WALL OF FAME: One Teacher, One Class, And the Power to Save Schools and Transform Lives by Jonathan Freedman
$25.00
Paperback - 409 pages (October 2, 2000) 
AVID Academic Press/SDSU Press
ISBN: 0970077300 
 

About the Book

As public education declined and many Americans despaired of their children's future, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jonathan Freedman volunteered as a writing mentor in some of California's toughest inner-city schools. He discovered a program called AVID that gave him hope. In this work of creative non-fiction, Mr. Freedman interweaves the lives of AVID's founder, Mary Catherine Swanson, and six of her original AVID students over a 20-year period, from 1980 to 2000. With powerful personalities, explosive conflicts, and compelling action, Wall of Fame portrays the dramatic story of how one teacher in one classroom created a pragmatic program that has propelled thousands of students to college. This story of determination, courage, and hope inspires a new generation of teachers, students, and parents to fight for change from the bottom up. WALL OF FAME addresses the fears, hopes and dreams of Americans who care deeply about the future of our children. It is a gripping story that inspires teachers, parents, students, policy makers and the general public. The heroes are ordinary people with extraordinary determination, courage and willingness to learn. The villains are poverty, fear, discrimination, rote learning and low expectations.

About the Teacher

MARY CATHERINE SWANSON never intended that her commitment to teach all her students academic rigor would put her career in jeopardy -- or revolutionize public education. But when school desegregation provoked white flight in 1980, this teacher took a stand against railroading minority students into remedial classes. Instead, she challenged them with academic rigor and support - 93% went on to college. Mrs. Swanson, Founder and Director of AVID, is the first public school teacher ever to receive a prestigious Dana Foundation Award for Pioneering Achievement in Education. Over 20 years, she has successfully disseminated her work in more than 1,000 schools in 29 states and countries, now serving over 50,000 students. Yet no honor is more precious than the enduring relationships with her AVID students, who call to share ongoing struggles, announce achievements - "Mrs. Swanson, I just helped launch the Space Shuttle!" -- and rely on her advice.

About the Author

Jonathan Freedman has received many honors for his editorials and columns, including a Pulitzer Prize for Distinguished Editorial Writing and the Distinguished Service medal from the Society of Professional Journalists. "Esquire" magazine has cited his work as a writing mentor of inner city students in a special Hero Nation issue. Born in 1950, Mr. Freedman attended the Denver Public Schools and Phillips Exeter Academy. He was graduated cum laude from Columbia College, where he was awarded the Cornell Woolrich writing award Freedman's Pulitzer-prize-winning editorials for the "San Diego Tribune" were instrumental in the passage of the U.S. Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, including a historic amnesty that brought more than 3 million undocumented immigrants out of hiding. He is the author of the critically acclaimed non-fiction book, FROM CRADLE TO GRAVE: The Human Face of Poverty in America, and has published freelance columns in the New York Times, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times and the San Diego Union-Tribune. Jonathan Freedman lives in La Jolla, California, with his children, Madigan and Nick, and his wife, Dr. Isabelle Rooney, a research scientist. The recent birth of their daughter, Genevieve, is contemporaneous with this book.

Aztlan Reocupada: A Political and Cultural History since 1945
by Richard Griswold del Castillo,
Mexican American Studies, SDSU
Mexico: CISAN 1996/Paper/$10
orders to be forwarded to CISAN by SDSU Press

A survey of the relationship between Mexico and the Mexican American communities in the United States since 1945, this book analyzes the political, social, and cultural manifestations of Chicano history, expecially those influenced by Mexican immigration and culture. The theme of the book is the reoccupation, spiritually, intellectally, and culturally, of Aztlan, the American Southwest, Mexico's former northern frontier and the Aztec homeland. The re-Mexicanization of the American border states is mediated by Chicanos and their interpretation of American and Mexican culture. The role of women in shaping regional and international history is emphasized in this survey as well.
 

Catalogue of the Rare Astronomical Books in the San Diego State University Library
by Louis A. Kenney
Introduction by Owen Gingerich
published by Friends of the Malcolm A. Love Library, SDSU, 1988.
ISBN: 0-295-96801-X/LC: 88-80983
Slipcased and numbered / Pages: 344
309 illustrations, 18 in color/1988/$75.00
 

Printed in a limited edition of 1,000, this folio volume contains 210 titles with imprint dates from 1471 to the eighteenth century. There are 309 reproductions from rare early editions of Manilius, Sacro Bosco, Euclid, Pliny, Copernicus, Galileo, Brahe, Kepler, and many others.