Other People's Children: Cultural Conflict in the Classroom (Paperback)

~ Lisa Delpit (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

MacArthur fellow and educator Delpit argues that many minority students are erroneously labeled "underachievers" due to failures of communication between teachers and students.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

A godsend. . . honest and fair, yet visionary and firm. -- Quarterly Black Review

Here, finally, is multiculturalism with a human face. -- Teacher Magazine

Phenomenal. . . Reading it feels like a breath of fresh air in an increasingly polluted world. Without works like this, those of us who are struggling to change our schools (as well as our society) would be unable to breathe. -- San Francisco Review of Books

[Delpit] is a keen student of the way that ideas and practices take on new meanings in cultural contexts, including the context of unequal power. -- The Nation

[Other People's Children] provides an important, yet typically avoided, discussion of how power imbalances in the larger U.S. society reverberate in classrooms. -- Harvard Educational Review

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 206 pages
• Publisher: New Press (February 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1565841808
• ISBN-13: 978-1565841802
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (49 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #453,896 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

214 of 228 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars this book is not anti-white--it's the answer we have sought, March 9, 2003

By	vcrs (Madison, WI, USA) - See all my reviews

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.

70 of 75 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Eye-Opening, Alarming..., May 30, 2001

By	Mike MacFerrin (Baton Rouge, LA United States) - See all my reviews

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.

32 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Other People's Children was Transformative, October 27, 2005

By	J. Mills (Columbus, OH USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.