Bootstraps, Really???
Some years ago, the local paper ran an article about a young man who decided to hop a train from Raleigh, NC to Charleston, SC with $25 in his pocket. Within six months, he...
Hidden Voices
We will not, do not, or cannot hear the voices that are hidden in our community. We will not…hear hidden voices We stay within the confines of people more or less like us. We...
Poverty in the Classroom
Why is that child so rude? What is wrong with that mother that she allows her daughter to come to school dressed like that? Why doesn’t he ever do his homework? That child is...
Compassion Retreat
Have you ever thought deeply about compassion? It is a word I use a lot. In fact my mission statement says that I work to enlarge understanding in order to decrease judgment and increase...
Suggested Reading about Poverty and Serving Others
Our Eyes Were Opened, Inc. Annotated Bibliography for Recommended Reading Berreby, David, Us and Them: Understanding Your Tribal Mind, Little, Brown and Company, New York, 2005. Berreby shows how science tackles questions of group...
Is College for Everyone?
I was asked recently asked by someone who is mentoring an at-risk youth, “Is college for everyone?” She wondered about how valid it was for her to push the idea of college for someone...
How We Think About Work
Because we have different funds of knowledge based on our age, gender, race, ethnicity, socioeconomics, education, experiences, etc., we often ascribe to others the solutions to a situation that would work for us. This...