"Multiplication Is for White People" Quotes

“As a result of this “racism smog,” many of our children have internalized all of the negative stereotypes inherent in our society’s views of black people. A student teacher at Southern University told me that she didn’t know what to say when an African American eighth-grade boy came up to her and said, “They made us the slaves because we were dumb, right, Ms. Summers?” Working with a middle schooler on her math, a tutor was admonished, “Why you trying to teach me to multiply, Ms. L.? Black people don’t multiply; black people just add and subtract. White people multiply.”
― Lisa Delpit, "Multiplication Is for White People": Raising Expectations for Other People's Children

“A second reason African American students are not excelling is that we have all been affected by our society’s deeply ingrained bias of equating blackness with inferiority.”
― Lisa Delpit, "Multiplication Is for White People": Raising Expectations for Other People's Children

“If the curriculum we use to teach our children does not connect in positive ways to the culture young people bring to school, it is doomed to failure.”
― Lisa Delpit, "Multiplication Is for White People": Raising Expectations for Other People's Children

“There is no achievement gap at birth.”
― Lisa Delpit, "Multiplication Is for White People": Raising Expectations for Other People's Children

“Assessment is a lot trickier than we think, especially if the children we are assessing are not from the same culture as the test makers.”
― Lisa Delpit, "Multiplication Is for White People": Raising Expectations for Other People's Children

“Otherwise, as one New Orleans community activist told me, we are providing low-income schools with tourists rather than teachers.”
― Lisa Delpit, "Multiplication Is for White People": Raising Expectations for Other People's Children

“No matter what the standards dictate, there is plenty of room for teachers working together to refine mandated instruction so that it is more appropriate for their students.”
― Lisa Delpit, "Multiplication Is for White People": Raising Expectations for Other People's Children

“Successful teachers of children marginalized either by income-level or ethnicity—or both—have long understood that their charges not only need strong instruction in skills, but they need to know that it is skills, and not intelligence, that they lack.”
― Lisa Delpit, "Multiplication Is for White People": Raising Expectations for Other People's Children

“Why do we punish our children with our inability to teach them?”
― Lisa Delpit, "Multiplication Is for White People": Raising Expectations for Other People's Children

“Too often in schools, we either ask teachers to be lone rangers in trying to create better instruction, or we give them prescribed "teacher-proof" lessons that may or may not be appropriate for their students.”
― Lisa Delpit, "Multiplication Is for White People": Raising Expectations for Other People's Children

“Because middle-class home culture is so taken for granted, so "transparent," it often exists outside of conscious awareness for those who are members of that culture, especially in schools. It is assumed to be what "everyone knows," just the background of normal life—knowledge that does not need to be taught. Consequently, when this knowledge is not exhibited by children or adults, there is a sense that something is wrong, perhaps a lack of basic intelligence.”
― Lisa Delpit, "Multiplication Is for White People": Raising Expectations for Other People's Children

“When students doubt their own competence, they typically respond with two behaviors: they either hide (hoods over faces, heads on desks) and try to become invisible, or they act out to prevent a scenario unfolding in which they will not be able to perform and will once again be proved "less than." Teachers frequently misinterpret both of these behaviors, usually inferring that the student is unmotivated, uninterested, or behavior disordered.”
― Lisa Delpit, "Multiplication Is for White People": Raising Expectations for Other People's Children

“In other words, every human brain has the built-in capacity to become, over time, what we demand of it. No ability is fixed. Practice can even change the brain.”
― Lisa Delpit, "Multiplication Is for White People": Raising Expectations for Other People's Children

“I write these words because what we need to know at a very deep level is that African American children do not come into this world at a deficit. There is no “achievement gap” at birth—at”
― Lisa Delpit, "Multiplication Is for White People": Raising Expectations for Other People's Children

“Kati Haycock has calculated that three to four weeks of effective, full-day literacy instruction would allow the average student to gain an entire year of academic growth.”
― Lisa Delpit, "Multiplication Is for White People": Raising Expectations for Other People's Children

“After all the students were seated, the teacher picked up the broom and began to lecture them. Why didn’t any of them pick the broom up? Did they think it belonged on the floor? Who were they waiting for to tell them what was right? The message of the lesson was contained in her repeated words, “You cannot afford not to think! You cannot wait for others to tell you what you know is right! You have to think! No one will think for you, and if they do, they mean you no good!” This teacher understood that students who are members of a group stigmatized and oppressed by the larger society have to learn to think”
― Lisa D. Delpit, "Multiplication Is for White People": Raising Expectations for Other People's Children

“Martin Haberman calls this agreement one aspect of the “pedagogy of poverty.”
― Lisa D. Delpit, "Multiplication Is for White People": Raising Expectations for Other People's Children

“As I have previously written, many of our children of color don’t learn from a teacher, as much as for a teacher. They don’t want to disappoint a teacher who they feel believes in them.”
― Lisa D. Delpit, "Multiplication Is for White People": Raising Expectations for Other People's Children

“In other words, having high academic standards without providing the necessary social support essentially wiped out all potential gain.”
― Lisa D. Delpit, "Multiplication Is for White People": Raising Expectations for Other People's Children

“J.C. High Eagle, a Native American leader, has said, if we live life right, we truly understand that we are but spokes on the great wheel of life and that which endangers one spoke endangers the entire wheel. Our work is to strengthen the wheel by strengthening each individual spoke.”
― Lisa Delpit, "Multiplication Is for White People": Raising Expectations for Other People's Children

“Education can un-silence dialogues that are critical for our mutual salvation.”
― Lisa Delpit, "Multiplication Is for White People": Raising Expectations for Other People's Children

“We have to be willing to allow ourselves to be critiqued if we are to ensure that individual students of color feel that they are valuable additions to the college campus.”
― Lisa Delpit, "Multiplication Is for White People": Raising Expectations for Other People's Children

“If we want students who engage in the practice necessary to achieve, if we want students who persist in the face of failure, if we want students who want to come to school, then what do we need to do to make school more like basketball?”
― Lisa Delpit, "Multiplication Is for White People": Raising Expectations for Other People's Children

“Musical ability is not an inborn talent but an ability which must be developed. Any child who is properly trained can develop musical ability, just as all children develop the ability to speak their mother tongue. The potential of every child is unlimited.”
― Lisa Delpit, "Multiplication Is for White People": Raising Expectations for Other People's Children

“For the remainder of his basketball career, no one ever practiced so long or played so hard. The rest is history. Jordan was not “born” with skills that he exhibited from childhood. He developed the skills through his drive and willingness to put in those countless hours of practice.”
― Lisa Delpit, "Multiplication Is for White People": Raising Expectations for Other People's Children

“But this pure genius was nowhere to be found when Jordan was young. He was not even the best athlete in his family—older brother Larry was. He was not the hardest worker; he actually had the reputation of being the laziest of his five siblings. In fact, after attending summer basketball camp, Jordan didn’t even make the varsity basketball squad in high school.”
― Lisa Delpit, "Multiplication Is for White People": Raising Expectations for Other People's Children

“What drives excellence, however, is not solely genes but a combination of innate ability, cultural environment, drive, and practice. And of these, practice and the belief that practicing hard will improve performance seem to top the list.”
― Lisa Delpit, "Multiplication Is for White People": Raising Expectations for Other People's Children

“The consensus of researchers and practitioners is that spending time reading, discussing, and writing about text in class allows students to become crucially literate. Too often teachers assign readings for homework, while at the same time complaining that low-performing students don’t do homework!”
― Lisa Delpit, "Multiplication Is for White People": Raising Expectations for Other People's Children

“They engage in conversations with disrupters outside of class to build the relationships that are the basis of cooperation. And these students know that if the teacher is strong enough to control them, then the teacher is strong enough to protect them.”
― Lisa Delpit, "Multiplication Is for White People": Raising Expectations for Other People's Children

“It is the quality of relationship that allows a teacher’s push for excellence. As I have previously written, many of our children of color don’t learn from a teacher, as much as for a teacher. They don’t want to disappoint a teacher who they feel believes in them. They may, especially if they are older, resist the teacher’s pushing initially, but they are disappointed if the teacher gives up, stops pushing.”
― Lisa Delpit, "Multiplication Is for White People": Raising Expectations for Other People's Children