1) Delpit finds some of Gee’s ideas “problematic”. One idea, that, “people who have not been born into dominant discourses will find it exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, to acquire such a discourse,” (Delpit) really bothered her. In other words, Delpit believes anyone can learn a new dominant discourse, regardless of what their primary discourse is. She proves this when she describes Marge, a girl that got into a doctoral education program she was previously rejected from after being taught how to use a standard teaching discourse. Jordan wouldn’t be happy with this story. She indignantly pointed out, “White standards of English persist, supreme and unquestioned,” (Jordan 364). Jordan, unlike Delpit, doesn’t see as much value in teaching college students what Gee would call a primary secondary discourse.

2) Delpit’s second objection was aimed at Gee’s idea that an individual might encounter “conflicts when attempting to acquire another discourse with another set of values,” (Delpit). Delpit means that discourses don’t necessarily have to be pit against each other. If teachers were to believe this idea of Gee’s, they may start “view the goal of acquiring such a discourse questionable at best,” (Delpit).  Jordan would most likely agree with Gee, that different discourses often conflict with one another. For example, her students were deciding whether they wanted to write in Black English or Standard English, and they didn’t settle for a combination of both. Their primary discourse and dominant secondary discourse were competing with each other. 

 

Annotations

 

The top annotation was an expanding annotation. School feels pointless if kids aren’t learning. The annotation below is a text to text, Jordan to Delpit.

This is another text to text, Jordan to Delpit annotation.

This is a challenging annotation. Teachers often warn students about how hard their class is and how competitive learning is. I feel like everyone, regardless of their primary discourse, would benefit from hearing that they will undoubtedly succeed.