Publisher's Synopsis
Helen Sullivan teaches in a "flatland school"-schools located in east and west Oakland, California, with hardly any views of the hills or mountains that make the surrounding areas famously beautiful.
But the name has another meaning as well. Flatland schools are schools with flat test scores-low-achieving schools, dangerous schools.
In this poignant, powerful memoir, Sullivan shares her journey from new teacher to a seasoned veteran tasked with teaching others how to reach kids where they are. And in Sullivan's case, the kids are in communities where violence is a reality and receiving a high school diploma isn't a foregone conclusion.
Full of heartbreak, triumphs, and the real challenges that face teachers across the country today, Teaching in the Flatlands shows people outside the world of education just how much energy, emotion, and time goes into educating the youth of America. By illuminating complicated and often contradictory education policies and introducing students whose entire life trajectories were changed by a good teacher, Sullivan proves just how difficult-and how critically important-it is to staff the nation's schools with the kind of teachers they so desperately need.
