Imagine waking up one morning at age fifty. You're a noted, published artist whose work hangs all over the world. Then imagine finding yourself standing in front of thirty-five at-risk African American high school students in an inner-city classroom in one of the most difficult high schools in the country. It's your job to teach them, and you've never taught a day in your life. This is the story of an artist who did just that. It is a moving story of a middle-aged white artist who dared to venture into the inner city of Savannah, Georgia, and attempt to teach in one of the first all-black high schools for children of freed slaves in America. Yet Shadow Lessons is not another "teacher saves the day" book. It is a story of beauty and ugliness, life and death, joy and sorrow, laughter and despair. Shadow Lessons takes us beyond the classroom on a compelling journey of compassion, healing, and transformation.