Other Peoples Children -Op/125

Children of color, as well as poor children--``other people's children''--are often victimized by school administrators and others who see ``damaged and dangerous caricatures'' instead of able youngsters who are capable of learning in a mainstream setting. This is the observation of Delpit, who has used her varied experience in schools from New Guinea to Alaska to better understand and resolve cultural clashes in American classrooms. In the provocative essays collected here, Delpit unfolds her views on teaching African American children, based on professional research and her own experience of school as an alien environment. Defining the goal of educators as celebration, not merely toleration, of diversity in the classroom, Delpit illustrates ways that teachers, including African Americans, can build on students' home cultures to help prepare them for life after school. The author's vision of alternative perspectives should stimulate rethinking the complexities of multicultural inclusiveness. Delpit is Benjamin E. Mays Chair of Urban Educational Leadership at Georgia State Univ. (Mar.)