Brown University News Bureau

The Brown University News Bureau

1996-1997 index

Distributed April 14, 1997
Contact: Tracie Sweeney

Public radio series coming to Brown to tape show on youth and learning

"The Merrow Report on Air," a public radio series on youth and learning, is coming to campus April 23 to tape an hour-long segment about cultural conflict in the classroom. The show, hosted by journalist John Merrow, will feature nationally known educator and author Lisa Delpit and audience participation.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Lisa D. Delpit, an award-winning author and a nationally known scholar who focuses on the education of children of color, will be on the Brown University campus Wednesday, April 23, to tape "The Merrow Report on Air," a new public radio series about youth and learning hosted by journalist John Merrow.

Each of the 13 hour-long segments of "The Merrow Report on Air" is taped before a live audience. The program opens with a short radio documentary on the topic at hand, followed by a 10-minute presentation by the keynote speaker, then questions from the audience. The April 23 segment, which begins taping at 4 p.m. in Sayles Hall, will examine cultural conflict in the classroom and intercultural communication. The public is encouraged to attend and participate.

Delpit, a professor at Georgia State University in Atlanta, holds the Benjamin E. Mays Chair of Urban Educational Excellence. She uses her knowledge about students and teachers of color to spark conversation among educators about issues that affect students who typically are the least well-served by the nation's education system. Her work on school-community relations and cross-cultural communication was cited as a factor in her receipt of a MacArthur Award in 1990. Her latest book, Other People's Children, received the American Educational Studies Association's Book Critic Award and Choice Magazine's Outstanding Academic Book award, and was named a "Great Book" by Teacher Magazine.

Merrow is a former high school and college teacher. Before creating the new radio series, he created and hosted "The Merrow Report," PBS's acclaimed national documentary series on youth and learning. He also was the education correspondent for the MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour, and hosted the PBS special "Your Children, Our Children."

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