| In the Deep Heart's Core |  | Author: Michael Johnston
Creator: Robert Coles
Publisher: Grove Press
Category: Book
Buy New: $72.52
New (4) Used (8) from $6.19
Avg. Customer Rating:  16 reviews
Sales Rank: 1429075
Format: Bargain Price
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 240
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.7
ISBN: 0787665355
Dewey Decimal Number: 379
ASIN: B000VYSVQA
Publication Date: August 6, 2003
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Book Description
Since its inception in 1990, Teach for America has educated more than a million students in low-income school districts across the nation, winning praise from leaders and activists across the political spectrum and recently being hailed by President Bush as a model for public service in the twenty-first century. In the Deep Heart's Core is the story of one young man's experience in the TFA program -- and the story of how a new generation is reaching out to give hope to the students society has forgotten. In 1997, Michael Johnston joined the Teach for America program and went to the rural Mississippi Delta -- the "deep heart's core of the South" -- to become an English teacher in one of the poorest school districts in the nation. At Greenville High School he would come face-to-face with a racially divided world in which his African-American students had to struggle daily against a legacy of crippling poverty and the scourges of drug addiction and gang violence. Johnston tells the story of his own education as a teacher through the experiences of the students whose lives he touched and inspired along the way -- from a charismatic class clown whose window of opportunity for earning a diploma is quickly shutting, to a vocational carpentry student who comes to find his voice as a writer -- and how they would inspire him to devote his life to public service. Compassionate, eloquent, and profoundly moving, In the Deep Heart's Core is an unforgettable book. "A compelling and important moral witness to education efforts today." -- Robert Coles
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| Customer Reviews: Read 11 more reviews...
 What happens to schools when society implodes... August 6, 2007
I found Johnston's story both fascinating and disturbing. As a Mississippian, I have witnessed first-hand the negative impact that societal breakdown has on many of our state's schools. I also know that the same problems exist in Brooklyn, Compton, Miami, etc. Mississippi, in particular, has been devastated over the past forty years by the dependence of many of it's citizens on the largese of government. Greenville is a case in point. It's past time for some tough love. The government has in effect become an enabler of the worst sorts of behaviors. The resultant pathologies flow into the schools. Johnston experienced a little piece of hell but made the best of it. He is an impressive fellow and has a real story to tell.
 Johnston Does Not Reach The Core March 7, 2007
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Michael Johnston dwells in great detail upon the most negative aspects of his assignment at Greenville High School. It's a wonder that he lasted one month with such filters for negativity. When you are trained as an educator you are expected to go forth with all of your positive energy and your motivational tools to work in your chosen environment. Nobody chained Johnston and sent him to Greenville. It was his choice. He emerges more as a self-validating mercenary than he does as an educator. He arrived in Greenville as a beneficiary instilled with tools to deal with his assignment. He had the mental capacity. He had the resourcefulness. What he lacked was the compassion to admit that even at Greenville High School the good students outnumbered the bad. I know this because I also previously worked at Greenville High School. Many Teach For America Teachers come to the Delta and perform with astonishing results. Johnston knew before he ever arrived in Greenville that he was sent there to accept a difficult assignment that his preparation had been based upon. His book illustrates that he was a neophyte who was beaten down by his own weaknesses when he was asked to step up and perform what he was trained to do. There remains some resentment against Johnston because he chose to emphasize more negative than positive. His writing ability is on either side of the spectrum as far as ability. There are moments of inspiration and there are moments of a lost child who is frustrated because he is unsure of how to step up as a teacher. It is truly disappointing that Johnston neglected to even mention so many of the good things about Greenville High and how he had so many opporunities to be more of a positive influence than he was. Johnston also departed soon after his obligation was complete. In any community there are negatives and positives. Drugs and violence can be found in any community if you look far enough. Even the most affluent schools have violence. Colorado, California, Florida, Kentucky and Washington are the proof of that. One can only hope that Johnston is now preparing educators and not another self-validating mercenary.
Excellent! Worth reading more than once! January 5, 2007
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
Michael Johnston is a talented writer, a balanced author and a teacher who truly cares. His account of his two years teaching is a must read for any teacher. Parents can also benefit from reading this incredible work to learn more about what their children or their children's classmates may face at school. Although this book is set in the Delta, students all over the U.S. face these same challenges. I have seen it in my work with high schools in Colorado. This is an outstanding work that I will read again and again, because each time I know I will gain even more from doing so.
A guided tour through the separate but unequal rural south December 20, 2005
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
Teach For America continues to generate interest in the educational field. I'm still waiting for a book that offers some rigorous, readable analysis of Teach For America and its alums. As it stands, books like "In the Deep Heart's Core" stand as helpful testimony to the pros of cons and TFA. I believe that TFA is filled with people like Johnston who are idealists with amazing talents and concern for their students. I continue to be saddened at the level of shock these teachers feel when they actually encounter real students and real school administrators. Johnston was not adequately prepared to teach, and his lack of structure in his first days of school shows this. He does, however, show the compassion for his students and flexibility to adapt necessary to experience some successes during his two year stay. Learning about students like Chico and Corelle helps to put some real stories behind many of the test score statistics that we see in the papers. Like all good teachers, Johnston grows as he begins to further engage with his students in areas like chess and track. By the end of the book, his classroom is a refuge for students who do not get adequate instruction in other classes. Whether this is self-congratulatory or not, I do not know. I do feel that Johnston grows from his experience, and I take him at his word that the school he worked in is beginning to make progress.
I remain torn about Teach for America's impact in these rural schools. On the one hand, they bring talent, energy, and a goal of academic rigor. On the other hand, many of their recruits look at the job, like Johnston probably does, as a steppingstone to greater things [Johnston works in training principals]. I hope that teachers read this book to gain some inspiration, and I hope that the strengths and weaknesses of teachers like Johnston will help schools to better identify the talent and diversity they need to achieve lasting success.
3.5 stars
--SD
Heartfelt and eye-opening August 9, 2005
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
Few books I've read have made such a profound impression on me, and I encourage everyone interested in social issues to have a look. The reason I give this book 4 stars and not 5 is because it has the most egregious lack of editing I have ever seen in a book--and I read lots of books! There are basic mistakes ("her mother" when talking about a boy; one paragraph repeated twice) and grammatical errors all over the place, distracting what otherwise is an excellent book.
I attended a public school in a very small town. Classes were at most 20 students, and that not only allowed teachers to give more personal attention, but also created less disruption that comes whenever many teenagers get together. Like me, students had grown up in an environment that valued education, and although individual lives might have turmoil, the town as a whole didn't have so many other things to worry about. Reading this book was an eye-opener into the disparity in public education.
It would have been great to hear more stories, but I think Michael Johnston did the right thing by chosing depth over breadth, portraying a few students in detail rather than the classroom as a whole. Johnston threw himself into the lives of these students, and although he takes partial credit for the successes, he also acknowledges those who didn't end up doing so well. He conveys the individuality in the students and shows that not all stories are despondent, and not all stories are happy endings. The students' tales have really stayed with me, and I was left wondering what happened to many of them and would love to get an update.
Johnston makes you realize the enormous challenges faced by teachers (and students) in Greenville. Teachers like Johnston want to block out all the negative messages the students get from society, from their peers, and sometimes from their role models. They want to end the racial strife that has caused a lot of distrust in both directions. They want to believe that they'll make a difference to every student. But the problems run so deep that even a whole school of well-meaning teachers may not be able to turn things around because the causes of the problems extend far beyond the school, the community, and the present time. They might help one or two or a dozen students, but at the end of the year, Greenville is just as challenging a place to grow up. It's telling that Johnston didn't expound upon what can be done to reduce the enormous disparities in public education--he's far more aware of the problem now, but perhaps even more confused about the solution.
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