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"Multiplication Is for White People": Raising Expectations for Other People's Children QUOTES

"Multiplication Is for White People": Raising Expectations for Other People's Children QUOTES

1 " There is no achievement gap at birth. "

― , "Multiplication Is for White People": Raising Expectations for Other People's Children

2 " 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. "

― , "Multiplication Is for White People": Raising Expectations for Other People's Children

3 " 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. "

― , "Multiplication Is for White People": Raising Expectations for Other People's Children

4 " Otherwise, as one New Orleans community activist told me, we are providing low-income schools with tourists rather than teachers. "

― , "Multiplication Is for White People": Raising Expectations for Other People's Children

5 " 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. "

― , "Multiplication Is for White People": Raising Expectations for Other People's Children

6 " 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. "

― , "Multiplication Is for White People": Raising Expectations for Other People's Children

7 " 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 "

― , "Multiplication Is for White People": Raising Expectations for Other People's Children

8 " 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. "

― , "Multiplication Is for White People": Raising Expectations for Other People's Children

9 " 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. "

― , "Multiplication Is for White People": Raising Expectations for Other People's Children

10 " 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. "

― , "Multiplication Is for White People": Raising Expectations for Other People's Children

11 " It is important to point out, however, that high expectations and strong demands are insufficient. The other necessary components are care and concern. When students believe that the teacher cares for them and is concerned about them, they will frequently rise to the expectations set. When students believe that teachers believe in their ability, when they see teachers willing to go the extra mile to meet their academic deficiencies, they are much more likely to try. "

― , "Multiplication Is for White People": Raising Expectations for Other People's Children

12 " 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. "

― , "Multiplication Is for White People": Raising Expectations for Other People's Children

13 " 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. "

― , "Multiplication Is for White People": Raising Expectations for Other People's Children

14 " The ideas of privatization, charter schools, Teach for America, the extremes of the accountability movement, merit pay, increased standardized testing, free market competition—all are promulgated and financially supported by corporate foundations, which indeed have those funds because they can avoid paying the taxes that the rest of us must foot. Thus, educational policy has been virtually hijacked by the wealthiest citizens, whom no one elected and who are unlikely ever to have had a child in the public schools. "

― , "Multiplication Is for White People": Raising Expectations for Other People's Children

15 " 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. "

― , "Multiplication Is for White People": Raising Expectations for Other People's Children

16 " Now, because of the insertion of the “market model,” charter schools often shun the very students they were intended to help. "

― , "Multiplication Is for White People": Raising Expectations for Other People's Children

17 " As a result, the education for mind and body was also linked to education for the spirit. Therefore, in the African tradition, it is the role of the teacher to appeal to the intellect, the humanity, and the spirituality in his or her student. "

― , "Multiplication Is for White People": Raising Expectations for Other People's Children

18 " Why do we punish our children with our inability to teach them? "

― , "Multiplication Is for White People": Raising Expectations for Other People's Children

19 " 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. "

― , "Multiplication Is for White People": Raising Expectations for Other People's Children

20 " 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. "

― , "Multiplication Is for White People": Raising Expectations for Other People's Children