Taught by America: A Story of Struggle and Hope in Compton
by Sarah Sentilles
ISBN: 0807032727
Price: 23.95

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Publisher/ Date: Beacon Press / August 2005
Format: Hardcover

Synopsis: An unforgettable book about one woman’s teaching experiences in a gang-ridden city in Southern California, and how the children she met there changed her forever

After graduating from Yale University, Sarah Sentilles joined the Teach for America program and began a two-year assignment as an elementary school teacher in Compton, California. Far from the hallowed halls of academe and the suburban streets where she grew up, in charge of thirty-six first graders in a classroom without books, Sentilles experienced her own kind of education. Taught by America is the story of the children Sentilles taught—but more than that, it’s a story of one woman’s change of heart and life.

Through moving portraits of inspiring children, Sentilles takes the reader with her on her heartbreaking journey, as she learns about a failing school system, the true meaning of poverty in America, and the strength children exhibit even when they’re struggling to survive. Sentilles originally joined Teach for America as a break between undergraduate and graduate school. What she didn’t expect was that the children of Compton would change her utterly: instead of going on to graduate school in literature, she decided to study for the ministry.

Beautifully written, charged with love and indignation, Taught by America is a powerful tribute to the young lives Sentilles witnessed. She was transformed by what she saw in Compton; Taught by America will transform her readers as well.

Reviews:

Praise for

Taught by America: A Story of Struggle and Hope in Compton

“Sarah Sentilles has crafted a stirring account of tragedy and transformation in American public education. Taught by America captures the way one relentless woman confronts her own privilege, suggests the impact Teach for America has on schools struggling with the effects of poverty, and finally, most poignantly, illustrates how Sentilles’ students reveal her own search for justice as a kind of faith.”

                                          -Michael Johnston, author of In the Deepest Heart’s Core

“Taught by America is a book of “teachable moments”­­---- those surprising, unanticipated spurts of learning every teacher recognizes as both authentic and most enduring. Unscripted, spontaneous, deviating-from-the-lesson-plan, teachable moments emerge in times of disequilibrium, when received wisdom fails and the dogma of common sense collapses. Here the most sparkling teachable moments belong to the corruption of a “savior complex”; struggling to meet the vast needs of her students and families, she comes to see that an indifferent and hostile system is a form of violence that can undo both good intensions and hard work; hoping to be of service to the downtrodden, she discovers a deeper and more effective posture in solidarity with the oppressed. Sarah Sentilles’ journey contains an injunction: we must change our lives.”

                                          -William Ayers, author of Teaching Toward Freedom

              “Hauntingly eloquent this memoir raises chilling questions about race, social privilege, failing schools and the loss of innocence. Sentilles’ reflection on her students, their families and the education they (don’t) receive stays with you long after her story ends. This is a wake up call that we as a nation can not afford to ignore.

 - Janie Victoria Ward, author of THE SKIN WE’RE IN: Teaching Our Children to the Emotionally Strong, Socially Smart and Spiritually Connected

“The power of the stories in Taught by America, true stories about children needing and wanting to learn in a system that continues to fail them, forces all of us to make new comments to our schools and educational resources. Readers cannot help but be inspired and enriched by the resilience of the children they meet here.”

                                          -Claudia Highbaugh, chaplain, Harvard Divinity School

“Sarah Sentilles’ book, Taught by America is a beautifully written and inspiring book about her experiences teaching in Compton, California as a part of the Teach for America program. Sentilles invites her reader into her life as a teacher, juxtaposing the love and tenderness she has for the children and they have for her with the frustration of teaching in the deplorable condition in which the children live and learn. Reading the book is an exercise in emotional reversals- laughing out loud in on one page, weeping on the next. Perhaps the most moving aspect of the book is the honesty with which Sentilles looks at herself and her learning process, acknowledging what she didn’t know before going to Compton and the way that being there changed her.

              “From the opening pages of her decision to join Teach for America, to her wonderful stories about the children, to her clarity about what she learned and how she changed, Sentilles has written a book that is essential reading for teachers, ministers, activists… anyone who renewed courage and inspiration in the midst of the challenging work for justice. Sentilles sums it up well when she writes, ‘Teaching in Compton was hard, but what was even harder was even harder was learning in Compton. My own learning is what required courage.’ For any of us who have been ‘protected’ from the everyday lives of the children in Compton, opening our eyes to these realities does, indeed, require courage.”

                                          -Nancy Richardson, Senior Lecturer, Harvard Divinity School