I Wanted to Change the World

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I couldn't really point to anything that had changed, that had truly changed as a result of my research. That worried me terribly because that's a whole point. I wanted to change the world. And unfortunately it's not through the normal academic publication route. So I ended up founding a little over a decade ago. The Houston Education Research Consortium or HERC was set up as a research practice partnership between Rice University and 10 school districts.

Raise yourself up by your own bootstraps. This is a refrain we hear all the time, especially as Americans catechized in the dogma of personal responsibility. But what if some people don’t have bootstraps? What if some don’t even have boots?

This week David and Curtis welcome educational expert and Rice University sociology professor Ruth López Turley. Raised on the U.S./Mexico border, Ruth’s own educational story is fascinating and lends special weight to her observations about educational equity and how the scriptures (including Mary’s Magnificat) might lead us to some surprising and challenging conclusions.

Show Notes:

-$50M Kinder Foundation grant will expand Kinder Institute’s work to solve challenges facing Houston

-Claire Cain Miller, Josh Katz, Francesca Paris and Aatish Bhatia (The New York Times) - Vast New Study Shows a Key to Reducing Poverty: More Friendships Between Rich and Poor

-Cynthia M. Allen - Want economic mobility? Make friends at church

Follow Curtis’ work at RedeemingBabel.org

Produced by Kris Carter