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Other People's Children: Cultural Conflict in the Classroom

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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.

Currently a recent college graduate from a predominantly-white Midwestern background, this book got me on a serious soul-searching thought process. This fall, I will teach high school students from a culture considerably different from my own... a Public School in the primarily Cajun and Creole areas of Southern Louisiana (where Lisa Delpit was raised!). I'd always thought I could rely on my own memories of great teachers from my childhood to guide me in my own techniques. This book opened my eyes to the fact that my own assumptions are based in my own culture. Effective methods of learning, communicating, and especially TEACHING children of other cultures can and probably will vary significantly from my own.

I think a previous reviewer seriously misjudged Ms. Delpit's intent by saying she implies "we need to separate our students by cultural backgrounds to teach them individually using different approaches." Far from that, Ms. Delpit simply explains that we need to question our own assumptions on all levels of the teaching profession, from the way we teach students to the way teachers are evaulated as "competent" on a national level.

Lisa does not present simple answers... difficult problems are seldom solved by such methods. Like any good teacher, she thoroughly presents us with a serious problem and leaves us to explore the answers within ourselves, while pointing us in the right direction. This isn't a "How to Fix Public Education" guideline as much as a "What Needs to be Fixed and What We Can Begin To Do About It" memorandum.

The language was honest, powerful and easy to read. I cannot stress enough how important books like this are to improving the quality of education (not just for minorities!) in our school systems nationwide.

I am a teacher and a Ph.D. student in education, and of all of the hundreds of articles and books I've read about education, Other People's Children has been one of the most useful, both in terms of my intellectual development and also in practical, common-sense classroom strategies. If you are an educator who is ready to stop blaming your students' parents for everything your students do wrong and who is ready to start asking what YOU can do to help your students achieve more, this book is an excellent choice for where to start.

Of particular interest were sections describing how well-intentioned teachers (not "the enemy" as another reviewer grossly mischaracterized) often enact policies that end up handicapping students who come from different backgrounds. Delpit describes the policies and the good intentions that led to them but also what the unintended consequences were and suggestions for how to deal with those consequences. Other helpful topics include descriptions of cultural differences in communication styles that can lead to conflict and how to address those, how to value your students' home cultures and still prepare them to succeed in the majority culture, and how to talk with your students about the social and political realities of being a minority in a majority culture.

I can't state strongly enough how this book transformed my thinking about teaching. I am no longer content to pathologize my students' home cultures, throw my hands in the air in despair, and say that there's nothing I can do. This book won't give you fool-proof recipes for success, as none exist; it offers descriptions of what her suggestions look like in practice. In fact, this book may raise more questions for you than it answers. If you're an educator looking to move forward, however, the questions raised are definitely worth the effort.

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.

"Other People's Children" offers a shocking view of the desperate cultural ignorance that is increasingly impacting our schools. Lisa Delpit, an African American woman forced out of her segregated southern community as a teenager, and into a newly integrated high school in the 1960's, expresses powerful feelings of neglect, racism, and misunderstanding of culture, both as a student and an educator. In an incredibly successful and for the most part unbiased effort, she produces a uniquely structured framework in which to build necessary educational reforms. The book is split into three separate sections, each relating to an idealistic, but certainly achievable plan of creating a culturally sound community of students, educators and administrators. Additionally, Delpit offers valuable tools to educators looking for a non-traditional approach to teaching. Although many of the processes discussed in the book are primarily developed for aiding students of color, several of the techniques can easily be worked into positive models of success for all students.
Delpit begins by introducing her "progressive" approach to learning literacy. "Skills and Other Dilemmas of a Progressive Black Educator," discusses the benefits and controversies surrounding the whole language "progressive" approach. Delpit brings these ideas to life through drawing on her own personal experiences. She mentions the fact that as a child, her mother, grandmother, and pre-integration teachers constantly corrected poor grammar and speech in an attempt to curb her away from "Black English" and toward "Standard English." The whole language approach to reading and writing, combined with basic skills, gradually became a main component of Delpit's own classroom repertoire as she discovered the benefits of utilizing a more nontraditional approach. By insisting her students write freely, focusing their energy on fluency rather than correctness, Delpit shows her knack for new and innovative ideas and the positive effect they have on children who had been declared by some colleagues as "unreachable." The whole language approach involved such skills as "fast writes," "golden lines," and writing through a group process approach, all of which I felt were invaluable tools. As an inner city fourth grade teacher, I utilized many of these techniques and saw firsthand the astounding results of which Delpit writes. Many of my students' writing abilities changed drastically. The whole language approach not only allows for more freedom and creativity in the writing process, but also provides an escape from more traditional methods.
Among the countless ideas discussed in this book, none is as compelling as the stories within "Lessons from Home and Abroad: Other Cultures and Communities." These essays further explore the importance of cultural acceptance and education as a path toward successful teaching. Education is most successful when the community, culture and customs of the people are integrated into the learning process. For example, the people of Papua New Guinea, a small country of three million citizens who speak a world record 700 different indigenous languages, were faced with the huge task of educating their inhabitants in "Standard English," without a loss of culture. After many failed attempts at forming a successful literacy campaign in the country, a new reform called "Vilis Tokples Pri-Skul" was developed which allowed students an opportunity to first learn by way of speaking their native tongue until approximately age 10, and then begin a slow and steady introduction to complete English immersion by age 15 (Delpit, 87). It was this reform that allowed English language acquisition without the sacrifice of native customs. A second essay speaks of the value of family as a central component of Native Alaskan culture. Some teachers use this knowledge to their advantage, while others, who do not yet understand the importance, struggle to make connections with their students. "Hello Grandfather," an article on the educational methods used to teach Native Alaskans, points out the importance of intonation, body language, and the speaker. When "Grandfather" speaks, everyone listens intently, this is due to a deeply rooted cultural belief the people hold for their elders. The essay explains in further detail, the depth of cultural knowledge teachers must discover in order to properly educate the village children. Through this and other stories, Delpit has proven the combination of language and culture to be a successful component of the learning process not only in the United States, but also in other countries around the world.
The last section of the book deals strictly with Delpit's education reform ideas, and the goals she believes need to be accomplished to provide an equal opportunity for all children, specifically those from diverse cultures. In prefacing the suggested reforms, Delpit examines everything from traditional teaching standards, to the controversy surrounding teacher assessment tests. Increasingly, teachers are being inundated with tests to prove their competency in the classroom, and unfortunately tests do not always determine the success of the educator. In addition, these tests have been considered by many, including Delpit, to be responsible for teacher attrition as well as the decline of new professionals entering the field; this is especially true where minorities are concerned.
After successfully proving her points time and again, Delpit presents her recommendations. The reforms come in a three step program centered on the improvement of the national teacher training program. First, she says teachers must connect with families both inside and outside of school, allowing for a better understanding of their students. Second, she recommends increased efforts in creating a more diverse teaching force. Teachers who have a clear understanding of who their students are will more easily connect with them. The last reform, and long past due, is the removal of the Eurocentric curriculum. It is high time to move on and discover the roots of all people, to learn about different cultures, and to gain a more positive understanding of who we are and how exactly we fit together.
Delpit does an amazing job at successfully convincing her readers about the dire situation some of our children face each day as they step off the bus and into the classroom. Although sometimes shocking in her discourse, it is crucial in understanding her position. The most interesting and enjoyable aspect of reading "Other People's Children," was that it truly allowed for a genuine connection to the people Delpit writes about. Stories and interviews are used as beautiful instruments that wholeheartedly convey feelings and attitudes to the reader, allowing for an overall intensive learning experience.
In a world where estimates suggest that black, Hispanic, Asian, and Native American children presently comprise more than 40 percent of the school age population, and "minority" students represent a majority in all but two of our twenty-five largest cities, it is critically important that the proper care and dedication be given to these students in order to grant a successful future without the loss of culture, language, or tradition. A Native Alaskan elder best described this effort when he said, "In order to teach you, I must know you" (Delpit, 183).

My interpretation of Other People's Children: Cultural Conflict in the Classroom is that Lisa Delpit is attempting to allow educators to realize what can be done to better educate all children no matter what nationality, ethnicity, gender, etc. Delpit also goes to explain how each individuals educational needs are different and how their needs should be met. The author divides the book into three main parts. Part one is entitled "Controversies Revisited" which contains several essays about literature and literacy. Part two, "Lessons From Home and Abroad" explains what an impact culture has on education in today's society. Delpit entitles part three "Looking to the Future" to indicate different ways society can make the changes necessary to teach within diverse cultures. Mainstream education can also be classified as dominant education. Today, the dominant culture is that of an urban professional and business population. These people are usually white, college educated, middle-class individuals. However, Delpit proves the majority of children in the classrooms today are black, low-income families. Throughout this book, Delpit tells us of several cases that prove what an impact our culture has on our education. Children of color tend to not have the same code of language and therefore lack the tools necessary to establish "Standard English." Delpit begins to tell us that without the basic knowledge and instructional skills, knowledge is limited to children of diverse cultures. She continues to tell us that we as educators are to set the same standards for each individual regardless of color. Not too many educators today pay attention to the basic skills and `steps' needed to build and enforce necessary knowledge to get through life. In today's society, an individual must be well educated and well informed of his/her surroundings. As a student and rising teacher, Lisa Delpit has opened my eyes to a series of problems involved in schools today. A lot of teachers are not worried about the future of each child. More are worried about just getting the child through his or her particular class. I strongly agree with Delpit's point of view in this particular book. We as teachers, parents, etc. must encourage all individuals to learn at their fullest capacities. There should be a code of learning yet each individual should be allowed to express their feelings and opinions through stories, experiences, etc. They should be allowed to use their own words, but we should be there to guide them in the right direction. We as educators should not constantly correct an individual but guide them into the same fluency of language allowing them to learn more about themselves and their world around them. Comprehension of this particular book was harder for me as a beginning educator. I do, however, recommend this book to those educators who have been involved in the field longer. I feel they are more in touch with the problems faced and are more apt to understand Delpit's point of view. I do believe that if I read this book again, I will be able to better understand and relate to Delpit's essays. Different views on American education are extremely important. It allows us as educators to recognize patterns, changes, or even solutions to problems that we as an individual may not have realized. Each opinion matters and should be voiced. I feel that there should not be one dominant culture. We should all be equal and just as important as the next.

Critique of Lisa Delpit's Other People's Children

As public education strives to address the educational needs of an increasingly diverse population, it is critical to be able to understand what educators can and should be doing to better educate all children. Being able to view education through others' cultural lenses provides for our own insight into the issues that surround teaching to diversity. Lisa Delpit is one educator who has challenged the mainstream education of our children to look closely at how we meet the needs of children from diverse cultures and backgrounds. She has asked us to examine the role of power in culture and how the issues surrounding power have influenced society and educational systems. She brings a powerful voice not only to those children of color in American schools, but also to those from other parts of the world. With passion and reason, Delpit provides case after case of students and teachers who acknowledge the powers within their culture and the impact on their education. Delpit presents her stories in a series of essays that date from the early 1980s. The book is divided into three parts. The first part contains essays that address "progressive" approaches to teaching literacy. "Skills and Other Dilemmas of a Progressive Black Educator," explore the controversies surrounding the whole language approach to teaching reading. Experiences of teachers and students are movingly portrayed. Delpit was actually ahead of her time in suggesting that the methods of whole language and process writing have not always served the best interests of children of color. She supports a comprehensive instructional program that emphasizes basic skill instruction as well as a whole language approach. Without the basic skills, children of color are denied access to the knowledge that is conveyed through a whole language approach. She demands that children of color be challenged and held to high standards, but they must have the tools in order to do so. Delpit extensively discusses the culture of power in the second essay, "The Silenced Dialogue." By citing five aspects of power that connect the classroom to society, she suggests that children must know the codes of power in order to be successful in mainstream society. As educators we must give all our students the skills needed to access the power within our culture. But just as important is how the teacher can preserves the integrity of the student's native culture, community, and background. The challenge is to mesh these two important pieces in order to have students be able to move comfortably from native culture to mainstream culture and be successful in both. The second part of the book is a discussion that offers a "world view" of the impact of culture on education. From Alaska to New Guinea, these essays speak to the importance of upholding and valuing the customs, language, and heritage of native peoples. Education is most successful for children from diverse cultures when teaching is done in the context of the culture and community of these children. Special attention should be paid to how cultures communicate. The examples from the native peoples of Alaska speak to the importance of the context of communication-body language, intonation, who is the communicator. All of these components must be given serious consideration when using mainstream, traditional, decontextualized methods of teaching literacy. Delpit emphasizes the need to use a combination of teaching styles and strategies to meet the educational needs of all children. The final section of Delpit's book deals with how to make the changes necessary to successfully teach children from diverse cultures. Delpit takes a stand on the use of professional teaching standards and the need for alternative assessment to determine the effectiveness of minority teachers much in the same way the use of standardized tests are used to evaluate minority student performance. She expresses concern over bias in assessment that may overlook the essential and effective qualities of teachers of color that may be overlooked with current models of teacher certification, specifically the National Board of Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS). A second essay in part three deals with the politics of what teachers must do to help children from the lower SES and children of color function successfully in the dominant discourse while validating the students' home language. Drawing on the work of James Paul Gee, Delpit makes an impassioned plea for teachers to be committed to teaching ALL of their students by becoming agents of change. Finally, Delpit tackles the challenges of multicultural educational reform. Citing the impact of (1) stereotypes, (2) teaching to student strengths, not deficits, (3) the value of community and family, and (4) specific problems with educating poor and culturally diverse students, she challenges programs of teacher education to lead the way in creating a more diverse teaching force, one that prepares teachers to really see and know the students we teach. Only then do we as teachers become agents of change. As an educator with over 15 years experience in public and private education, at all levels from elementary to higher education, I find it difficult to disagree with Delpit's perspectives on the issues concerning teaching to diversity and the culture of power. Because I am a member of the "culture of power" the text has made me look closely at my own biases and prejudices concerning how we educate all children. I have closely examined my own objectives in striving to teach preservice teachers about how we all can teach to diversity. As a teacher educator, I want to bring the student voice strongly to the front; I want my students to tell their own stories as relates to the role of education in creating goals for a multicultural curriculum. Moving past the rhetoric of multicultural education, Other People's Children: Cultural Conflict in the Classroom continues to be timely as Delpit has shown us a path to truly open up the world to all our students. I for one will strive to follow her lead.

"Hello Grandfather" is one scholar's perspective on the deficits of traditional education in the Alaskan Bush. The author, Lisa Delpit, often reflects back and draws comparison between several Native Alaskan cultures and her own African-American culture. Ms. Delpit addresses the issues of relevance, context, and decontextualization within the Alaskan Bush classroom.

My response to "Other People's Children" is going to be a fairly critical one. Through her writing, Ms. Delpit stumbled upon a few major pet peeves of mine: ignorance and shortsightedness. While I am sure Ms. Delpit researched her hypothesis well, she left out one very important element which would have surely impacted her point of view; actually teaching in the Bush. I, myself, have taught in Napakiak, Alaska, a fly-in village along the banks of the Kuskokwim River. My experiences there drastically changed my views of rural education and the many contributing factors which "make or break" educational effectiveness. I am always extremely irritated with people who tend to romanticize the reality of Bush life when they themselves have not actually lived there for any extended period of time. There is this tendency among the more affluent population to want to make reparations for exploitations past by justifying away behaviors today.

Delpit attempts to link the failures of traditional Alaskan public education on outsiders coming into villages and half hazardously educating Native children without any regard to custom or culture. This is a great fallacy for many reasons. Firstly, one of the greatest obstacles to achieving literacy in Alaskan villages today is not the student's focus on context. It's the ongoing movement that all children must first and foremost become fluent through the public schools in their native languages. For example, in the Lower Kuskokwim School district, the first critical years where connectedness of language takes hold is wasted on teaching kids Yup'ik that the parents could teach at home if they so choose. Instead, the kids are dropped into a Yup'ik Immersion Program where the teachers are not qualified. (By qualified, I am referred to the fact that the teachers had not graduated high school, were not fluent in Yup'ik themselves, and knew very little about educational process or strategies.) How can I say such politically incorrect things? Easily. I lived there and supervised the Yup'ik Immersion Program unlike Ms. Delpit.

Ms. Delpit does not ever address sociological concerns of wide-spread alcohol abuse, child abuse and neglect, poverty, drug/inhalant abuse, or the lack of opportunities in village communities. How one can possibly criticize a teacher's inability to reach their students without fully confronting those issues is absolutely confounding to me. Perhaps had Ms. Delpit spent less time talking to Grandfather Mountain she might have had time to brush up on Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.

Another constant source of confusion was Delpit's constant reference to her own experiences as a child within her African-American culture. Comparing rural Native Alaskans' cultural experiences to urban African-American cultural experiences is like comparing the proverbial apples and oranges. Both cultures are fantastically rich in perspective but being the receiving end of racism is not a leveling factor. Delpit repeatedly pointed to her own moments of revelation such as her mother stating Romper Room was only for white children. How does she parallel that moment of clarity with children who did not have television and were struggling with the daily challenges of subsistence living? How about the blind, generalized statement that at "white" universities that what you said was more important than how you said it? Delpit clearly has lead a sheltered existence is she honestly believes Caucasian people cannot read her body language or are not equally as offended at her subtly "rolling" her eyes.

Delpit comments towards the end of her paper, "Unfortunately, most Native Alaskan children do not have Native Alaskan teachers...". I would challenge Ms. Delbit to look deeper at that statement. Why is that? Are their cultural influences discouraging it from happening? I also have a story to share that a close Yup'ik friend told me while I lived in Napakiak.
A couple of years ago we had a girl go to school here. She was so smart. Everyone told her how lucky she was to be so smart. The girl studied hard and stayed in school. The year she was to graduate her teacher told her wonderful news. She had won a scholarship to go to college! When her grandfather, an elder, heard this news he did not celebrate with her. As the village elder, he refused to allow her to go. He said because she was so smart she was needed in her village. This wise old man could not see past the nose on his face.

Life in the village is not nearly as cut and dry as it seems. The race card is any easy one to play and often, a valid one. However, people are multifaceted and to ignore the factors in their lives which make each culture's experiences unique is a disservice to all. I wonder if Ms. Delpit is rolling her eyes now?

Delpit pulvarizes us with her brick-hard words about how teachers (both Black and White) must re-negotiate and re-align their paradigms regarding how to plan to teach minority children, especially those whose native tongue differs from English.

Please read this book carefully and do not allow her remarks (some of which may sound racist to Whites) get in the way of the main idea: all teachers of all colors need to understand how to improve literacy for minorities.

Delpit raises a lot of questions and brings up a lot of issues that need to be delved into more deeply. She recognizes and questions the power inequity that exists in our school systems and in society as a whole but does not offer any concrete solutions to the problem. She suggests that we teach students to "play the game" but never takes into consideration that for many it is more difficult to give up power that you have acheived than it is to do without that which you have never possessed. Delpit's book is a great starting place in that it does a good job of spelling out the inequality in the educational sphere and giving other educators a good starting point for creating some truly radical theory.