Week 11

In her article “The Politics of Teaching Literate Discourse”, Lisa Delpit attempts to explain that anyone can overcome their primary discourse. She argues that if teachers have the ambition to encourage African-American students to learn, then the students will learn. She also says that the goal is not to erase an individual’s primary discourse language, but to add new discourses to it. It makes the individual more successful and more interesting to read when things are written in their native tongue. She gives many examples of successful African American individuals who grew up in a rough community or had parents with low levels of education. Delpit explains the ways in which teachers can help their students succeed and help them to become “learners” instead of “nonlearners”.

 It is very easy to make a connection to Gee’s article because she challenges this article in her own writing. While she explains that she agrees with him on most arguments he makes, she does disagree with a couple points. Gee’s opinion is that a dominant discourse cannot be learned in a classroom setting. It has to be learned by being an “apprentice”, or participating in that discourse for yourself before you fully understand it. This is where Delpit challenges him. She argues that dominant discourses CAN be learned in the classroom, it’s just a matter of the individual. If a teacher and student are willing to put the time and effort into learning then it can be achieved. She says most students are nonlearners and that is why they do not learn a new dominant discourse.

 In my opinion I think she does succeed in persuading me to her counter-points because she uses many examples in her writing. She is proving that you can learn a dominant primary discourse in the classroom, whereas Gee’s opinion is it has to be hands-on, or you have to be an apprentice to learn another discourse. Most of her examples exist in African American students because they had a hard time growing up and becoming educated. But she explains how the teachers’ willingness to push the students gave them the opportunity to become a successful individual.

I can imitate her strategy by using my primary dominant discourse to learn new dominant discourses. Delpit explained that sometimes it engages the reader if you use a discourse that is unfamiliar to them. Also, if I push myself to learn at my fullest potential it is possible for me to learn a new dominant discourse in the classroom. I think this is helpful because it will make my writing sound more educated and professional.

I found this article to be a different approach to looking at dominant and primary discourses. The examples she gave is what I found to be most intriguing because the stories of the peoples’ lives and how they grew up was almost encouraging. It makes me want to do better when it comes to my writing. I think if teachers are willing to push their students to do their best work, why shouldn’t students do the same?