When Michael Copperman left Stanford University for the Mississippi
Delta in 2002, he imagined he would lift underprivileged children
from the narrow horizons of rural poverty. Well-meaning but naive,
the Asian American from the West Coast soon lost his bearings in a
world divided between black and white. He had no idea how to manage
a classroom or help children navigate the considerable challenges
they faced. In trying to help students, he often found he couldn't
afford to give what they required - sometimes, with heartbreaking
consequences. His desperate efforts to save child after child were
misguided but sincere. He offered children the best invitations to
success he could manage. But he still felt like an outsider who was
failing the children and himself. Teach For America has for a
decade been the nation's largest employer of recent college
graduates but has come under increasing criticism in recent years
even as it has grown exponentially. This memoir considers the
distance between the idealism of the organization's creed that
""One day, all children will have the opportunity to attain an
excellent education"" and what it actually means to teach in
America's poorest and most troubled public schools. Copperman's
memoir vividly captures his disorientation in the divided world of
the Delta, even as the author marvels at the wit and resilience of
the children in his classroom. To them, he is at once an authority
figure and a stranger minority than even they are - a lone Asian,
an outsider among outsiders. His journey is of great relevance to
teachers, administrators, and parents longing for quality education
in America. His frank story shows that the solutions for
impoverished schools are far from simple.
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