A MEMOIR
Where I Belong
A Black Teacher's Quest to Find His Home
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FIND IT IN CHICAGO
On the Shelf at Tangible Books
Where I Belong is now available at Tangible Books, the independent bookstore at 3324 S. Halsted St. in Chicago's Bridgeport neighborhood (opens in new tab). Stop in and pick up a copy!
Don't see it at your local bookstore? Ask your bookseller to order one.
Set largely over a year teaching in an Iñupiat village in the Alaskan Bush, this memoir also moves through the South Bronx, Chicago's North Lawndale and Englewood, Madagascar, and the Philippines — hardscrabble classrooms where David learned what it means to teach somewhere that wasn't built for his success.
Woven through it all is David's own story — from unmotivated high schooler to admired teacher — in the tradition of Frank McCourt's Teacher Man, tackling some of the thorniest issues in American education from hard-won personal experience.
Who This Book Is For
This is a template for prospective teachers — a forewarning, sometimes pessimistic, ultimately optimistic, for anyone who will likely land, at least at first, in a Title 1 school. But it isn't only for educators. It's for anyone who works in an environment not built for their success, who plugs away at it day after day anyway, and finds hard-earned success in spite of it.
It's also a book for anyone who wanderlusts, including Peace Corps volunteers — David was one for four years, across two continents. And it's written largely for readers who don't often see themselves chronicled: this is a book about a Black man teaching Black kids in America, Indigenous Iñupiat students in Alaska, and young people of color in the Philippines and Madagascar.
