Other People's Children

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).

• ContentsEditor’s Note ixAcknowledgments xiIntroduction to the 2005 Edition xiiiIntroduction xxi PART 1: CONTROVERSIES REVISITEDSkills and Other Dilemmas of a Progressive Black Educator 11The Silenced Dialogue 21Language Diversity and Learning 48PART 2: LESSONS FROM HOME AND ABROADThe Vilis Tokples Schools of Papua New Guinea 77“Hello, Grandfather” 91Teachers’ Voices 105PART 3: LOOKING TO THE FUTURECross-cultural Confusions in Teacher Assessment 135The Politics of Teaching Literate Discourse 152Education in a Multicultural Society 167Reflections on Other People’s Children HERBERT KOHL 185Teaching the Hard of Head CHARLES M. PAYNE 188Other People’s Children: The Lasting Impact PATRICIA LESESNE 193Notes 201Index 215

"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