Customer Reviews

Because of the Kids : Facing Racial and Cultural Differences in Schools (Practitioner Inquiry, 18)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book gives good insight into the world of teaching and how the differences we perceive as teachers are some of the same differences our students face in the learning process. It opens your eyes to understanding your role as a teacher and how the stereotypes we bring with us may affect our effectiveness as teachers. I recommend this book to everyone trying to understand how to effectively teach a diversity of students to reach their full potential.

Obidah and Teel document their own journeys as educators overcoming internal and external racism within the classroom, an issue which plagues many school systems in our nation. Although the accounts of Obidah and Teel can at times be jumpy, they read as a conversation between educators determined to overcome issues so that the students can fully benefit from the best education possible. I highly recommend this book to fellow educators, as well as anyone within academe interested in studying cultural diversity tactics within the classroom.

The two authors are to be commended for taking on such an enormous topic, but in the end the product is a little hard to get through. It tends to read like a back-and-forth journal of Jennifer's subjective observations of Karen's classroom techniques and Karen's subjective responses to those observations. I'd be more interested if there were some quantitative evidence provided as to higher student performance as a result of the experiment.

I also thought the use of "herstories" as an interesting choice for the relating of the authors' biographical information. With no explanation for the choice, it makes the reader wonder if the authors had bought into the myth that "history" is a form of "his story" rather than the Greek for "learning through inquiry" or if the authors were just being clever. Also there are some stylistic inconsistencies (mostly with numbers) that could cause the reader to wonder how much time went into the editing of this book.

In the same genre, I might be more inclined to read "White Teacher Talks about Race" by Julie Landsman.

Also Lisa Delpit's "The Skin That I Speak" is a good read. In "Because of the Kids," the authors relate a summary of an interview in which Delpit asks a variety of questions about the authors' lives and experiment. This tends to be a little repetitive of the earlier portions of the book, and frankly, I'd rather the authors have interviewed Delpit about her conclusions of their findings that her interviewing them.

Just my opinion,

Donato

I think that racism is an almost impossible subject to tackle; but if there is a good reason to go through it - it is our future, the kids. These two authors struggle with the issues and come to some important understanding. If you really want to understand it and if you need a powerful reason to struggle with it. This book will help you do it.