Other People’s Children: Cultural Conflict in the Classroom

Lisa Delpit

The New Press, Aug 1, 2006 - Education - 223 pages

The classic, groundbreaking analysis of the role of race in the classroom and a guide for teaching across difference, from the MacArthur Award–winning educator

“Phenomenal. . . . [This book] overcomes fear and speaks of truths, truths that otherwise have no voice.” —San Francisco Review of Books

In this groundbreaking, radical analysis of contemporary classrooms, MacArthur Award–winning author Lisa Delpit develops the theory that teachers must be effective “cultural transmitters” in the classroom, where prejudice, stereotypes, and assumptions often breed ineffective education. Delpit suggests that many academic problems attributed to children of color are actually the result of miscommunication, as primarily white teachers educate “other people’s children” and perpetuate the imbalanced power dynamics that plague our system.

Now a classic of educational thought and a must-read for teachers, administrators, and parents striving to improve the quality of America’s education system, Other People’s Children has sold over 150,000 copies since its original publication. Winner of an American Educational Studies Association Critics’ Choice Award and Choice magazine’s Outstanding Academic Book Award, this anniversary edition features a new introduction by Delpit as well as important framing essays by Herbert Kohl and Charles Payne.

What people are saying

LibraryThing Review

User Review  - laurensx - LibraryThing

I loved this book. Delpit outlines how some publishers profit from the exploitation of schools which serve minority populations. She also details the lack of and need for, teacher training for ...

OTHER PEOPLE'S CHILDREN: Cultural Conflicts in the Classroom

User Review  - Kirkus

A cogent collection of essays and academic papers suggesting that multiculturalism in the classroom is an illusion that masks miscommunication and the continuation of a white-male-dominated society ...

Contents

• Part 2: 71
• Part 3: 129
• Notes: 201
• Index: 215

About the author

MacArthur Award winner Lisa Delpit is the Felton G. Clark Professor of Education at Southern University. The author of the bestselling Other People's Children and "Multiplication Is for White People," co-editor (with Joanne Kilgour Dowdy) of The Skin That We Speak, and editor of Teaching When the World Is on Fire (all published by The New Press), she lives in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Other People’s Children: Cultural Conflict in the Classroom
• Author: Lisa Delpit
• Edition: revised
• Publisher: The New Press, 2006
• ISBN: 1595586547, 9781595586544
• Length: 223 pages
• Subjects: Education / Educational Policy & Reform / General; Education / Multicultural Education; Education / Urban; Social Science / Discrimination