Learning America : one woman's fight for educational justice for refugee children / Luma Mufleh.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Mufleh, Luma, author.

Contributor:

Tom Monahan Memorial Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Refugees--Georgia--Clarkston.

Refugees.

Soccer coaches--Georgia--Clarkston--Biography.

Soccer coaches.

Refugees--Education--United States.

Refugees--Education.

United States.

Georgia--Clarkston.

Refugee children--Education--Georgia--Clarkston.

Refugee children.

Mufleh, Luma.

Genre:

Autobiographies.

Physical Description:

xii, 243 pages : illustrations, charts ; 24 cm.

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Boston : Mariner Books, [2021]

Summary:

"It was a wrong turn that changed everything. When Luma Mufleh--a Muslim, gay, refugee woman from hyper-conservative Jordan--stumbled upon a pick-up game of soccer in Clarkston, Georgia, something compelled her to join. The players, 11- and 12-year-olds from Liberia, Afghanistan, and Sudan, soon welcomed her as coach of their ragtag but fiercely competitive group. Drawn into their lives, Mufleh learned that few of her players, all local public school students, could read a single word. She asks, "Where was the America that took me in? That protected me? How can I get these kids to that America?" Learning America traces the story of how Mufleh grew a group of kids into a soccer team and then into a nationally acclaimed network of schools for refugee children. The journey is inspiring and hard-won: Fugees schools accept only those most in need; no student passes a grade without earning it; the failure of any student is the responsibility of all. Soccer as a part of every school day is a powerful catalyst to heal trauma, create belonging, and accelerate learning. Finally, this gifted storyteller delivers provocative, indelible portraits of student after student making leaps in learning that aren't supposed to be possible for children born into trauma--stories that shine powerful light on the path to educational justice for all of America's most left-behind." -- Publisher's website.

A visionary leader and gifted refugee activist shows how she grew a soccer team into a nationally acclaimed network of schools by homing in on what traumatized students need to learn and making the school for those most in need.

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: PART I

1. Why Don't You Go Back?

2. The Fugees

3. The Lucky Ones

4. Shit Show

5. A More Convenient Season

6. Imagine

7. Shoo Baidein?

PART II

8. Fifteen Years in Fifteen Minutes

9. Radical Integration

10. You Can Do Better

11. The Art of Teaching Fugees

12. The Good of All

13. Teaching Children of Trauma

14. Catching Up from Far Behind

15. Redefining Success.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 241-243).

Arab American Book Award - The Evelyn Shakir Non-Fiction Award, Honorable Mention, 2023

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Tom Monahan Memorial Fund.

ISBN:

9780358569725

0358569729

OCLC:

1256804684

Publisher Number:

99990510395