Other People's Children: Cultural Conflict in the Classroom
By
Lisa Delpit
Although Delpit's, Other People's Children can be misconstrued to be text that criticizes white educators, the issues she raises to expose the injustices to our minority/underserved diverse students are note worthy, especially if we, as educators, envision a stronger, impartial, and deserving educational system for all students in our society. I can relate to injustices to English Language Learners (ELL) who come from different countries either as refugees or immigrants to the USA. These children are placed in a class with behavioural problems because there is no other alternative for such children in our schools. Delpit's simple language and empirical experiences make the reading enjoyable and educational. If you are an educator who deals with minority students, this book is a must read.
When I consider the origins of my views, I realized that my personal history, by necessity, contributes considerably to my current belief systems. I write from a life lived in many margins, usually while struggling to approach the center of whichever page my life is unfolding at the moment. It has been the struggle to understand and adapt to various contexts that has led me on the personal journey of discovering other realities (Delpit, 1995, p. 73)
Delpit's epistemological disposition springs from her own reflection of how African American and other marginalized/underserved groups are treated in our classrooms. Delpit is cognizant of the fact that `progressive' methods that she learned as a student teacher did not convene with her own community of students. She also realized that the yardstick for measuring success is prescribed by the superior white majority in the USA, which is a serious prejudice to minority students because according to Delpit (1995), " I tell them that their language and cultural style is unique and wonderful, but there is a political power game that is also being played, and if they want to be in on that game there are certain games that they too must play (P. 40).
Delpit, a black educator exposes the injustices to minority students in classrooms due to power structures and subtle racism in our society. The repercussions of this imbalance are evident in our classrooms because of the hegemonic treatment that minority students receive from their teachers and society. Delpit uses the day-to-day conversions of students, teachers and the parents of children from diverse cultural backgrounds to expose the biases, prejudices, and presumptions conceded by society with regard to the abilities, interests, and academic achievement of disadvantaged children. The common thread that connects the different sections in the book is how power and cultural conflicts in our classrooms spring from our society at large and how teachers seem to be a party to this system due to how, "...educators feel themselves to be victimized by the institutions that seek to educate them" (p. 107).
Other People's Children is divided into three parts. Part 1 titled, Controversies Revisited deals with three subtopics. Skills and other Dilemma of a Progressive Black Educator along with The Silenced Dialogue: Power and Pedagogy in Educating Other People's Children discuss the pedagogues of those teachers who consider themselves "advanced". These teachers must re-examine their teaching styles to accommodate students from diverse/low SES backgrounds. It is crucial to explore and examine the teaching practices if the pedagogical practices assist or interfere with the growth of children from low-income families, especially if Standard English is the medium of instruction. Three essays in part one deal with examining why there is an inconsistency in the learning achievements between minority students and their white peers in our classrooms. In part two titled, Lessons from Home and Abroad: Other Cultures and Communities, Delpit expatiates on her own teaching, research, and empirical experiences in Papua New Guinea and Alaska. She further explains how these experiences provided her with a platform to acknowledge the cultural affiliations and its impact on learning, which is neglected in our classrooms. Delpit vouches for emancipation of the underserved students and makes a commitment to work toward helping students of diversity in her own classroom. She further suggests that our schools need to rethink the way we are educating our children including those that represent underserved, diverse, and marginalized through a reformation and restructuring of our schools.
Part two reiterates her anxieties and apprehensions about the funds of knowledge and Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) that teachers must impart/tap in students and the improvement is the result of the student's perspective. Learning is the product of students' socio cultural affiliations and not someone else's, especially the teacher's/school's assessment. The final part titled, Looking to the Future: Accommodating Diversity deals with the author's exploration of curricular practices and evaluation, which must acknowledge the diversities and variety of instructive approaches in accommodating all students in our classrooms. Delpit rightly posits that
We all interpret behaviours, information, and situations through our own cultural lenses; these lenses operate involuntarily, below the level of conscious awareness, making it seem that our view is simply `the way it is [or should be]" (p. 151)
Part three offers alternative ways or cautious ways of educating children, especially that they are `other people's children'.
Delpits' Other People's Children enabled me to realize that unless we value our student's point of view, approaches to learning, and the necessity to reform our own teaching methodologies/practices, we will continue to make some students left out and hence create a society that victimizes minority. Teaching like doctoring is a noble profession, and hence we teachers need to re-think our teaching practices so no student is treated differently or given untoward importance because of the class they represent. Educational institutions must strive to provide equal opportunities to all students for common good.
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Winner of an American Educational Studies Association Critics' Choice Award and Choice Magazine's Outstanding Academic Book Award, and voted one of Teacher Magazine's "great books," Other People's Children has sold over 150,000 copies since its original hardcover publication. This anniversary paperback edition features a new introduction by Delpit as well as new framing essays by Herbert Kohl and Charles Payne. In a radical analysis of contemporary classrooms, MacArthur Award-winning author Lisa Delpit develops ideas about ways teachers can be better "cultural transmitters" in the classroom, where prejudice, stereotypes, and cultural assumptions breed ineffective education. Delpit suggests that many academic problems attributed to children of color are actually the result of miscommunication, as primarily white teachers and "other people's children" struggle with the imbalance of power and the dynamics plaguing our system. A new classic among educators, Other People's Children is a must-read for teachers, administrators, and parents striving to improve the quality of America's education system.
- ISBN-101595580743
- ISBN-13978-1595580740
- Edition1R
- Publication date1 August 2006
- LanguageEnglish
- Print length256 pages
Product description
Review
"A godsend . . . honest and fair, yet visionary and firm." -Quarterly Black Review "Phenomonal. . . . [This book] overcomes fear and speaks of truths, truths that otherwise have no voice." -The San Francisco Review of Books "Here, finally, is multiculturalism with a human face." -Teacher Magazine "Provides an important, yet typically avoided, discussion of how power imbalances in the larger U.S. society reverberate in classrooms." -Harvard Educational Review
About the Author
Lisa Delpit is an Eminent Scholar and Executive Director of the Center for Urban Education and Innovation at Florida International University in Miami, where she lives. Her work is dedicated to providing excellent education for marginalized communities in the United States and abroad. Herb Kohl is a recipient of the National Book Award and the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award. He was the founder and first director of the Teachers and Writers Collaborative in New York City and established the PEN West Center in San Francisco, where he lives. He is the author of more than forty books, including the bestselling 36 Children and the classic "I Won't Learn from You" (The New Press).
Product details
- Language : English
- Paperback : 256 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1595580743
- ISBN-13 : 978-1595580740
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Kathy Ann
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great conversation starter
Reviewed in the United States on 10 June 2017Verified Purchase
This book was a required reading for an education class I took. Although I do feel like many of the topics touched upon in the book are relevant and important, this book is somewhat outdated. It does not consider the way that technology has integrated into the classroom or how education has changed over the last 10 years. On the other hand, I did love this book because it gave me an entirely different perspective on a topic that I didn't think much about otherwise and got me to think outside of the box. The lessons within the book, like variations of communication among cultures and barriers that students and teachers face, were really vital concepts for anyone to at least start thinking about. The book was awesome to read for my class because it started an amazing discussion among my classmates. The book is an easy read and the topics flow nicely to build upon one another.
9 people found this helpful
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E. Hogan
4.0 out of 5 stars
Other Peoples Children Review (english 145)
Reviewed in the United States on 28 November 2012Verified Purchase
Lisa Delpit's novel, "Other People's Children" is an insightful read about the cultural differences that exist in our society today. For some background information, Lisa Delpit is an African American who at a young age was forced into an integrated school district. She has written "Other People's Children" to share her beliefs on racism, mistreatment, and ignorance of our culture today. The book is divided into three sections, each consuming of a plan of action to create a more culture friendly society for teachers, students, and administration. Delpit's suggestion about her non-traditional approach to teaching is extremely insightful. Delpit focuses on teaching children of color, but her strategies and advice can be used to benefit all types of students.
The first section of the book, "Skills and Other Dilemmas of a Progressive Black Educator" discusses the ins and outs of our societies idea of a "language progressive" ideology. Here, and through out her entire novel, Delpit shares stories that have actually occurred in her life. For example, she talks about the idea of "black vs. standard English." Throughout her childhood, many would try and correct her grammar. This did not sit well with Delpit due to the fact that she believed she should write as she would talk. To keep from correcting her own students as she once was, she created a strategy to improve her students writing skills. She developed the idea of a "fast write" and "golden lines" which were to be done in a group process. This strategic plan helped students write freely, and focused their energy on fluency over correctness.
The next section of the book is titled, "Lessons from Home and Abroad: Other Cultures and Communities," These stories piece together the importance of culture acceptance. Delpit expresses that idea that education meets its maximized success when cultures of people are integrated. We can assume that by integrating our society, all will understand different perspectives of life. Delpit shared an incredible story about the Papua New Guinea in this section. Papua New Guinea is a county of only three million citizens who actually speak 700 different languages. They had to figure out how to teach all their citizens in "Standard English." After numerous failed attempts, a new reform labeled "Vilis Tokples Pri-Skul" was created. From the ages 10 to 15 students would learn English. This allowed the English language to reform in their society, while still allowing the people of Papua New Guinea to remain true to their culture. This example helped Delpit prove that the mixture of language and culture is your key to success in education.
The final section focuses completely on Delpits ideas for education reform, and goals that need to occur to provide equality for all children in the education atmosphere. Delpit goes into great detail discussing traditional style of teaching, and the negativity about teacher assessment tests. Delpit believes that teachers are overwhelmed with teacher assessment tests. However, these tests do not always determine the success of them. The tests have been consider to be the reason why their has been a significant decline in new professionals entering the teaching field. Furthermore, effects urban areas where minorities are a concern.
At the end of her book, Delpit shares recommendations. Her first recommendation is to teachers and family interaction. She believes that for a teacher to be successful, they must connect with their student's families inside and outside of the classroom. This helps teacher further their understanding of each individual student. She also recommends a more diverse teaching force. If you are a teacher and have a clear understand of what's going on in your student's lives, it will be much easier for them to trust you, and you to trust them. The last suggestion is the dismissal of Eurocentric curriculum. This segregated, race particular way of teaching needs to be reformed into a way to learn and teach about people of all backgrounds. This will provide our future with a more positive understanding of the world around us, and our place in it.
Delpit is successful in her attempts to inform readers about the difficulties our children face every day of their lives. Something she is a bit crucial, but her way of writing helps ones understand the importance of her beliefs. Delpits insightful stories, interviews, and beliefs create a story that gives future educators, like myself, a sense of hope to create change in the education world.
The first section of the book, "Skills and Other Dilemmas of a Progressive Black Educator" discusses the ins and outs of our societies idea of a "language progressive" ideology. Here, and through out her entire novel, Delpit shares stories that have actually occurred in her life. For example, she talks about the idea of "black vs. standard English." Throughout her childhood, many would try and correct her grammar. This did not sit well with Delpit due to the fact that she believed she should write as she would talk. To keep from correcting her own students as she once was, she created a strategy to improve her students writing skills. She developed the idea of a "fast write" and "golden lines" which were to be done in a group process. This strategic plan helped students write freely, and focused their energy on fluency over correctness.
The next section of the book is titled, "Lessons from Home and Abroad: Other Cultures and Communities," These stories piece together the importance of culture acceptance. Delpit expresses that idea that education meets its maximized success when cultures of people are integrated. We can assume that by integrating our society, all will understand different perspectives of life. Delpit shared an incredible story about the Papua New Guinea in this section. Papua New Guinea is a county of only three million citizens who actually speak 700 different languages. They had to figure out how to teach all their citizens in "Standard English." After numerous failed attempts, a new reform labeled "Vilis Tokples Pri-Skul" was created. From the ages 10 to 15 students would learn English. This allowed the English language to reform in their society, while still allowing the people of Papua New Guinea to remain true to their culture. This example helped Delpit prove that the mixture of language and culture is your key to success in education.
The final section focuses completely on Delpits ideas for education reform, and goals that need to occur to provide equality for all children in the education atmosphere. Delpit goes into great detail discussing traditional style of teaching, and the negativity about teacher assessment tests. Delpit believes that teachers are overwhelmed with teacher assessment tests. However, these tests do not always determine the success of them. The tests have been consider to be the reason why their has been a significant decline in new professionals entering the teaching field. Furthermore, effects urban areas where minorities are a concern.
At the end of her book, Delpit shares recommendations. Her first recommendation is to teachers and family interaction. She believes that for a teacher to be successful, they must connect with their student's families inside and outside of the classroom. This helps teacher further their understanding of each individual student. She also recommends a more diverse teaching force. If you are a teacher and have a clear understand of what's going on in your student's lives, it will be much easier for them to trust you, and you to trust them. The last suggestion is the dismissal of Eurocentric curriculum. This segregated, race particular way of teaching needs to be reformed into a way to learn and teach about people of all backgrounds. This will provide our future with a more positive understanding of the world around us, and our place in it.
Delpit is successful in her attempts to inform readers about the difficulties our children face every day of their lives. Something she is a bit crucial, but her way of writing helps ones understand the importance of her beliefs. Delpits insightful stories, interviews, and beliefs create a story that gives future educators, like myself, a sense of hope to create change in the education world.
24 people found this helpful
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Danielle Fleming
5.0 out of 5 stars
YES!
Reviewed in the United States on 12 February 2007Verified Purchase
I love this book! It has explained a lot of things I always hated about school. I majored in (Post)-Colonial English lit. for a lot of the reasons this book specifies. We all get sick of hearing the same language all the time. PCEL is almost all authors of different colors and cultures than the traditional dead white men. I really felt that Delpit reminded us why we travel and why we want to see other parts of existence and gave us a new way to do that without leaving home. I loved sharing this book with the other teachers in my house.
2 people found this helpful
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E. Gudas
3.0 out of 5 stars
Misleading
Reviewed in the United States on 30 July 2020Verified Purchase
I thought this was going to be a book looking at all aspects of education in the classroom but it seemed to stay within the English Language Arts subject area and didn't expand into other areas.
One person found this helpful
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