In the first segment:
University of Virginia professor Mark Edmundson thinks the very souls of our students are at stake when they are in the classroom. They will either love learning, discover things about themselves and what they could be, or they won't -- going so far as to dislike or even hate learning.
Hyperbole aside, the idea isn't a new one, but in his new book of essays, "Why Teach? In Defense of a Real Education," Edmundson navigates the conditions under which teachers teach, especially in higher education where a "customer" treatment has pervaded the culture of teaching.
Edmundson joins us to make his case on why teachers should view their work as a vocation and why real teaching and learning are necessities.
In the second segment:
With congress giving few signs on the future of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program yet reports of one in seven families living food insecure last year paired with aslowly recovering job market what does poverty in America look like?
Sasha Abramsky has been writing on the subject for a long time. In last year's article for The Nation "The Other America, 2012"he throws the curtain back on the 47 million people who at the time were living in poverty.
He says his new book "The American Way of Poverty: How the Other Half Still Live" is the result of hundreds of interviews over several years with organizations that serve and the people that live in poverty.
His new book delves deeper into the subject and he joins us to talk about the wide impact of poverty, and what we can do about it.
*The Source airs at 3 p.m. on KSTX 89.1 FM - audio from this show will be posted by 5:30 p.m.
