Letters From the Inside: Hope in the Journey Beyond Classroom and Cell

by Bronwyn Harris, Jorge Ramirez

When Bronwyn Harris finally gets approval to visit her former third-grade student, Jorge, in prison, she doesn’t know what to expect. After telling his story in her best-selling first book, Literally Stories from an East Oakland Classroom, Harris worries that he will be upset or angered by her portrayal of him. Instead, in a captivating series of letters between a teacher and student, he shares incredible vulnerability while providing details of his life while growing up in East Oakland. Like many kids in the neighborhood, he joins a gang and, shortly after turning eighteen, is arrested for shooting at Oakland police officers in an episode of all-too-common street violence.As a grade-schooler, Jorge had asked, “How can I learn to be good?” And in prison, he commits himself to self-improvement. “I am going to change my life and that’s the truth,” he writes to Harris. “I want to become a better person and not just for me but for my family also. Because I got family that needs me to be out there.”Letters From the Inside reveals a glimpse of prison life that’s both tragic and mundane, as Jorge provides a raw glimpse of life behind bars in California. Because of the state’s “gun enhancement” laws, he’s locked up until 2030 but expresses amazing optimism even as he misses life milestones and the death of his mother. When I got locked up and sentenced to nineteen years, I felt as if my life was over. I didn’t care about anything. During this time I lost my mother in a fire, so I was just hurt and going through a lot of pain. I was at the lowest point of my life. But after a few years of being incarcerated, I healed a bit from losing my mom and just told myself I was going to do everything and anything to come home and to better myself as a person. That’s why I’m taking advantage of all the good things being offered to me right now.

179 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 20, 2020

About the author

Bronwyn Harris began her teaching career in East Oakland in January 2000, teaching first-graders who had already gone through one teacher and six substitutes during that school year. In the first five minutes of teaching, one student threw a book at her head and she realized she had no set curriculum with which to teach them. In addition, she was a “roving teacher,” meaning that she moved classrooms every three weeks.

Teaching at this school did not get easier as she transitioned into teaching third grade, but the students were incredible: creative, thoughtful, loving, angry, at-risk, misunderstood, valuable, and overlooked. After eight principals in less than eight years, Harris had to face the fact that she couldn’t keep working in such an environment and left the school district, but has stayed in touch with many of her students.

During her time teaching, Harris would tell many of her middle-class white friends about what was going on at her school, and found that many of them didn’t believe her, which is how the title of the book came to be. This also strengthened her resolve to write down the true stories so that people would know this side of life in the Bay Area.

Reviews

[Shelley Little · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a window into the life of a young man who was faced with incredible challenges at very young age. After reading his story and hearing his letters back and forth with his former grade 3 teacher after he was incarcerated, I wonder about how many others there are just like him. This book puts a very human face on people who are, honestly, just a statistic to me in my safe, white, middle class life. It's not sensationalized or dramatized - it's an honest story from the young man himself. As an educational assistant I can relate to Bronwyn's desire to reach out and try and help after she found out where her former student had ended up as a young adult. I have often worried and wondered about the future of some of my at risk students; however I have not yet had the opportunity that Bronwyn has and that she writes about in this book. I think this is a valuable book and a good read for anyone in education, or anyone who wants to make a difference in someone else's life.

[Kelsey Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful read. I hope it inspires others to want to make an impact and think about how they can positively make a change.