SOUL OF A CITIZEN

1.   Tim Ryan

• Congressman Tim Ryan Introduces the Academic, Social and Emotional Learning Act

https://timryan.house.gov/press-release/congressman-tim-ryan-introduces-academic-social-and-emotional-learning-act-0

• A mindful nation

http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/gg_live/gg_events_videos/video/rep._tim_ryan_on_a_mindful_nation/

• A Mindful Nation: How a Simple Practice Can Help Us Reduce Stress, Improve Performance, and Recapture the American Spirit https://www.amazon.com/Mindful-Nation-Practice-Performance-Recapture/dp/1401939309

• Rep. Tim Ryan On Meditation: ‘Get Off The Mat And Into The World’

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/16/tim-ryan-meditation_n_5996836.html

2. Paul Loeb

• http://www.paulloeb.org/impossible.html

THE IMPOSSIBLE WILL TAKE A LITTLE WHILE:
Perseverance and Hope in Troubled Times

People need hope more than ever in tough political times—-like these.

That's why I've comprehensively updated The Impossible, mixing my own essays on hope with the voices of some of the most eloquent writers and activists around, adding new contributions and working clsoely with the authors to update existing ones. Think Nelson Mandela, Maya Angelou, Bill Moyers, Arundhati Roy, Tony Kushner,Bill McKibben, Paul Hawken, Pablo Neruda and Vaclav Havel. Alice Walker, Mary Pipher, Jonathan Kozol, Diane Ackerman, and Marian Wright Edelman. Cornel West, Terry Tempest Williams, Dan Savage, Desmond Tutu, and Howard Zinn. These essays, poems, and stories teach us how to keep on working for a more humane world, replenish the wellsprings of our commitment, and continue no matter how hard it sometimes seems.

•  http://www.paulloeb.org/soul-classroom.html

Soul of a Citizen: Classroom Use

 "Soul has been a powerful inspiration to citizens acting for environmental sanity, showing how they can take committed stands, even if they don’t know every last answer. The new edition is even more inspirational."
—Bill McKibben

Assigned on hundreds of campuses in every conceivable discipline and from first-year programs to graduate seminars, Paul Loeb’s Soul of a Citizen has become a classic of civic engagement, generating exceptional responses. Students of all backgrounds and perspectives, say it's inspired them to reflect on their own lives, challenge their cynicism and sense of powerlessness, and move from passivity to participation. One group of college seniors said it was the only book in four years that had given them real hope.

In 2010, St Martin’s published a wholly new edition of Soul, product of a year of intensive work, and revised in subquent years. Developed in close consultation with faculty who've been teaching it, the book's wholly updated new edition keeps the stories and lessons that have most inspired students to act, while adding powerful new examples of student and community activists that speak to the challenges of our very different time. Student examples include President Obama's political beginnings in the student anti-apartheid movement (a reminder that whatever one thinks of his presidency, we never know where engaged students will end up), how a formerly homeless University of Washington student helped make his campus sweatshop free, and how a Virginia Tech student started her college career so apathetic that she spent the night of the 2004 election playing a drinking game instead of voting-—then went on to create and run a pioneering environmental sustainability plan for her once-apathetic campus.

Soul now has over 150,000 copies in print, and faculty are continuing to assign the book , with outstanding results, in every academic discipline and at every conceivable kind of school. Faculty say it teaches even more powerfully the initial edition. Over 50 schools have assigned Soul campus-wide for all of their entering freshmen, in senior capstone programs, or in core curricular service-learning courses. Because Soul focuses on ways active citizens can stay engaged for the long haul, and wrestles explicitly with issues of disappointment and burnout, the book's revised version can be a powerful antidote to the sense of dashed hopes that too many in this generation now feel, while speaking to both the frustrations and possibilities of our time.

Soul's updated study questions page includes classroom questions that faculty teaching the book have long used to engage and inspire their students. It also weaves in new questions to draw out the most powerful lessons from the updated stories and analysis. And it includes suggestions on teaching selected parts of the book if classroom time is scarce. Loeb's service learning page explores ways faculty have combined Soul and The Impossible Will Take a Little While with powerful community projects. The study questions page also includes links to sample quizzes, some of the students' own questions and responses, and other classroom resources. Soul is inspiring thought and commitment at all levels of political and intellectual sophistication, from students who've never considered civic involvement, or for whom the classroom itself feels like foreign territory, to veteran activists and scholars. If you're in a context where you can only assign a brief slice of Soul, you can also consider the updated version of an excerpt that appeared in Utne Reader and license it through the Copyright Clearance Center. But of course it's not nearly as rich and comprensive as having students read the entire book. So I hope you'll give it a try.

 FREE ACADEMIC EXAM COPIES

If you teach a class or supervise an educational program for which Soul of a Citizen would work, you can get a free academic examination copy by filling out the information in this form.

Iif you'd like to give autographed half-price copies away to students, faculty or staff, for instance in your service or leadership programs, the information is here. And if you don't teach a relevant course, you can order the book on-line or order from any local store. Also, please tell colleagues about the book, using this flier. Pass the word through relevant listservs, academic discussion circles, and in academic newsletters and journals.

And though, it isn't directly related to Soul, here's a link to our national nonpartisan Campus Election Engagement Project that I founded to give administrators, faculty, and student leaders effective ways to engage students in America's elections.

"Soul of a Citizen has inspired thousands of people, of widely differing perspectives, to take a stand, particularly students. It teaches them how to get past the barriers to act, and why their actions matter. The new edition is a powerful personal guide to get people involved."
—Hans Riemer, former political director, Rock the Vote

3. Thich Nhat Hanh

https://www.amazon.com/Good-Citizens-Creating-Enlightened-Society/dp/1935209892

Good Citizens: Creating Enlightened Society