I was a Creon until I realized that it put me against Antigone. Now I'm not so sure. Last week, listening to public radio, I heard about the protests against the burial of Tamerlan Tsarnaev.
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Just south of the University of Chicago, at the AKArama Center in Woodlawn, a dozen or so people gather in a seminar room. The room is reminiscent of those in which Nobel laureates and eager college students swap ideas, giving the UofC its reputation as a center for intellectualism. It is sparsely adorned, its tables pushed together to form a hollow square. It is a room designed for focused discussion, for digging into texts, and for exchanging ideas. But the students here are different. Their average age is thirty-nine. Most of them are women. All live at least 150% below the poverty line.

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In "The Art of Freedom," Earl Shorris describes his efforts to establish a set of courses that would teach the core texts of Western civilization to people living in poverty, whose school experience had scanted the canon or skipped it entirely.

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Plato's "Euthyphro" can be tough going for anyone. Amy Thomas Elder struggled last year to make the case that the thorny philosophical text had anything to do with the lives of South Side high school freshmen.

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Do the classics matter? The Common Core State Standards—new, K-12 education rubrics that were rolled out in 2010 and have been implemented in 45 states and Washington, D.C.—seem conflicted about the answer.
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Amy Thomas Elder lives and breathes education. Has been doing so for most of her 49 years.

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Announcing the release of Earl Shorris' The Art of Freedom: Teaching Humanities to the Poor
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Graduates of the Oddyssey Project in Illinois develop photography skills to tell their stories, experiences, perspectives, and emotions.
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October 2012 edition of The Odyssey Project's Journal, In Media Res. There is a great article about Earl Shorris starting on page 6.
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They’re the great, eternal ideas which shape the way we think about our lives, our culture and ourselves, but for most of us, the window to learn about the “liberal arts” was open for a few early college years, if that window was even open at all.
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HIGH SCHOOL was a lost cause for Priscilla Rivera, a child of the downcast mill city of Holyoke, Mass. “I went to school with the attitude, ‘Oh, this is hard, and I’m not going to do it,’ ” Ms. Rivera said recently. “After a while, the teachers gave up on me. They were like, ‘If you don’t want to do your work, just put your head down.’ ”
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From the Spanish Language Odyssey Project in Chicago.   (Note that towards the end of the article, the Google Translate tool translates "credits" as "loans.")
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Earl Shorris, who died last week, was that rarest of Americans: the patriotic intellectual. I don't mean the sort of patriotism one finds on cable television, nor the hermetic intellectualism of academic conferences.
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There are 18 of us around a table on the second floor of the Kingston City Public Library.
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"We've met for three hours on Wednesday nights from September 7 to now..."
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Most 66 years olds have retirement on their minds.  Not Sherrie Kimball, though.

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"When this old world starts getting me down," as the old song goes, and the usual antidotes -- family, friends, writing, and music -- can't soothe my soul, I take comfort in knowing there's one place I can always go that's akin to being "Up on the Roof." And that's my annual engagement with the inspiring students enrolled in UW-Madison's Odyssey Project.
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“We're going to be breaking records this year in terms of attendance and completion,” says Emily Auerbach, a UW-Madison professor of English and director of the Odyssey Project. “This year all 30 students will be getting the full six credits with nobody getting an incomplete. That's never happened before.”

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A newly released five-year study shows that Mass Humanities' Clemente Course is changing more than just minds—it's changing lives.
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I saw a posting in the local Bay State Banner for the Clemente Course in the Humanities. Initially I called my friend Gillian to see if she would be interested in being a participant. She said what about you?
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Many teenage mothers who have dropped out of high school and live in poverty likely have their hands full providing for their children. Pondering the ideas of ancient philosophers and writing essays about art history may be low on the priority list for many of them
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The Warrior’s Heart, the Life and Legacy of Joan of Arc
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COLLEEN CARROLL worked for years at a sawmill in northern British Columbia, until, in 1993, a lung condition forced her to retire. The following year, a stroke decimated her short-term memory, so she moved to Vancouver to be closer to her sons, whom she had raised on her own. She rented a $350 bachelor apartment at the corner of Main and Hastings, the heart of the Downtown Eastside. “I was in pretty bad shape,” she says. When she heard that Humanities 101 (Hum for short) was taking students, she signed up. She had always wanted to go to university but never had the money.
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HOLYOKE, Mass. — The statistics don’t paint a pretty picture of Holyoke. It has the highest rates of birth, poverty, unemployment and high school dropouts, respectively, in the state of Massachusetts. So why is The Care Center, a Holyoke organization that helps poor women get their GED, using Shakespeare and Plato as their guides?
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Teen mothers are getting a taste of the prep school experience, replete with studying the classics from Dante to Shakespeare, through an innovative program in Massachusetts. 

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Charleston Clemente Project: Hope Through the Humanities
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NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCIV) -- Their approach to helping those stuck at the bottom of society involves enriching the mind to foster confidence and a love of learning.
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A lifelong learner, Ethel Stafford graduates from Extension School with plans for new career.
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A benefit for the Trident Clemente course
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Eighth Annual Event as Inspiring and Uplifting as Ever
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Humanities in Perspective graduates 15
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The Champaign-Urbana, and North and South Side of Chicago Courses are now recruiting. For more information, please check the course sites in our Course Directory, under COURSES.
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Edgar Allan Poe Play to Benefit Charleston Clemente Course at TTC
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The Civic Knowledge Project presents, "Taking Education to the Streets"
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It Takes Courage to Complete Clemente
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Homeless, disadvantaged soak up knowledge in humanities class
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A panel discussion featuring distinguished representatives from leading community organizations in Chicago involved in the development of Promise Zone initiatives:

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In Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, students bring rich perspectives to the study of university-level humanities.
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Years ago I sat in yet another interminable college-wide meeting concerning looming budget cuts. Years ago! "Make a case for the Humanities," the President challenged us, quite a believer in the arts herself. I couldn't think of any other way to put my answer: "Study of the Humanities just might save the planet." I am more convinced than ever.

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Artist Jonathan Green to talk to Clemente graduates at the Charleston Clemente Course graduation Dec. 16
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Chicago Tribune article by Barbara Brotman.
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Kate Brown writes about Southern Utah University's new Venture program.
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