is evident in our society today and we can especially recognize it in our classrooms. We must take the proper steps, as teachers, to find a solution. .
Schools today are designed for the culture of power. The textbooks, tests and the way a teacher speaks to their students all demonstrate how this culture of power dominates in our classrooms. For example a black child, from a socioeconomic background that is less than perfect, does not have the same linguistic skills as an upper middle class white child. The black child is therefore at a disadvantage when it comes to reading the textbook or understanding completely what the teacher is trying to teach. I recently have experienced this first hand. The child that I am tutoring is African American and lives in the inner city. She has a very difficult time understanding her textbook. The language is far above her. I think, however, her largest obstacle in school is writing. She writes exactly how she speaks, which unfortunately is not correct English. In her article, "The Silenced Dialogue: Power and Pedagogy in Educating Other People's Children", Lisa Delpit says that she prefers to be honest with her students about the culture of power. "I tell them that their language and cultural style is unique and wonderful but that there is a political power game that is also being played, and if they want to be in on that game there are certain games that they too must play." (Delpit, 292) I could not agree with this more. My student should have been taught a long time ago that her language was unacceptable for use on English essays. She needs to know that her own "native" language should not be lost, but that there is a way to write and speak formally.
