<p>Garland, what do you teach exactly? What grades?</p>
<p>Paul Farmer is great! but while you're at it, I hope you encourage your students to read Farmer in his own words - "The Uses of Haiti".</p>
<p>While I'm at it, for someone with a comfortable background, I'd like to recommend a book I helped translate - Laura Coppo's "The Color of Freedom", on two of the most extraordinary people on the planet (and whom my d. is with this summer.)</p>
<p>I teach in a college, mostly freshmen, some sophomores. My main position is a counselor/advisor in a support program, but I also teach freshman english and team teach a required course for sophomores which combines learning to do research with learning how different disciplines encounter and deal with social responsibility.</p>
<p>the college is private college too low ranked to show up on CC, drawing mainly low income students from NE Jersey.</p>
<p>Mini, now that I've encountered Farmer, I'd like to do so, but since it's a freshman comp course, I can't throw too much at them at once. I love Kidder's writing, but am looking forward to reading Farmer himself, now.</p>
<p>"I persist in thinking that, faced with the facts, some people will change. It's too depressing, otherwise."</p>
<p>Calling it for what it is can be one of the first steps toward change. I have a good friend - Jenny Ladd - who runs what are essentially "Wealth Anonymous" groups:</p>
<p>(I love Kidder's "Hometown" as well.)</p>
<p>Garland, When you say support, do you mean academic support? Psychological support? "Something I can't think of" support? Do you like your job? </p>
<p>This thread is good for book ideas at the very least.</p>
<p>As an aside, I should add that I first heard of Farmer two years ago, when another prof used the book, and asked my H to come in and speak to the class, since he was doing somewhat similar work in Newark, where many of them come from (even caught TB from a patient.) So I am doubly remiss for only now reading it. He is inspiring.</p>
<p>Every kind of support--academic, how to be a student, financial, career, grad school, personal counseling, etc.</p>
<p>It's part of a federal program called STudent Support Services, part of the family of programs called TRIO, you may have heard of Upward Bound, which is the HS version. We're the undergrad version.</p>
<p>Garland, That's great.</p>
<p>Dstark, it's very rewarding!</p>
<p>Garland, you make a difference. In my book, that is what life is really about.</p>
<p>I will plug another Kidder book: Among Schoolchildren. I have read all Kidder's books, and they are marvelous reads.</p>
<p>Mountains Beyond Mountains was definitely one of the best.</p>
<p>I read Among Schoolchildren years and years ago, and am going to get my H a copy, as he embarks on his student teaching experience this fall.</p>