Other People's Children: Cultural Conflict in the Classroom
             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.
             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," explores the controversies surrounding the whole language approach to teaching reading. Experiences of teachers and students are movingly portrayed. Delpit suggests 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 mainst
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