Unleashing the Genius of African American Children
Dr. Lisa Delpit


Use what they (these children) bring, what drives them, their passions, to teach them….pull from their history that which might nurture them.


Dr. Delpit started by stating that the reductionism spawned by the current testing mania has created settings in which teachers and students are treated as objects to be manipulated and managed, and students equate school with prison. There is little or no focus on developing the humanity, integrity, or thinking and leadership capacity of the children served, or learning from them, or helping the teachers who serve them get in touch with who they are.

Dr. Delpit discussed two of many strategies for dealing with this mechanistic system. One is to not obliterate who these children are. Use what they bring, what drives them, their passions, to teach them. She then gave examples of how she did this with her young female African American students, i.e., by developing the content she was teaching from what the students were really interested in.

The second strategy is to pull from the students’ history that which might nurture them. She gave an example of a teacher of African Americans students who brought into the study of Egypt pictures of early Egyptians who were dark-skinned and taught the students about the value system of this group of people. Since this value system fit well with traditional African thought, the teacher and students incorporated a part of this system into their classroom. This learning ended up helping the students in their interactions with each other and the overall atmosphere in the class.

Schools are currently trying to program even more of students’ behavior in the name of raising test scores. This is making schooling more mechanistic and reducing students’ ability to think for themselves, which is counter to the cultures that some of them have grown up in. Teachers who choose to engage with the minds and hearts of their students, to develop human beings rather than robots, must be willing to develop relationships with them and get to know their strengths and passions.

Follow-up Discussion with Dr. Lisa D. Delpit
One participant asked what you can do to help people honor their spirit, to help them live in this world that may attempt to deaden their spirit and help them see that their spirit is something beautiful to be nourished. Dr. Delpit responded that she does not think the spirit can be crushed although it can be misdirected. She made the following suggestions in terms of working with teachers:

• Encourage teachers to listen to their students and the parents and stop thinking of them as the enemy even when they seem to be causing problems. Give them a way to figure out how to be successful.

• Help teachers understand how important they can be to their students and that they can change their students’ lives.

• Help teachers understand more about cultural issues so that they can begin to see what they considered deficiencies in a different light.

• Tell teachers to ask parents what they want for their child.

Dr. Delpit made these suggestions for dealing with people at the university:

• Try to see the hurt in their spirit. But if that’s too difficult to deal with, then she just acknowledges what they are saying and goes the other way or ignores them.

• Try to see what will help make a slight shift for people, enough so that they can get at least some part of what you need them to get. Sometimes you have to go to where they are, figure out what is supporting them there, and then start building another case from there by giving them alternative information that will help to break down their assumptions.

In response to a question about how to deal with black students in college continuing to speak black English when they need to speak standard English to succeed in the work world, Delpit said:

• If we (teachers) make students feel smart and accepted, using things that are culturally connected to them, then they will want to talk like us. You cannot make a child speak standard English, but you can make them not speak if they do not feel good about the setting and the people.

• With young children, we need to incorporate standard English in their play, role playing, and recitation of poems and stories so that they have more chance to practice it.

• Regarding students in college and people in the work world, she has seen that most of those who speak non-standard English want to be able to speak standard English too because they know they will need to. So, talk with these students and see if they are interested. If they are, develop some way of helping them learn it.

• Our students do need to learn standard English but in the context of understanding that this is a power issue and that learning it will get them things they need. However, we also need to not suggest that the language they have is less than or a problem.

• Ultimately, we cannot make people speak a certain way. We can provide them with access to alternatives. Then if they find they need them, they will have them in their repertoire. It is their choice what language form they use.

Another participant asked how you recognize the difference between manipulating students and inspiring them to learn things. Dr. Delpit responded:

• Sometimes you need to bribe them a bit to get them started into something that that is good for them. However, you should not do this for something that is not in line with who they are and are hoping or trying to become.

• You can tell if you are manipulating or inspiring them by looking in their eyes and watching them. If you have to keep making them do something for a long time, then you should stop. But if you make them do something for awhile and see their eyes change, then you know it has caught and that it is something they will continue with.

Another participant asked how we can fight against something large that we disagree with like No Child Left Behind. Dr. Delpit responded that we should put as much energy into what we want to see happen as in what we don’t want to see happen. We spend a lot of time fighting against different things, and we do not exactly know what it would look like if we could do it ourselves. If we can figure out what it should look like, then it will be easier to make a real transformation.