Winter break reading—wonderful book about a brief period when CUNY opened up to all NYC high school graduates (made it free, had explicit programs for people without strong backgrounds, etc), told through the teaching of four incredibly influential writers who all overlapped at City College.
![Rich was the first to admit that City College catalyzed "a profound change in [her] conception of teaching and learning." On first arriving, she had hoped to discover an unlikely Shakespeare buried among mediocre students, whose gifts she could help cultivate. But immersed in the SEEK community, she came to see "compensatory" (or "remedial") education as part of a broader "movement for social change," the goal of which was to "break down false barriers of class & color to make all education truly open to all people who want it?" There, she realized that the "veins of possibility" run through all students and that the political potential of teaching lies not necessarily in mentoring a select handful of highly skilled individuals but in developing teaching strategies that would benefit all, regardless of their previous academic training, ability, or interest.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:5vbws4haz2jg7ohvxiwpwkdm/bafkreigthwo47hmrvewgq2re7wgrslnnp7cjyodh37picjfgvigdp23pa4)
