Other People's Children: Cultural Conflict in the Classroom

Other People’s Children just begins to illustrate the disconnect between the education system and its inhabitants. Lisa Delpit does a brilliant job navigating the dichotomy between the well intended teachers and faculty and missed opportunities to truly teach to the strengths of children of color. This still rings true in 2022. Must read!

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.

"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

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?

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.

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. Educat