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Summary: Thoughtful, provoking reading.
Review: Full of anecdotes, yet deeply probing. A must for anyone working in urban settings--it will change the way you think, no matter your background.
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Summary: Lisa gets serious about life
Review: I am a college student majoring in education and I had to read this book for my class. It took me reading it a few times to really start to enjoy it. I didn't totaly agree with some of the material because it was based on minority children who were not as smart as most European American children. All children can be just as smart as the next no matter their color or where they come from. If an adult takes the time to teach a child, he or she will learn it. Some children are slow, and require more time to learn, but they must be allowed to learn at their pace. Cultural beliefs play a big part of what children value in learning. I admire the culturally diverse children Lisa taught. I hope latter down the road, I can be as accomplished as her. Her book opened my eyes to see what I have never had to experience.
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Summary: Could relate to her frustrations.
Review: I am a college student, majoring in education. I read your book for a class. I found the first part of the book hard to follow, though I could relate to your experiences. The second part of the book reminded me of a diary. A diary of your experiences. I had a deep appreciation for the feelings expressed. Especially in reguards to "native" teachers who felt they had no say in what was taught to their students. The third part of the book addressed many of the current aspects of education which need to be changed or improved for the future.
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Summary: Enlightening reading- but questions remain.
Review: I am a young, white, female teacher raised in the midwest. I recently moved to Florida to teach in a school with a much higher racial mix than I am used to, so my mom bought be Lisa Deplit's book. When the students did not reply satisfactorily to a question, I assumed it was because they did not know the answer. Ms Delpit points out that the problem is not content, it is communication. I was shocked to discover that when I thought I was being accomidating and realistic, I was actually dumbing down the curriculum drastically. I finished the book determined to demand more- but what. Most of the book seems to be testimony from minority teachers whose natural, and more applicable, teaching styles were crushed by the establishment. But other than "teach skills before voice" and "To be seen as an authority, be authoritative," I know little more about how to reach students of a different learning culture than before I began. Instead, I am left frustrated, because now I see my errors but do not know how to correct them.
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Summary: Delpit looks at skills and culturally relevant teaching.
Review: I found this book very interesting. Delpit starts out by revisiting her essay Skills and Other Dilemmas of a Progressive Black Educater. Many white progressives saw her original essay as controversial. While Delpit argues skills should be taught explicitly to minority and poor students, she feels they must occur within in a context that respects the student's cultural background. This is definitely one of those books that will remain on my bookshelf for re-reading. It was one of the best books I have read in a long time. This is a must for teachers who are truly concerned with equity and culturally responsive teaching. I recently wrote an analysis on this book that can be found at http://www.geocities.com/~nschmolze/delpit.html. Lisa Delpit recently wrote a special article for Rethinking Schools about Ebonics and Culturally Responsive Teaching.http://www.rethinkingschools.org/Archives/12_01/ebdelpit.htm
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Summary: there is a reason it has won so many awards
Review: I m so enlighted thanks to this book. Delpit encourages teachers to get to know the culture, teachers within that culture, and parents.
I got the book from the library, but now I'm going to purchase my own copy.
A book like this will cause controversy. But I agree it deserves every award it has won.
What she says is true... it take time, effort, and patience to get understand how to reach OTHER PEOPLES children.
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Summary: I am the enemy
Review: I previously wrote a scathing review of this book, and I guess Amazon.com did not print it because I don't see it here. Delpit is an African-American principal, or was a principal. I feel that her book depicts white teachers as wimpy, ignorant, and incompetent to face multicultural classrooms.Being the enemy (a female teacher of European descent), I am constantly facing frustration on reaching my students who enter school not knowing letters, colors, or sometimes their own name (I am not kidding). It's also quite a task reaching parents who do not speak English, do not attend conferences or open house, do not return information to me (even when sent home in their native language), do not return phone calls, do not check their child's backpack, and work one or more full time jobs. I wish Delpit had offered some constructive criticism instead of pointing fingers. I have to admit that the book gave me much to ponder, and that she made some thought provoking accusations. Unfortunately, her negative opinions of me as a teacher (even though she's never met me) serves as yet another reminder of how split by race and culture our country still is.
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Summary: I am the enemy
Review: I previously wrote a scathing review of this book, and I guess Amazon.com did not print it because I don't see it here. Delpit is an African-American principal, or was a principal. I feel that her book depicts white teachers as wimpy, ignorant, and incompetent to face multicultural classrooms. Being the enemy (a female teacher of European descent), I am constantly facing frustration on reaching my students who enter school not knowing letters, colors, or sometimes their own name (I am not kidding). It's also quite a task reaching parents who do not speak English, do not attend conferences or open house, do not return information to me (even when sent home in their native language), do not return phone calls, do not check their child's backpack, and work one or more full time jobs. I wish Delpit had offered some constructive criticism instead of pointing fingers. I have to admit that the book gave me much to ponder, and that she made some thought provoking accusations. Unfortunately, her negative opinions of me as a teacher (even though she's never met me) serves as yet another reminder of how split by race and culture our country still is.
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Summary: this book is not anti-white--it's the answer we have sought
Review: I think a lot of people have read this book with a defensive attitude and have totally misunderstood it. If we want to be better educators, we need to listen with an open mind and humble attitude. Pay attention to Dr Delpit's life story--she is not coming from an anti-white perspective; she is coming from the perspective of one who has made the same mistakes that we as white educators tend to make. She has a lot of relevant life experience AND relevant research and theory. What's more, her words fit perfectly with everything I have observed. As a white person from upper-class background who has been trying to "make a difference," and has been bewildered when my best efforts still seem to fail to reach some kids, I felt that this book was the answer I have been seeking for years. If you think you already know everything you need to know, don't bother reading this review or the book. But if you keep questioning why African-American kids fail in such dramatic numbers, and if you refuse to accept that it is someone else's fault or problem, but instead continue to ask how educators can do better--then skip the review and get this book. I have been working with children of all backgrounds for more than fourteen years and have been trying to understand the riddle of why African-American kids have a hard time in school. I had come to two essential understandings but lacked a third that this book provided. First, I used to blame Af-Am children's school problems on their parents and communities, but then I came to understand that their parents are as likely to be loving and supportive as anyone else's, and that their community's cultural values dictate that education is essential to success. Second, I learned more that made me see how schools unintentionally contributed to the problem of academic failure, but I still didn't understand the root. Specifically, I learned that many African-American kids get dumped into special education because they have "behavior problems" (often consisting of things that could be handled just fine if their teachers didn't have 40+ students in class!). This means that children of sometimes high intelligence are stuck in classes designed for IQ's under 70, getting "credits" that won't get them into college. In that discouraging situation, it is hardly surprising that behavior and truancy worsen. So I came to understand these two pieces of the puzzle, but was still missing a crucial third piece: why *do* African-American kids have more "behavior problems" than others in the first place? Some people told me "it's a cultural thing," but I didn't understand what that could mean. When they would explain, the "blame-the-parents" hints would creep back in. I have spent enough time "round the way" to see that many children who are out-of-control in school are perfectly well able to be polite and respectful to their elders in their own communities. So--why did these children not think that this same behavior was called for in school? I didn't understand. At the same time, on a personal level I was also starting to "feel" that elusive "cultural difference." Somehow, some of my African-American students didn't "see" me the way that the white kids "saw" me, but why? They seemed to like me, were friendly and personable, but oddly enough, they seemed not to understand what my role was and why I was there--and they continued to learn more slowly than others, even though I could see they were often bright. It was becoming clear to me that somehow, on some level, I was not communicating well with the children. But why????? The very first part of this book, the "Controversies Revisited," is the part that answered these questions and really blew my mind. I was so excited after reading it that I wrote the author with pen and paper (couldn't wait for my computer to warm up) to thank her. In fact I haven't even finished the book because I couldn't wait to tell more people about it. Delpit told me exactly what it is about the way I express myself that "doesn't compute" for my African-American students, which finally explains why they do not respond as I wish or expect. I did not take this as blame or "anti-white bias" because I know--I really do the things that she describes, and I know that other white educators do too. I didn't feel that Delpit was blaming us--rather, I felt that she understood that we were trying to nurture and support in ways that are appropriate to our culture, and that we are so bewildered when kids continue to fail. Delpit is teaching us how to do better across cultures, and it will help us immensely if we can suppress our pride and listen to her, understanding perhaps for the first time that what we are faced with truly is "cultural difference" just as if we were in another country. Just as in another country, we need to withhold our value judgments and seek ways to be effective communicators, so that African-American students can understand our expectations and meet them. Although I will get "unhelpful" votes, I will make no attempt to summarize the findings of the book here. I don't think that the other reviewers have done justice to the content, and I urge you to read the book for yourself. One really needs to read the book to gain a larger understanding--there is far too much to put into these paragraphs, and any excerpted ideas will sound simplistic and misguided without their explanatory context. Everything she says is well-supported by research and experience, and it fits perfectly with my own observations. This book should be required reading for persons of all backgrounds in the field of education.
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Summary: An insightful piece into multicultural education.
Review: Lisa Delpit 1995 Other People's Children: Cultural Conflict in the Classroom New York The New Press What are we really doing to better educate poor children and children of color? Lisa Delpit dores to ask this question in her book "Other People's Children." Now in 1999, we see many more children of color in the classroom. We also see the declining number of colored teachers. Are colored children receiving proper attention in the classroom? How can we as educators teaach them properly and without biasness? Delpit divides and addresses these issues into the three segments of her book. Part I challenges popular, widely-accepted approaches to literacy and emphasizes the importance of incorporating the child's "home culture" into the classroom. Part II chronicles her journeys in Papua New Guinea and Alaska. It is written through a series of essays reflecting attitudes of native colored teachers there and their overall thoughts towards the impact of culture on education. Part III expresses Delpit's concerns over the public education system: how policy makers and administrators need to assess teachers in their department to become culturally sensitive, and gives various solutions and directions as to what can be done to do so. Delpit also goes against mainstream thought by supporting a program that involves both basic skill instruction and the whole language approach. She stresses teachers to become "agents of change," to work with each student's strengths. Though some educators attempt to ignore those students who are lower on the socialeconomic status, Delpit urges them to embrace a child's culture as a whole. As someone who has grown up attending schools on military bases all over the world, it is actually weird for me to attend a school in which the majority of students and teachers are caucasian. But I believe that Delpit did a good job in guiding teachers who lack experience in multiculturalism, instead of just assuming all white teachers know nothing about how to teach diverse children at all. She also does a thorough job in explaining that change must occur in society for it to become effective in the classroom. The "power culture" plays such a critical role in our society (by most means, it defines our society), that it is rooted deeply in our educational system. Delpit lists these major problems and offers logical and realistic solutions to them...it is only up to us to listen and take action.
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