“Multiplication Is for White People”: Raising Expectations for Other People’s Children

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.