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Taught by America: A Story of Struggle and Hope in Compton
After graduating from Yale University, Sarah Sentilles joined Teach for America and was assigned to a rundown elementary school in Compton, California. Through moving portraits of inspiring children, Sentilles relates a heartbreaking journey, as she learns about a failing school system, the true meaning of poverty in America, and the strength children exhibit when they're just struggling to survive. Beautifully written, charged with love and indignation, Taught by America is a powerful tribute to the young lives Sentilles witnessed.
216 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2005
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103 people want to read
About the author
Sarah Sentilles
7 books149 followersSarah Sentilles is the author of A Church of Her Own and Taught by America. She is a scholar of religion and earned a bachelor's degree in literature from Yale and a master's of divinity and a doctorate in theology from Harvard. She lives in Portland, Oregon.
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April 14, 2009As a TFA member who ultimately chose to leave the corps, I've been offering this book to anyone asking me about whether they themselves should apply. I challenge anyone to enter a TFA classroom and not make similar mistakes, and as a writer she was able to convince me that she really did love her kids. As for whether she was successful as a teacher, as is the case for most TFA elementary teachers, there's no predicting whether all your work will pay off in the future.
June 18, 2022
"I can't honestly say I didn't know about poverty, racism, and injustice before I taught in Compton. I knew-I simply chose to ignore what I knew, an ignorance that was, in the words of author Ruth Ozeki, an act of will, "a choice one makes over and over again, especially when information overwhelms and knowledge has become synonymous with impotence." After two years of teaching in Compton, however, such active ignorance was impossible. The surface of my world was shattered."
"Taught by America is a window through which different America can be seen, an America that, for some, has been hidden, an America that is, I believe, best seen through the stories of children. Glimpsing this America turned me inside out. I hope my writting will do for the reader what my experience in Compton did for me. And I hope, somehow, that it will make a difference."
"Each story reveals me-a new, white teacher in Compton bumping up against the limits of my knowing and struggling to figure out what was required of me."
"One of the things that troubled me the most when I was in Compton was that I was practicing how to teach on real children. I learned by doing. I learned how to teach in a real classroom, filled with brilliant, difficult, troubled students, all by myself. I was thirty-six more children's real second grade teacher. I was the adult in charge of their classrooms, but often I felt like I was in a play, as if I had steeped onto the stage in the role of "teacher." Usually I felt like I had forgotten my lines."
"Teaching in Compton made me so tired that on most days after school I couldn't manage to carry my coffee mug from my car to my apartment. It seemed like it would require too much effort. The floor of the back seat of my car was literally covered in coffee cups, so what good would it do to bring one cup inside? To bring one coffee cup inside, I would have to find the energy to bring the other twenty-five cups inside. So I just left them there."
"Everything seemed too big, too heavy, too hrad. I didn't know where to begin. I would think of one thing I needed to do, and then the list would expand infinitely. There was no end. I could only start if I could fix the whole system."
"This violence worked its way into my head, my daily life, so deep down that I even stopped noticing it. It was a vague and throbbing violence, and it was everywhere."
"The occasional gunfire that punctuated my teaching experience in Compton, although terrifying and horrific, was minor compared to the daily violence of the school environment itself. Povert is violent."
"Teaching in Compton, I had discovered anger inside me deeper and wilder than any emotion I had experienced before. I could imagine myself skating on that ice and becoming sick and tired of getting beat up. I could feel that rage boiling inside me, overflowing, uncontainable, and coming out in swift, violent motions of my hockey stick."
"Hope got me out of bed in the morning, but it was anger that kept me from returning to bed when all I really wanted to do at the end of each day was crawl under the covers and scream. I was driven by spite and rage, which were effective, although not sustainable, motivators. I was also driven by my own ego. I had never failed at anything before in my life. I thought if I tried harder, loved my students more, bought more supplies, made more copies, got to school earlier, things would somehow be OK. I believed both that the shape of the schools in Compton was, somehow, my fault, and that I could be the one to help make it better."
"I belonged-and at the same time, I didn't belong. I had been sent to Compton, not invited. I was dropped into that community, a colonialist, a missionary believing I carried something Compton needed, when so many had come before me. And still, people in the community embraced me, especially my students."
"Looking at Loretta, I saw the thin line between where I was and where she would be. Looking at Loretta, how could I be proud of myself for graduating from Yale? How was that my achievement? Was I smarter that Loretta? No. My family just had more money than hers. The communities we called home were based on nothing other than circumstances of birth. The same was true of all the students in my class. Privilege, not merit, separated us."
"The life change-political, philosophical, emotional-was much more difficult to effect. When our old ways of understanding the world do not work any more, what do we do?"
"Somewhere deep in my being, I knew I needed to write. I knew I had to put on paper the stories swirling in my head."
"I struggle daily as a woman and as a feminist in the academy and in the church, but did I simply find a new struggle that was hard, but not so complicated? The struggle now is mine-I struggle against sexism and misogyny, and, even if I'm the only one, I get to think I'm right. In Compton, I was part of the problem. My whiteness. My class. My privilege. I was the one being struggled against, and I struggled with myself."
"...they taught me that my privilege depends on the creation of cities like Compton. That corruption and greed lead to calculated, intentional decisions that leave some children in this country without food and books and others with an abundance of both. That there is joy everywhere. That there is a hope that shimmers and shines in the most difficult spaces. That I am racist, and my country us racist, and the wounds of this racism are still raw. That I am capable of deep love and of being loved. That systemic poverty is violent. That how and what we think matters. That my life could be made new. I will carry these children in my heart forever. They are the lens through which I view the world and make decisions. They are the ones to whom I hold myself accountable."
"Taught by America is a window through which different America can be seen, an America that, for some, has been hidden, an America that is, I believe, best seen through the stories of children. Glimpsing this America turned me inside out. I hope my writting will do for the reader what my experience in Compton did for me. And I hope, somehow, that it will make a difference."
"Each story reveals me-a new, white teacher in Compton bumping up against the limits of my knowing and struggling to figure out what was required of me."
"One of the things that troubled me the most when I was in Compton was that I was practicing how to teach on real children. I learned by doing. I learned how to teach in a real classroom, filled with brilliant, difficult, troubled students, all by myself. I was thirty-six more children's real second grade teacher. I was the adult in charge of their classrooms, but often I felt like I was in a play, as if I had steeped onto the stage in the role of "teacher." Usually I felt like I had forgotten my lines."
"Teaching in Compton made me so tired that on most days after school I couldn't manage to carry my coffee mug from my car to my apartment. It seemed like it would require too much effort. The floor of the back seat of my car was literally covered in coffee cups, so what good would it do to bring one cup inside? To bring one coffee cup inside, I would have to find the energy to bring the other twenty-five cups inside. So I just left them there."
"Everything seemed too big, too heavy, too hrad. I didn't know where to begin. I would think of one thing I needed to do, and then the list would expand infinitely. There was no end. I could only start if I could fix the whole system."
"This violence worked its way into my head, my daily life, so deep down that I even stopped noticing it. It was a vague and throbbing violence, and it was everywhere."
"The occasional gunfire that punctuated my teaching experience in Compton, although terrifying and horrific, was minor compared to the daily violence of the school environment itself. Povert is violent."
"Teaching in Compton, I had discovered anger inside me deeper and wilder than any emotion I had experienced before. I could imagine myself skating on that ice and becoming sick and tired of getting beat up. I could feel that rage boiling inside me, overflowing, uncontainable, and coming out in swift, violent motions of my hockey stick."
"Hope got me out of bed in the morning, but it was anger that kept me from returning to bed when all I really wanted to do at the end of each day was crawl under the covers and scream. I was driven by spite and rage, which were effective, although not sustainable, motivators. I was also driven by my own ego. I had never failed at anything before in my life. I thought if I tried harder, loved my students more, bought more supplies, made more copies, got to school earlier, things would somehow be OK. I believed both that the shape of the schools in Compton was, somehow, my fault, and that I could be the one to help make it better."
"I belonged-and at the same time, I didn't belong. I had been sent to Compton, not invited. I was dropped into that community, a colonialist, a missionary believing I carried something Compton needed, when so many had come before me. And still, people in the community embraced me, especially my students."
"Looking at Loretta, I saw the thin line between where I was and where she would be. Looking at Loretta, how could I be proud of myself for graduating from Yale? How was that my achievement? Was I smarter that Loretta? No. My family just had more money than hers. The communities we called home were based on nothing other than circumstances of birth. The same was true of all the students in my class. Privilege, not merit, separated us."
"The life change-political, philosophical, emotional-was much more difficult to effect. When our old ways of understanding the world do not work any more, what do we do?"
"Somewhere deep in my being, I knew I needed to write. I knew I had to put on paper the stories swirling in my head."
"I struggle daily as a woman and as a feminist in the academy and in the church, but did I simply find a new struggle that was hard, but not so complicated? The struggle now is mine-I struggle against sexism and misogyny, and, even if I'm the only one, I get to think I'm right. In Compton, I was part of the problem. My whiteness. My class. My privilege. I was the one being struggled against, and I struggled with myself."
"...they taught me that my privilege depends on the creation of cities like Compton. That corruption and greed lead to calculated, intentional decisions that leave some children in this country without food and books and others with an abundance of both. That there is joy everywhere. That there is a hope that shimmers and shines in the most difficult spaces. That I am racist, and my country us racist, and the wounds of this racism are still raw. That I am capable of deep love and of being loved. That systemic poverty is violent. That how and what we think matters. That my life could be made new. I will carry these children in my heart forever. They are the lens through which I view the world and make decisions. They are the ones to whom I hold myself accountable."
May 22, 2017
I'm a big fan of Sarah Sentilles' writing, and this book (though definitely her weakest piece) did not disappoint. This is a thoughtful, heartbreaking exploration of her TFA stint in Compton. It's infuriating and timely even 12 years later. Recommended.
March 19, 2020
This book wasn't bad, it just comes across like the author taking someone else's pain and struggle and making it about her. It wasn't a story about these students, it was a story about how these students furthered her own story.
February 11, 2009
This is a book that is obviously close to my heart. Although, I'm not sure how to rate it as a whole.
By far, my favorite part of the book was the introduction, where she describes the how ridiculous the 'preparation' Teach For America gives its teachers. She talked a lot about the crying--which I can say my first (second, and third) year of teaching were full of. I related to that, I liked to hear that someone else has experienced what I have experienced. The loneliness of moving somewhere where you know no one, and having to fight the daily battle of school.
Hers is a proactive book, "How this changed my life...for the better." F that. I want someone to write the truth of TFA, and what it does to its corps members. That is the book I wanted this to be.
I've been giving a lot of thought to this book, and there are a few things I feel that needed to be pointed out. Sarah is the standard TFA-er, I believe. Went to an Ivy League school (Yale), comes from a wealthy family (a family that sends her to Europe with her sister after her first year teaching, buys her plane tickets home the day after she cries to them on the phone, they "subsidize" her for a year so she can write this book), and she picked TFA because she thought it would look good on graduate school applications (she doesn't phrase it that way of course, but she did go to Harvard after TFA).
While this book is NOT the typical teacher book that talks about how all teachers need to do is CARE for their students for them to succeed (if that were the case, I would have a much more successful class)...after thinking about it, I feel something is missing from this book...
By far, my favorite part of the book was the introduction, where she describes the how ridiculous the 'preparation' Teach For America gives its teachers. She talked a lot about the crying--which I can say my first (second, and third) year of teaching were full of. I related to that, I liked to hear that someone else has experienced what I have experienced. The loneliness of moving somewhere where you know no one, and having to fight the daily battle of school.
Hers is a proactive book, "How this changed my life...for the better." F that. I want someone to write the truth of TFA, and what it does to its corps members. That is the book I wanted this to be.
I've been giving a lot of thought to this book, and there are a few things I feel that needed to be pointed out. Sarah is the standard TFA-er, I believe. Went to an Ivy League school (Yale), comes from a wealthy family (a family that sends her to Europe with her sister after her first year teaching, buys her plane tickets home the day after she cries to them on the phone, they "subsidize" her for a year so she can write this book), and she picked TFA because she thought it would look good on graduate school applications (she doesn't phrase it that way of course, but she did go to Harvard after TFA).
While this book is NOT the typical teacher book that talks about how all teachers need to do is CARE for their students for them to succeed (if that were the case, I would have a much more successful class)...after thinking about it, I feel something is missing from this book...
October 9, 2008
I really enjoyed this book. It was amazing to see what it was like for a person my age to move to Compton to teach. It is really sad how there are so many children in our country who are still not getting an equal education. I mean these children have no toilet paper or toilet seats in the school bathrooms. The children don't want to go to recess because of the danger of getting beat up. They don't even have books in their classrooms, and when it rains outside, it often rains on the inside too. It isn't unheard of to have maggots in the classroom or to have to stay after the school day is over because their is a person with a gun hiding on their campus. These kids are not really even given the chance to succeed. It really opens my eyes to the injustice of it all. Still, it was fun to hear the stories about the students and their unique personalities.
October 7, 2009
I began reading it and wanted to shout out OH GOD A YUPPIE! SHOOT ME!!!
She is quite uppity, and hard to fall in love with. She vacations in Europe with her sister. She has probably never touched a black person, let alone had a conversation with anyone that makes less than $100,000 a year. The book can sometimes get whiney but ...
it does expose the grim realities of working in an underfunded, poorly maintained school district. It exposes the early flaws of the Teach For America system that have since been remedied. Sentilles did not understand what she was getting herself into. She didn't understand that things like this could even exist - that children go to school and don't have a desk or have maggots in their classrooms. It was quick read and worth your time if you want to be slightly depressed but feel slightly inspired.
She is quite uppity, and hard to fall in love with. She vacations in Europe with her sister. She has probably never touched a black person, let alone had a conversation with anyone that makes less than $100,000 a year. The book can sometimes get whiney but ...
it does expose the grim realities of working in an underfunded, poorly maintained school district. It exposes the early flaws of the Teach For America system that have since been remedied. Sentilles did not understand what she was getting herself into. She didn't understand that things like this could even exist - that children go to school and don't have a desk or have maggots in their classrooms. It was quick read and worth your time if you want to be slightly depressed but feel slightly inspired.
May 18, 2008
This book was an interesting read for someone like me, who is doing Teach For American next year. However, I thought that the book lacked an overarching narrative that it could have used to make a more compelling case for why we should care about education in the poorest of inner city and rural schools. I thought that the author mishandled a lot of the cases when she was a teacher - and it wasn't apparent what lessons she learned from these mishandlings of her students and their needs. Overall though, it was an a good picture of what my life is sort of going to be like as a first year teacher.
July 13, 2011
I read this book while I was in my third year of undergrad. I was teaching at a school with peeling walls, tired teachers that yelled a lot, and students that seemed victim to it all. Oddly enough, the school district I was teaching in would become a Teach for America school district the following year. While I find it rather annoying to cash in on your experiences with Teach for America, this book fueled my fire and passion for teaching. I plan to read it again soon.
November 18, 2013
Age: Middle School and up
Review: This book is about a girl named Sarah who decided to do Teach for America after she graduated from Yale. The book describes her hardships as well as the students she taught and how American ended up teaching her. I would have this in my class for students to read for pleasure. It is more of a grown up book, but it shows different cultures and how life is different in different parts of the United States.
Review: This book is about a girl named Sarah who decided to do Teach for America after she graduated from Yale. The book describes her hardships as well as the students she taught and how American ended up teaching her. I would have this in my class for students to read for pleasure. It is more of a grown up book, but it shows different cultures and how life is different in different parts of the United States.
March 4, 2009
Obviously the author used the writing of this book to process what had happened to her- and admitted that she hadn't fully processed her two years with TFA. It certainly was gripping- I read it all in one sitting- but the strength lay in her interactions and portraits of her students-- the stuff about adults and herself fell a little flat.
July 21, 2011
A thought provoking book told through the eyes of a former Compton teacher. The book is broken up into bite size chunks each of which is about a single individual or moment in time. I was moved by the love that was expressed between the children and Sarah and how the time at Madison and Garvey schools shaped Sarah's reality.
February 14, 2012
This book is incredibly touching. It adds a very personal touch to the vast inequalities seen in our public school systems. You are allowed to accompany Ms. Sentilles in her desperation and frustration at falling in love with these children, and not being able to change the structure that gives them a lifetime of disservice.
July 28, 2007
An interesting and brutally honest look into the Teach for America program. Sarah makes the thought-provoking point that perhaps those who get the most out of the program are the teachers themselves, instead of the students.
March 19, 2013
I really enjoyed this book especially as a future teacher. It really opened my eyes to the different situations I may face when teaching in an Urban school district. I recommend this book to any future teachers or even current teachers.
March 7, 2013
A sad, yet honest account of this author's experience with Teach for America.
August 20, 2013
Both encouraging and discouraging to fellow teachers, or students studying to be a teacher. Amazingly heartfelt, and gives a glimpse into troubled districts school system.
September 16, 2013
This book was very empowering. It brought tears to my eyes several times and made me realize how bad it really can be out there.
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