Learning
Jo Freeman Reviews Exiled Daughter: How My Civil Rights Baptism Under Fire Shaped My Life
Jo Freeman writes: Brenda’s first arrest came when she and two friends tried to buy a bus ticket at the white counter in the Greyhound bus station. For that she served 28 days in jail, missing the first month of her sophomore year in high school. When she returned, her classmates treated her as a hero; her principal expelled her from school. At a subsequent school assembly the other students talked about walking out in protest; over a hundred of them did so later that day. more »
Another Powerful Woman and First to Lead Either Party In Charge of House Appropriations Committee, Rep. Nita Lowey
Congresswoman Nita M. Lowey is currently serving her fifteenth term in Congress, representing parts of Westchester and Rockland Counties. Lowey is a strong advocate for women, children, and families. She has been a champion of education throughout her career, fighting for school modernization, teacher development, and literacy programs. Under Lowey’s leadership, federal funding for after-school programs has increased from $1 million in 1996 to $1 billion today. more »
The First Biography of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Crusader Without Violence, Is Reissued 60 Years Later
Jo Freeman Reviews: In a long chapter on Family, we learn why the name on his birth certificate is Michael Luther, and why he was called 'Little Mike' in his early years. In fact, Martin Luther King wasn't named for Martin Luther, but you'll have to read the book to find out why. Nonviolence came to him easily. Even as a boy he didn't want to fight, or hit those who hit him. In 1950, while studying at Crozer Theological Seminary, he went to a lecture on Gandhi by a well-known black preacher. He was so intrigued that he read everything that he could find on the Mahatma and his philosophy. The future leader didn't leave home until he graduated from Morehouse College. However, he was ordained at 18 and made associate pastor of his father's church when he was 21. His theological training was not necessary for a career as a Baptist minister; he was going into the family business. more »
Dr. Abraham Verghese On The Charm, Magic and Importance Of The Bedside Manner
"Foreign doctors have all kinds of different forms of training. But many are united by one common factor that seems to be operative especially in the Commonwealth countries — a great emphasis on the bedside exam and on clinical skills. In part, [this approach] was driven by the lack of ready access to all the kinds of sophisticated testing that we have now. But I think that kind of clinical training still serves me very well. It’s almost embarrassing to see how little emphasis we put on that here where the most glaring finding, one that could have been discovered by either a good history or by a discerning exam, instead requires this $2,000 MRI and interpretation to discover something that was really there for everyone to see and recognize had they only learned how to do that." more »