I received an email from a former student the other day in which he thanked me for encouraging him to return to college. Family hardship had forced him to drop out and take a job. Now he is back at school while working part-time.

Since I began teaching in a high school in Oakland, California, I have taken a personal interest in my students. In a sense, I fall in love with them. It's not a romantic love, of course, but it is a devotion. Every young person struggling to achieve an education ...