Local View: Humanities classes can help rescue poor.

In May 2001, I was on my way to Valencia College’s West Campus when I heard Earl Shorris, author of “Riches for the Poor,” being interviewed on National Public Radio. In the segment, Shorris explained that poverty and homelessness in America were the bestkept secrets in town. What we do not see does not exist, or so we think.

Shorris thinks that the root causes of poverty and homelessness should be unveiled if we, as Americans, are truly interested in helping to resolve this plague of the human spirit. This is where education and knowledge as sources of power enter the door that Shorris has courageously opened.

Poor and homeless people often experience, as Shorris contends, such a loss of self-dignity and confidence that they have been encased in what he calls “the surround of force.” Government agencies, which are tasked with alleviating social problems, make it virtually impossible for people to leave such conditions.

They have been excluded from “the moral life of downtown,” Shorris contends, meaning theaters, museums, concerts and lectures. He thinks the humanities are the way out of this conundrum.

To this end, Valencia College, under the conditions of a grant awarded by the Florida Humanities Council, worked out the details of a college-level credit course of study in the humanities for poor and homeless individuals based on the model created and developed by Shorris at Bard College in New York City. Thus, The Clemente Course in the Humanities (ak a The Prometheus Project) was implemented by Valencia College in January 2003, and continued for several years.

As the project’s director, I asked my colleagues, professors David Sutton and Elizabeth Eschbach, to teach this college-level course in the humanities to those poor and homeless students who were invited to enroll in this course. Their work was impressive.

One of the project’s homeless students, Stephen Davis, continued his academic studies at Valencia College after completing one of the project’s college-level credit courses in the humanities. He graduated from Valencia in May 2006, received the college’s Distinguished Graduate Award, and was invited to deliver the commencement speech at graduation.

Like Shorris, we think the humanities and the pursuit of knowledge are the doors to a recovery of self-dignity and confidence. Poor and homeless individuals don’t need anyone to rescue them. Because everyone possesses unlimited potential, a route of escape from the abyss of poverty already resides within each person. The radical nature of the humanities, with its emphasis on art, literature, philosophy and the politics of freedom, played a functional role in this regard.

This program even created a context out of which poor and homeless individuals were able to recreate themselves and eventually transcend the pain of poverty and homelessness. It is my hope that Valencia College will soon reintroduce this worthy project. After all, knowledge is power.