Other People's Children - by Lisa Delpit (Paperback)

About the Book

This anniversary edition of the classic revolutionary analysis of the role of race in the classroom features a new introduction by Delpit as well as new framing essays by Herbert Kohl and Charles Payne.

Book Synopsis

The classic, groundbreaking analysis of the role of race in the classroom and a guide for teaching across difference, from the MacArthur award-winning educator

"Phenomenal. . . . [This book] overcomes fear and speaks of truths, truths that otherwise have no voice." --San Francisco Review of Books

In this groundbreaking, radical analysis of contemporary classrooms, MacArthur award-winning author Lisa Delpit develops the theory that teachers must be effective "cultural transmitters" in the classroom, where prejudice, stereotypes, and assumptions often breed ineffective education. Delpit suggests that many academic problems attributed to children of color are actually the result of miscommunication, as primarily white teachers educate "other people's children" and perpetuate the imbalanced power dynamics that plague our system.

Now a classic of educational thought and a must-read for teachers, administrators, and parents striving to improve the quality of America's education system, Other People's Children has sold over 250,000 copies since its original publication. Winner of an American Educational Studies Association Critics' Choice Award and Choice magazine's Outstanding Academic Book Award, this anniversary edition features a new introduction by Delpit as well as important framing essays by Herbert Kohl and Charles Payne.

Review Quotes

"Phenomonal. . . . [This book] overcomes fear and speaks of truths, truths that otherwise have no voice."--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

MacArthur Award winner Lisa Delpit is the Felton G. Clark Professor of Education at Southern University. The author of the bestselling Other People's Children and "Multiplication Is for White People," co-editor (with Joanne Kilgour Dowdy) of The Skin That We Speak, and editor of Teaching When the World Is on Fire (all published by The New Press), she lives in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.