Other Peoples Children Lisa Delpit Book Review Multiculuralism in the classroom
Report: Other People’s Children, Lisa Delpit In the classroom teachers are expected to teach and students are expected to learn. ... However, the process is not as simple as that says Lisa Delpit, author of “Other Peoples Children: Cultural Conflict in the Classroom.” Delpit, an African-American educator and McArthur Award winner draws from her past and present experiences to suggest that the imbalance of power and miscommunication have contributed to inequality in education today. In her book she details that, in education, racial biases are apparent and affect the way teachers teach and the way students learn, ultimately failing both parties in their search for social and economical success. Her book, which is compromised of multiple essays and speeches of her own, illustrates all the small details that compromise the failure of educating minorities and provides solutions for these small but significant details. First, Delpit writes that the system of learning through which minorities are educated is failing them because minority faculty and staff are not being integrated into writing programs and projects sponsored by the state. “I further suggest that it is the responsibility of the dominant group members to attempt to hear the other side of the issue” she says, informing the reader that the writing process approach to education was failing minority students due to the lack of involvement by minority educators. ... She informs the reader that black educators are adamantly against the writing process approach because they see the fluency that black children possess and says that what the children really need to be educated on is the skills, which they lack.