Rethink Learning Now

My young immigrant parents came to the United States from Pakistan in hopes of achieving the American Dream, for the sake of opportunity. The emphasis on education ran deep though my family. My grandfather recognized that education is the only way to transcend poverty. He acted by putting numerous, underprivileged men through college and law school in Pakistan. He once wrote to me, "Let your motto be hard work, planned studies and recreation. Struggle to make a successful life...

"The Child is Father to the Man." That's what Wordsworth wrote, and some months ago a three-year-old youngster demonstrated the truism (I want to pun it, 'proved the altruism') yet again.

He and I were sitting in a car in a suburban parking lot, waiting for his grandma. Adric noticed, then looked closely at a black man striding across the parking lot. "He looks like you, Jonathan," Adric said. The man was about 25, buff, cue-ball bald, nattily...

Journalism was the most authentic writing experience my students every enjoyed and the best teaching I have ever done. My journalism students at Title One, urban schools in Southern California were almost all the children of immigrants or immigrants themselves. We always had at least three different primary languages on staff; one year we had seven, yet they regularly won prizes for quality of their paper. The students had a real audience, a real purpose and a real voice. They...