Kwanzaa and Me: A Teachers Story (Paperback)

by Vivian Gussin Paley (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Paley, a white kindergarten teacher at the Univ. of Chicago Laboratory Schools, interviewed parents of black pupils, adult graduates of integrated schools, African American teachers, a Tlingit Indian Head Start teacher in Alaska and students of various racial and ethnic backgrounds. To her surprise, many of the black parents and teachers were deeply skeptical of the integrated classroom, citing subtle but pervasive racism, and said they favored all-black schools as the best environment to build their children's self-esteem and sense of identity. Recording her dialogues and encounters at conferences and schools around the country, Paley (You Can't Say You Can't Play) supports the multicultural classroom as a forum where teachers can help children recognize and accept individual differences. She also relates here her fictional stories featuring a runaway slave, Kwanzaa (whose name she took from the African American holiday), which she uses to teach about racism in this sensitive report.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review
Paley has learned the essential lesson, and from her little schoolroom in Hyde Park, she's taught it to a generation of teachers and parents and caretakers of children around the globe. It is this: Take very seriously the things that children say, and take equally seriously the things you say to your children...Paley has poured what she's heard onto the pages of eight remarkable books, the latest, Kwanzaa and Me: A Teacher's Story. Each book tackles a single central question of classroom life--the racism, the stories, the gender differences, the children's development, the outsider and the struggle to belong, the ethics, and the ways in which classrooms dismiss the differences, and thus the heart, of the children who make up their rosters...Along the way, and probably a good bit of the reason she was awarded a MacArthur Foundation 'genius' award in 1989, Paley has given all of us not just snapshots of the minds and souls of preschoolers and kindergartners but full-blown portraits of how they think, what they feel and the ways in which they imagine, complete with all the shadings and brush strokes that can be born only of a child's most intimate, unguarded revelations.
--Barbara Mahany (Chicago Tribune Magazine )

Paley has, once again, shown an uncanny sensitivity to what young people are interested in and meshed it with the needs of our society?
--Senator Paul Simon

[Paley's] message, conveyed with touching simplicity and never a heavy hand, is twofold. One component is to encourage people to talk to one another about race, and she is clearly a master of that. The second, more elusive, is what one of her colleagues calls 'the other curriculum,' which allows children to feel comfortable with their emotions and their differences... Every teacher and every parent should read this.
--David K. Shipler (New York Times Book Review )

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Product Details

• Paperback: 152 pages
• Publisher: Harvard University Press (October 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0674505867
• ISBN-13: 978-0674505865
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.3 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #154,792 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars This book is an amazing catalyst for discussions., September 23, 1999

By A Customer

I am a college student and read this book for an education class. To be honest I was less than impressed as I began reading it, but it held me rivited to find out what would come next. My feelings about the book as a whole changed at the conclusion when I realized the author wasn't trying to answer the questions of race and intergration, rather, she was giving us an opportunity to discuss it. Even in my group, which read and gave a presentation on the book, we found ourselves talking at length about racial and religious issues. I was impressed.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars thought provoking search into the black/white issue, September 20, 1999

By A Customer

The reviews on the back of the book gave me the impression that the book was more multicultural. It touched briefly on other ethnic groups or experiences, but it's main underlying themes appeared to be: should children (black or white) be taught by a teacher of their own race and is integration really at the best educational interest of young children? Ms. Paley posed these questions and answered them through interviews with parents, students, and other educators. I highly recommend this book for the thought provoking questions it raises. The answer seemed simple to me. I quote the book pg. 96: "Some people of any color simply have a better instinct for children." All we need is a little of Kwanzaa's empathy and a strong sense of community. This is what Ms. Paley seems to be telling us about the structure of our future schools if we (parents & teachers) truly wish to have integrated schools that meet the needs of our students at all their development levels.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Kwanzaa, November 21, 2005

By	Mariyah R "Mariyah" (Cortaro, AZ United States) - See all my reviews

Even though the content of this book is relevent and to the point of multiculturalism in our schools and society today, the book is written more for a child than an adult and becomes tedious halfway through. Ms. Paley needs to hire a writer to convey her messages!