White Teacher, with a New Preface

White Teacher Vivian Gussin Paley With a New Preface Vivian Paley presents a moving personal account of her experiences teaching kindergarten in an integrated school within a predominantly white, middle-class neighborhood. In a new preface, she reflects on the way that even simple terminology can convey unintended meanings and show a speaker's blind spots. She also vividly describes what her readers have taught her over the years about herself as a white teacher. White Teacher is really a nonfictional bildungsroman, a chronicle of both Paley's educational progress and that of the kindergartners under her charge ... The stories, beyond even the lessons she draws from them, are very fine ... White Teacher documents an admirable dedication. --New Republic In this humane and beautifully written account, Paley describes her progress in learning to deal more openly with her pupils'--and her own--perceptions of race. --San Francisco Examiner Vivian Gussin Paley, a former kindergarten teacher, is the winner of a MacArthur Award and winner of the 1998 American Book Award for Lifetime Achievement given by the Before Columbus Foundation. She is the author of numerous books, including The Kindness of Children, Kwanzaa and Me, You Can't Say You Can't Play, and The Girl with the Brown Crayon (all from Harvard). cloth: Spring 1989 / ISBN 0-674-00273-3 March 51⁄ 2 x 81⁄ 4 160 pp. ISBN 0-674-00273-3 (PALWHY) $12.95 (#7.95 UK) Education

Vivian Paley presents a moving personal account of her experiences teaching kindergarten in an integrated school within a predominantly white, middle-class neighborhood. In a new preface, she reflects on the way that even simple terminology can convey unintended meanings and show a speaker's blind spots. She also vividly describes what her readers have taught her over the years about herself as a "white teacher."

Vivian Gussin Paley, a former kindergarten teacher, is the winner of a MacArthur Award and of the 1998 American Book Award for Lifetime Achievement given by the Before Columbus Foundation.