Vendor
	Mohrbooks Literary Agency Annelie Geissler
Categories
Memoirs

MISEDUCATED

Brandon P. Fleming

A Journey in Life and Language

Brandon Fleming's MISEDUCATED is the story of one man's journey - in life and language - from a delinquent, drug-dealing dropout to an award-winning Harvard educator - all by the age of 27.

Fleming grew up in an abusive home, subject to the brutal rages of his stepfather, a cocaine-addicted Baptist preacher. Spirit broken, Fleming became a threat to everyone around him. He was shuffled through school, his passing grades a nod to his skill on the basketball court, not his presence in the classroom. He turned to the streets, to a life of drug deals and violence, a life saved only by the dream of basketball stardom. Fleming earned a chance to play for a Division I School. But when he suffered a career-ending injury during his first semester, he dropped out of college. He spent the next years toiling on an assembly line, until the depression that stalked him drove him to attempt suicide. Miraculously, his life was spared. He returned to college, determined to reinvent himself as a scholar - to replace illiteracy with mastery over language, to go from being ignored and unseen to commanding attention. He immersed himself in the work of Black thinkers, from the Harlem Renaissance to the present day. Crucially, he found debate, and debate became the means by which he transformed his life, and the tool he would use to transform the lives of others - to teach disadvantaged kids to "be intrusive in places that are not inclusive," eventually at Harvard University, where he would make champions and make history. Fleming, recently named to Forbes' 30 Under 30 list, has been featured in Ebony, CBS Evening News, CNN among others. In addition to his work teaching and coaching debate, Brandon Fleming is a sought-after speaker. He addresses audiences ranging from federal prisons to Fortune 100 corporations to the UN General Assembly on issues of education, race, mental health, and using failure to catalyze success. Noted scholar and activist Cornell West has already agreed to write the foreword. Brandon P. Fleming is Assistant Coach of Debate at Harvard University and founder of the nationally acclaimed Harvard Diversity Project. Fleming is one of Forbes' "Thirty Under Thirty," and his work has been has been featured on GMA, Ebony, CBS Evening News, CNN among others. He was a speaker at the UN's International Day of Education and named 2019 Modern Man of Distinction by Black Enterprise magazine.

Available products
Book Published 2022-01-01 by Hachette Book Group - New York (USA)

Comments

Though we frequently hear about the disproportionate numbers of Black boys and men who struggle in school and experience incarceration, narratives that provide perspective-shifting insight into the beautiful humanity of these boys and men are few and far between. It is impossible to read this book and not come away with a combination of fury over the oppressive systems that miseducate, and faith in the power and resilience of the human spirit to overcome. Miseducated is vital reading as we fight our way to a more equitable world.

Miseducated is a stunningly crafted book exploring the radical possibilities of what happens when a Black child who 'hates' school finds the language, tones, and practice to contextualize and precisely state why he rightfully resents the parts of American formal education system that hated him. In that way, the book is not so much about a prelapsarian kind of renewal, but a full hearted conjuring of an equitable future. I learned how to learn and how to teach again in Miseducated. This is breathtaking art and heart work.

[A] bracingly frank [memoir] about his phoenix-like rise from a violent, abusive home on the margins and his wayward stint on the streets as a drug dealer[,] with...gritty details and feel-good ending.

Miseducated breaks your heart and then heals your soul with the love and agency of an educator who never stopped believing in himself. This is a beautifully written, deeply moving portrait of a vulnerable and tender Black man who uses his sheer strength and stamina to not only save his own life, but also the lives of his students living in a country that has put a target on their bodies, minds, and souls. Brandon P. Fleming dares us to see him and his students as anything other than human. This is what we mean when we say Black Lives Matter.

[A] story about triumph of the will. Fleming conveys his passion for learning and teaching, in writing that is by turns entertaining and moving. This is a must-read for educators, as a professional development tool and to consider for high school curricula.

[A] fascinating and inspiring memoir.

Miseducated touched my soul. From the very first sentence to the last, I was riveted. Only one other book has affected my soul so profoundly. It was my great-great grandfather's Narrative - and, fatefully, the book that happened to change Brandon's life.

Spellbinding storytelling... Informed by the autobiographies of Malcolm X and Frederick Douglass, the books that finally overcame his resistance to reading, Fleming adds a compelling chapter to the body of literature that inspired him. An inspiring page-turner for all readers, especially those seeking to overcome significant obstacles to find success.