Teaching While Black - by Pamela Lewis (Paperback)

About the Book

Chronicles the experiences of a black female teaching in public schools in the South Bronx in the era of No Child Left Behind and the Common Core. Addressing "high stakes" that go beyond tests, Teaching While Black examines how and what one must teach poor students of color.

Book Synopsis

Teaching should never be color-blind. In her compelling and unapologetic memoir, Teaching While Black: A New Voice on Race and Education in New York City, teacher and writer Pamela Lewis urges her fellow educators not only to acknowledge race but to consider both the traumatic and healing impact that curriculum, pedagogical practice, and social interaction can have on students and colleagues of color. Chronicling the vast spectrum of emotions felt by Black and Brown students and teachers within school walls, Lewis explains, as her title suggests, that teaching--and learning--while Black can be an equally harrowing and awe-inspiring experience.

Hard-hitting and eloquently written, Teaching While Black offers an insightful, honest portrayal of Lewis's fight to survive in a profession that has undervalued her worth and her understanding of the kind of education and connection urban children of color need to succeed. The reader gains full access to a perspective that has been virtually ignored since the integration of schools, through which questions surrounding increased resignation rates by teachers of color and failing test scores can be answered.

Teaching While Black is both a deeply personal narrative about a Black woman's struggle to be heard and a clarion call for cultural responsiveness and teacher accountability. In this must-read account, Lewis summons every teacher of all races to re-examine their teaching methods and agendas and to remember who it is that they serve.

Review Quotes

Teaching While Black is one of the most searing, brilliant, heart-rending, brutal, but in the end hopeful reflections on urban education I have ever read. Possessing the analytical insight of a young Du Bois, Pamela Lewis explores the racial, class, and gender elements that shape education for young students of color. Eschewing a mythical color-blind approach to education and insisting on grappling with the pain and possibilities of radically identifying with one's students--and, ultimately, taking their side in the war against educational inequality and instructional mediocrity--Lewis offers us a dramatic peek into the desires, vulnerabilities, conflicts, defeats, mistakes, and, finally, triumphs of the conscientious and committed black female urban teacher.---Michael Eric Dyson, renowned scholar, cultural critic, and author of Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America

This riveting and personal narrative is critical to Black, Brown, and White teachers. I can't wait to pass
it on to my novice teaching granddaughter. This should be read by every incoming teacher in America.

---Deborah Meier, founder of the modern small-schools movement and author of The Power of Their Ideas: Lessons for America from a Small School in Harlem, is a 50-year veteran teacher

A powerful read. Lewis offers insight as a practitioner while stroking her pen with the skill of a poet. Teaching While Black makes the case for culturally relevant pedagogy and diversity in curricula. Lewis is the student-turned-educator who is embedded. She brings you into urban school communities in a way that other writers of education simply cannot.---Michael Partis, Executive Director, Bronx Cooperative Development Initiative

Ms. Lewis, in this must read tome, highlights how all people are not one identity.-- "The Huffington Post"

I am unaware of any book written in a style that is comparable to Teaching While Black, which focuses on public schools in the Bronx from the perspective of a woman of color on the front lines and in the trenches. Lewis provides educators of color with a better sense of how to advocate for themselves and for the children, parents, and communities they serve.---Lori Martin, author of Big Box Schools: Race, Education, and the Danger of the Wal-Martization of Public Schools in America

"Pamela Lewis is a brilliant young writer and teacher. In combining these two loves, Ms. Lewis has brought to the world as authentic urban narrative about life as a teacher in public education as we have ever seen. Her story is far more compelling than many other books written by teachers because Ms. Lewis takes us so vividly through an urban young Black woman's journey from the anticipation of going to college and becoming a teacher. Teaching While Black accomplishes all of this with a purposeful mix of street smarts and intellectual observations that far exceed her years. This is a must read for those who want an insider's view on the real day to day inside the classroom. It is especially useful for those who have either forgotten, or never know what it is like to navigate the rough terrain of public school teaching in the 21st century."---Stuart Rhoden, Arizona State University

A captivating read. Lewis' real, honest, broad yet thorough approach exposes so much of what must be known about the experiences of teaching in an urban public school setting. Lewis opens a door, not just into her classroom, but into her heart.---Adam Goldberg, Special Needs educator and Apple Distinguished Educator

About the Author

Pamela Lewis is an educator, writer and activist in New York City.