Darcy Markham Mod#5 WP#1
What expected recognition does Paley change?
Vivian Gussin Paley explores the idea of difference-blindness and its unintended consequences in her book White Teacher. For Paley, being culturally different was a familiar role. She experienced the feelings and emotions of growing up Jewish in a white world. Yet, she found herself at the beginning of her teaching career following the politically correct practice of difference-blindness. She was taught by her parents and the adult world around her to show “respect by completely ignoring black people as black people. Color blind was the essence of the creed” (Paley, 2000, p.9). This creed was reinforced in the schools that she taught when, for example, at one staff meeting the faculty was told “more than ever we must ignore color-only look at behavior. We must bend over backwards to see no color, hear no color, speak no color” (Paley, 2000, p.7)
For Paley this was the practice of the time and culture in which she existed and she failed to recognize the unintended consequences of her own actions. Even when faced with situations that called into question her own beliefs about color she “became rigid and pretended not to hear” (Paley, 2000, p. 5). The message that she sent to her students was that differences were to be ignored, as it was not something that people talked about. The problem was that the children who were culturally different were sent a different message that “something is wrong with me.” As Bruner points out “children find out what the culture is and how it conceives of the world through interaction with each other and the teacher” (Bruner, as cited in Pai & Adler, 2000, p. 168). Therefore, when the teacher does not recognize the differences the children interpret that to mean that the dominant culture does not recognize their identity.
As Taylor (1994) states,
“Our identity is partly shaped by recognition or its absence, often by the misrecognition of others, and so a person or group of people can suffer real damage, real distortion, if the people or society around them mirror back to them a confining or demeaning or contemptible picture of themselves. Nonrecognition or misrecognition can inflict harm; can be a form of oppression, imprisoning someone in a false, distorted, and reduced mode of being”
(p.25).
The fact is the “culture to which one belongs, then becomes the root of the individual’s identity” (Pai & Adler, 2001, p. 24), therefore “developing a positive self-image is hard to achieve without persistent attempts by the mainstream to appreciate the worth of other cultures” (Pai & Adler, 2001, p. 101). For Paley (2000) this point is brought home in her conversation with a black parent who tells her, “My children know they are black, and we want it recognized” (p.12). Slowly, Paley begins to see the patterns of recognition that she has perpetuated within her classroom have a detrimental effect on the culturally different students and begins to change these patterns. Through her interactions with the students she begins to recognize that her difference-blindness not only exist in black and white, but in ethnicity, gender and religious beliefs. As she begins to change the patterns of her own behavior and to recognize the differences in the children she teaches she notices that the children respond in a positive manner. Through her recognition she gives legitimacy to those students who view themselves as different thereby authenticating their identity and improving their self-esteem. Not only does she become more comfortable with their differences but by doing so allows the students to develop a greater respect of the differences among them. “Culture plays a crucial role in determining the meanings that people assign to their experiences, the contents of what is learned as well as the way learning occurs” (Pai & Adler, 2001, p.169). By recognizing the cultural differences of her students, she provides an opportunity for them to assign positive meaning to their experiences, further they begin to learn that differences are not something to be ashamed of or hidden, but rather something to be celebrated by all.
Pai, Y., & Adler, S. A. (2001). Cultural foundations of education (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Paley, V. G. (2000). White teacher. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Taylor, C. (1994). The politics of recognition. In A. Gutmann (Ed.), Multiculturalism: Examining the politics of recognition (pp. 25-44). Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. (Original work published 1992)