Editors Note through The
Silenced Dialogue
Editors Note
 Lisa Delpit was a teacher when she began writing this
book. This was the first book edited by Ellen Gordon
Reeves, she said this book gave her the first “Aha”
moment of her life. She said that as a teacher herself
this book gave her the clarity to see that she had not
been serving the children in her classrooms to the best
of her ability, she felt that she didn’t know how to
teach other s with different racial, religious, and
socioeconomic backgrounds. This book showed her
the path to a teaching style that would serve all
children equally.
Acknowledgments
 This was the first book written by Lisa
Delpit. She was writing this book while
working full time as a teacher and being a
single parent to a five year old.
 She thanks the people who helped watch her
child and the people who helped develop
her writings into this book.
Introduction to the 2006 Edition
 Lisa Delpit started writing this book when her child
was five years old, between first and eleventh grade her
child had attended 9 schools. She struggled to find a
school that would make sense for her daughter.
 Since she began writing this book No Child Left
Behind had been enacted which mandated more
standardized testing of children, this has forced the
teachers and school system to adapt in a negative way.
Most schools are teaching toward the test instead of
teaching children through the natural flow of teaching
and learning that has proven most effective.
Controversies Revisited
 The Controversies Revisited section of the book
discusses her time in teacher training at University of
Alaska, Fairbanks. This is where she met two types of
people the conservative traditionalists who would see
themselves as “the upholders of traditional academic
standards.” The contrasting group was the
anthropologically oriented liberals who “saw their role
as creating more opportunities for Native Alaskans to
become certified to teach in their own village
communities.”
Controversies Revisited (cont.)
 This is where she saw teachers being
taught to focus on their own
demographics and not being taught
about other cultures and the standards
required outside of their cultural
bubbles. She saw that this was an area
that needed improvement if there was
ever going to be educational equality.
Skills and Other Dilemmas of a
Progressive Black Educator
 The section deemed “Skills and Other Dilemmas
of a Progressive Black Educator” discussed her
own upbringing and education and how people
acquire dialect from interaction with others not
through correction. She also discusses the writing
approach to literacy and the importance of fluency
over correctness. She also discusses how when
discussing interaction that we know not to assume
that the “voices of the majority speak for all.”
The Silenced Dialogue; Power and Pedagogy
in Educating Other People’s Children
 Delpit begins by discussing how teachers and
parents of differing races “Don’t really want to hear
what you have to say.” This is what creates the
Silenced Dialogue. She also discusses the debate
of skills over process and the culture of power. She
discusses how teachers are in the ultimate position
where they can listen and participate to teach our
children how to be good listeners and develop into
good people.