I’ve been reading Peter Dreier’s The 100 Greatest Americans of the 20^th Century: A Social Justice Hall of Fame.  This 2012 book has enhanced my appreciation of figures from Robert La Follette Sr., Florence Kelley, and Fiorello La Guardia to Ella Baker, Walter Reuther, and David Brower – who may been the most important environmentalist since John Muir and Theodore Roosevelt.

Few of the selections would be controversial in progressive circles, though I disagree with the inclusion of Bob Dylan in particular (despite his artistry).  If one were to add an entertainment luminary to the likes of Joan Baez, Woody Guthrie, and Pete Seeger, a strong candidate would be Paul Newman.  An actor-activist who made Richard Nixon’s enemies list, Paul Newman also lent his name to Newman’s Own, the company that has generated hundreds of millions of dollars for charitable causes.

Recently I read a new book by Eric Schwarz, a founder and longtime leader of Citizen Schools, called The Opportunity Equation.  (The Carnegie Corporation of New York and Institute for Advanced Study collaborated on a commission that produced a 2009 report, on STEM education, with a similar title.)  His subtitle: “How Citizen Teachers Are Combating the Achievement Gap in America’s Schools.”

Eric Schwarz, whom I met in summer 2000 and recently saw briefly when he gave a book talk in New Haven, concentrates on the role of volunteer “citizen teachers” that Citizen Schools has deployed for two decades.  His book is an unusual combination: part memoir, part institutional history, part how-to manual, part policy brief, and part call to action.  A former journalist, he narrates effectively – with elements of humor as well as data and well-earned experience.  He is respectful of professional teachers while recognizing their need for greater support.

Large-scale increases in volunteer mentoring and tutoring, and in federal support for the AmeriCorps service program, are among his suggestions.

His own privileged background, far from something he takes for granted, fuels his zeal for expanding learning opportunities and learning time in order to counter inequalities.  He argues (page 195):

“…Some of the achievement gap (20 to 30 percent) is caused by inequality between schools in wealthier and poorer backgrounds. This inequality needs to change. But most of the gap comes from unequal access to learning opportunities offered after school or in the summers, at home or in a growing constellation of tutoring centers, skill-building camps, and paid enrichment and internship programs.  Upper-income kids get many thousands of dollars invested in these types of extra learning opportunities, and as a result they hone their basic academic skills; they build new skills such as the ability to innovate and create and work on teams, and they build increasingly important social networks and social skills.  This inequality needs to change too.”

Half a century ago, in May 1964, President Lyndon Johnson envisioned a nation advancing not just toward “the rich society and the powerful society, but upward to the Great Society” that might “end poverty and racial injustice.”

This lofty rhetoric has not, of course, been fulfilled – even as progress has occurred. 

Travis Bristol – whose work has been mentioned on this blog previously in August 2014 (August 10), September 2013 (September 7), and June 2013 posts – wrote a recent Edutopia piece, “Race and Violence Should Be a School-Wide Subject.”