In the fall of 1997, Michael Johnston went to the rural Mississippi Delta - the "deep heart's core" of the South -- as a member of the Teach for America program, to become an English teacher in one of the poorest districts in the nation. At Greenville High School, he confronted 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 that ravaged their community. In the Deep Heart's Core tells the story of how Johnston reached out to inspire his teenage students with all the means at his disposal -- from the language of the great poets to the strategies of chess to the vigor of athletics. Vibrantly alive with the rich atmosphere of the Mississippi Delta -- the haunting beauty of its hollows and the aching tragedy of its history -- In the Deep Heart's Core is a compassionate, eloquent, and profoundly moving book. It is an inspiring and unforgettable story of one young man's experience in the Teach for America program, and of how a new generation of teachers is reaching out to give hope to the students society has forgotten.
Review :
Praise for In The Deep Heart's Core
"Part personal account, part eyewitness report, In the Deep Heart's Core is forceful testimony. . . . There is much to appreciate in Johnston's well-written memoir of his two-year sojourn in Greenville... His best attribute seems to be his boundless energy... Johnston proves to be a clear-eyed narrator, resolute, unsentimental and not full of himself." -Jabari Asim, Washington Post Book World
"It's a touching tale of hope where there often seems to be none...More than just a memoir...[In the Deep Heart's Core] paints a picture in many shades of frustration, anger and hope...It's a startling glimpse into the system, one that has seemingly been forgotten by reform and time. " --Simon Reade, San Francisco Chronicle
"Johnston tells his story through the words of students, unspooling experiences a little at a time so that the reader learns as the author learns. . . . In the Deep Heart's Core is powerful because Johnston doesn't explain his students; he lets them explain themselves. . . . His book poses a big "what if." If the barriers in their lives were eliminated, to what heights could the students of Greenville High School and others like them soar?" -Carol Ann Lease, The Columbus Dispatch
"A pleasant surprise...[In the Deep Heart's Core is] smack full of emotional deepness that even brought tears to my eyes. One minute I would be excited and the next I would have chills running down my spine." --Barbara Putnam, Delta Democrat
"In a nation where too many poor children and children of color still attend separate and unequal schools, Michael Johnston is part of a new generation of fine young educational leaders committed to making a difference. In the Deep Heart's Core shares lessons for all of us who believe every child can learn and that no child should be left behind."--Marian Wright Edelman, President of the Children's Defense Fund and author of the #1 New York Times bestseller The Measure of Our Success: A Letter to My Children and Yours
"Michael Johnston's book about his two years as a teacher at an all-Black high school in the Mississippi Delta resembles great war reporting from a battlefield composed of the hearts, minds and future of his young students already tragically short-changed in the game of life. Wise, eloquent, and impassioned, this eyewitness dispatch from the trenches should be required reading for anyone who claims to care about education in this country and for everyone else who wants to see a better world."--Madeleine Blais, author of Uphill Walkers, Hope is a Muscle and In These Girls
"This is a deep and profound work, written with simple-eyed clarity, about one man's journey into the heart of the real America, the one we never see, the one we only see from behind the wheel of a tightly locked car. Michael Johnston's class at Greenville High is a place of hope, despair, tragedy, encouragement, and joy. I admire his students and I am a better person having read about them."--James McBride, author of The Color of Water
"A compelling and important moral witness to educational efforts today."--Robert Coles, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Children of Crisis
"A tenderly written and poetic work of selflessness and quiet decency, filled with passages of hard-earned victory and personal transcendence. A poignant book that is bittersweet because it is framed by so much unforgotten history."--Johathan Kozol, author of Savage Inequalities: Children in America's Schools and Amazing Grace: The Lives of Children and the Conscience of a Nati
