As an interesting contrast to School of Dreams, I read In the Deep Heart's Core, by Michael Johnston.
Johnston went to the Mississippi Delta, to Greenville, Mississippi, to teach English at a black high school. The first section or so of the book is about his acclimating both to the town and to the new challenges of the financially-strapped school. After reading about such an elite school in School of Dreams, it was a bit jarring to read about teachers who happily gave passes to students to leave their classes because they weren't "really do anything" to go to other classrooms or classes. I saw shades of my high school in the ludicrous lunch times, constant card playing in elective classes, and heavily restricted bathroom access. That said, the magnitude of the poverty in Greenville was sobering, and Johnston is pretty good about conveying that without patronizing his subjects or pandering to his readers.
There are times where the book is a bit self-congratulatory, yet we learn very little about the narrator himself. Other than occasionally commenting on being tired, and commenting about things that were challenging v. rewarding, we don't find out much about how Johnston himself was affected by the experience. He ends the book explaining how much the Delta means to him, and how much he learned there, yet the Afterword makes it clear that after his Teach for America stint was up, he and his Mississippi-native wife moved to his native Colorado. I think his intention was to make the school and its students the stars of the book, and it works well, but I couldn't quelch my curiosity to know more about him. I think this was exacerbated by the fact that at the time of the novel, he was the same age I am now, so it was natural to relate to him.
One annoying thing about the book (and this was the first edition paperback version), was that it was very poorly edited. There were inconsistencies in spelling some of the names, and at one point, I read a paragraph, and then the very next paragraph was the same as the one before, except clearly edited to be tighter, better language. Very disconcerting and vexing.
All things considered, In the Deep Heart's Core was a glimpse into education in the Delta, but lacked the cohesiveness of another fish-out-of-water-in-Mississippi book I read recently, Confederacy of Silence.
Posted by waking slow at January 29, 2004 07:29 AM