And I appreciated her honesty in admitting her failures and steep learning curve about the limits of what she could accomplish. I admire how Kuo struggled with her immigrant parent's dreams for her and her personal desire to dedicate her talent to human rights. So it is understandable that Kuo grew up feeling alienated, identifying with the African American experience. I don't think there was one Asian person out of the 40,000. I lived in an entire county with only a handful of African Americans.
In her time reading with Patrick, Michelle is herself transformed, contending with the legacy of racism and the questions of what constitutes a “good” life and what the privileged owe to those with bleaker prospects.N West Michigan. Little by little, Patrick grows into a confident, expressive writer and a dedicated reader galvanized by the works of Frederick Douglass, James Baldwin, Walt Whitman, W. Every day for the next seven months they pore over classic novels, poems, and works of history. Feeling that she left the Delta prematurely and determined to fix her mistake, Michelle returns to Helena and resumes Patrick’s education-even as he sits in a jail cell awaiting trial. Then, on the eve of her law-school graduation, Michelle learns that Patrick has been jailed for murder. However, after two years of teaching, Michelle feels pressure from her parents and the draw of opportunities outside the Delta and leaves Arkansas to attend law school. Fifteen and in the eighth grade, Patrick begins to thrive under Michelle’s exacting attention. Though Michelle loses some students to truancy and even gun violence, she is inspired by some such as Patrick.
In this stirring memoir, Kuo, the child of Taiwanese immigrants, shares the story of her complicated but rewarding mentorship of one student, Patrick Browning, and his remarkable literary and personal awakening.Ĭonvinced she can make a difference in the lives of her teenaged students, Michelle Kuo puts her heart into her work, using quiet reading time and guided writing to foster a sense of self in students left behind by a broken school system. But she soon encountered the jarring realities of life in one of the poorest counties in America, still disabled by the legacy of slavery and Jim Crow. Recently graduated from Harvard University, Michelle Kuo arrived in the rural town of Helena, Arkansas, as a Teach for America volunteer, bursting with optimism and drive. Read along with us and let us know what you think! Reading with Patrick: A Teacher, A Student, And A Life-Changing Friendship by Michelle Kuo (Random House, 2017) is one of the two finalists for the 2019 Washtenaw Read.
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