The Skin That We Speak

"Lucid, accessible" Insightful research on classroom language bias for educators and "parents concerned about questions of power and control in public schools" (Publishers Weekly).

In this collection of thirteen essays, MacArthur Fellow Lisa Delpit and Kent State University Associate Professor Joanne Dowdy take a critical look at the issues of language and dialect in the education system. The Skin That We Speak moves beyond the highly charged war of idioms to present teachers and parents with a thoughtful exploration of the varieties of English spoken today.

At a time when children who don't speak formal English are written off in our schools, and when the class- and race-biased language used to describe those children determines their fate, The Skin That We Speak offers a cutting-edge look at this all-important aspect of education. Including groundbreaking work by Herbert Kohl, Gloria Ladson-Billings, and Victoria Purcell-Gates, as well as classic texts by Geneva Smitherman and Asa Hilliard, this volume of writing is what Black Issues Book Review calls "an essential text."

"The book is aimed at helping educators learn to make use of cultural differences apparent in language to educate children, but its content guarantees broader appeal." —Booklist

"An honest, much-needed look at one of the most crucial issues in education today." —Jackson Advocate