African Americans - General & Miscellaneous, Education - Social & Political Aspects, Teaching - Classroom Planning & Management, Ethnic & Minority Studies, Educational Theory, Research & History

Multiplication Is for White People

Name: Multiplication Is for White People
Author: Lisa Delpit
ISBN: 9781595588982

by Lisa Delpit

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Overview

Lisa Delpit’s Other People’s Children—which has sold more than a quarter-million copies to date—is a paradigm-shifting, highly acclaimed exploration of the cultural slippage between white teachers and students of color. In her long-awaited and now bestselling second book, "Multiplication Is for White People," the award-winning educator reflects on the last fifteen years of reform efforts—including No Child Left Behind, standardized testing, alternative teacher certification paths, and the charter school movement—that have left a generation of poor children of color feeling that higher educational achievement is not for them.

Hailed as "illuminating" (Publishers Weekly), "thought-provoking" (Harvard Educational Review), and a "much-needed review of the American educational system" (Kirkus Reviews), "Multiplication Is for White People" is a passionate reminder that there is no achievement gap at birth. Poor teaching, negative stereotypes, and a curriculum that does not adequately connect to poor children’s lives conspire against the prospects of poor children of color. From K-12 classrooms through the college years, Delpit brings the topic of educating other people’s children into the twenty-first century, outlining a blueprint for raising expectations based on a simple premise: that all aspects of advanced education are for everyone.

About the Author, Lisa Delpit

MacArthur "genius" award winner Lisa Delpit's article on "Other People's Children" for Harvard Magazine was the single most requested reprint in the magazine's history following its publication. Delpit expanded her ideas into a groundbreaking book with the same name, which won a Critics' Choice Award from the American Educational Studies Association, Choice magazine's Outstanding Academic Title award, and was voted one of Teacher Magazine's "great books." A recipient of the Harvard School of Education's award for an Outstanding Contribution to Education, she is dedicated to providing excellent education to communities both in the United States and abroad. She is a co-editor of The Real Ebonics Debate, Quality Education as a Constitutional Right, and The Skin That We Speak(The New Press). Currently the Felton G. Clark Professor of Education at Southern University, she lives in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

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Editorials

From the Publisher

Praise for Lisa Delpit and “Multiplication Is for White People”:

“[Delpit] focuses urgently on the issue of expectation—and the solutions she proposes feel both simple and radical.”
—The Boston Globe

“[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

“All readers can appreciate this thought-provoking book. . . .The quality of education that Delpit advocates for Black children is a high but necessary bar, one that all children need and deserve.”
—Harvard Educational Review

“Anyone concerned with the state of American schooling will find Delpit’s smooth blending of the personal, the professional, and the political appealing and illuminating.”
—Publishers Weekly

“At a time when deep thinking about education dilemmas is in short supply, Delpit has produced a volume that forces us to do just that.”
—Pedro Noguera, author of The Trouble with Black Boys and executive director of the NYU Metropolitan Center for Urban Education

“We must heed her words of wisdom.”
—Diane Ravitch, author of The Death and Life of the Great American School System

“Clearly articulated discussions about educating young children, teaching adolescents, and working with students at the university level and beyond reflect Delpit’s knowledge and passion about teaching all children. Summing Up: Highly recommended.”
—Choice

Publishers Weekly

A decade after her award-winning Other People’s Children: Cultural Conflicts in the Classroom, MacArthur Fellow and education professor Delpit, her passion unassuaged, takes a fresh look at education practice and theory with a sharp focus on “children marginalized either by income-level or ethnicity—or both.” Exploring four stages (infants, early childhood, adolescents, college age), her book is full of firsthand observations of teachers and students in multiple settings, most commonly the inner-city, and trenchant anecdotal accounts of her own experiences with her daughter’s “often difficult travels through school,” some predominantly white, some predominantly black. Delpit’s assessments of Teach for America and No Child Left Behind, while respectful of the goals, are critical of both the practices and the results. In reviewing current scholarship, she offers jargon-free explanations of current terminology (like “stereotype threat” and “microaggression”), and clarifies arguments with graphs and statistics. This is very much a book for teachers and education professionals, but anyone concerned with the state of American schooling will find Delpit’s smooth blending of the personal, the professional, and the political appealing and illuminating. (Mar.)

Kirkus Reviews

A call-to-action book on how to close the racial achievement gap in the American educational system. Despite having an African-American as president, MacArthur winner Delpit (Education/Southern Univ.; Other People's Children, 1995, etc.) writes that African-American students are still not being treated as equal to their white peers. Using numerous examples from school situations and her own daughter's experiences, the author shows that stereotypes and racial prejudices still abound, with many teachers teaching "down" to their black students. To counteract this negative effect, teachers need to understand the cultural backgrounds of their students and connect the curriculum to this background so that learning has relevance to the student. Instead of asking "do you know what I know?" Delpit says the question to ask is "what do you know?" "This is the question that will allow us to begin, with courage, humility, and cultural sensitivity the right educational journey," she writes. When good teachers incorporate this method and learn to identify with each individual child, test scores and self-esteem rise and disobedience and absenteeism fall. Delpit feels her work in education is two-fold: She is "charged with preparing the minds and hearts of those who will inherit the earth…as a sacred trust…and the second purpose…is to build bridges across the great divides, the so-called achievement gap, the technology gap, class divisions, the racial divide." If all teachers adopted these ideas, the American educational system would be vastly improved for all students. Covering age groups from preschool to college, Delpit offers advice to new and veteran teachers, advice that applies not only to African-American students but to all ethnic and minority groups. A much-needed review of the American educational system and an examination of the techniques needed to improve the teaching methods of all involved in that system.