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Soul of a Citizen
Recommended Reading
by Paul Rogat Loeb
New York: St. Martin's Griffin, 1999
ISBN: 02-312-2043503Paul Loeb, an associated scholar at Seattle's Center for Ethical Leadership, comments regularly on social involvement for the New York Times, Washington Post, Psychology Today, CNN and NPR. We include this book in our recommended readings for educators because of its powerful themes that teachers may find invaluable as they attempt to prepare their students for the adult world and hopefully by example and studies--motivate them to take a constructive and active part in society.
Loeb writes, "I'd like this book to be an antidote to the sense of powerlessness that pervades our culture, a meditation on what it means to fight for more humane social and economic conditions in a sometimes discouraging time." His book is filled with moving anecdotes about ordinary Americans who have found ways to make their actions count and their voices heard. These stories can perhaps help to counter the cynicism, passivity, and alienation that many students feel today.
In his concluding chapter, Loeb quotes the poet Rainer Maria Rilke:
My eyes already touch the sunny hill,
Going far ahead of the road I have begun,
So we are grasped by what we cannot grasp;
It has its inner light, even from a distance
And changes us, even if we do not reach it,
Into something else, which, hardly sensing it, we already are.Loeb notes, "We all have our own distinct gifts, strengths, and opportunities to make our lives count. We all have our particular fears, flaws, and constraints. But no one kind of person is responsible for healing all the wounds of the world. That has to be a common task. The challenge is to ask what we what to stand for and to do our best to act on our beliefs. For our choices will create the world that we pass on."
No matter whether we teach our students math, or science, or literature, is it not part of every teacher's responsibility to inspire students to be all they can be? Herewith, a magnificent tool for this purpose.
Copyright © September 2001 New Horizons for Learning, all rights reserved.
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