Alcott and ‘Little Women’ resonate 150 years later

CONCORD, Mass. — A century-anda-half before the #MeToo movement gave women a bold, new collective voice, Louisa May Alcott was lending them her own.

Society had far different expectations of women in 1867, when publisher Thomas Niles asked Alcott to write a “girls’ story.” At a time when women were expected to marry, often did not hold employment and could not vote, Alcott had her doubts about the success of “Little Women.”

Since then, the comingof-age book following four sisters and set against the backdrop of the Civil War has been translated into more than 50 languages and made into films, a musical and a recently aired PBS A copy of Alcott’s popular novel

MJoe Blundo

elanie Huber has stories that could melt the coldest heart.

She teaches specialneeds children at Cedarwood Elementary School on the South Side. Most of her students come from low-income homes.

One child arrived at school without shoes because it was his brother’s turn to wear them. On her lunch break, Huber went out and bought him a pair.

Another child cried on the last day of classes before summer break because he preferred school to his chaotic home. To ease his distress, she gave him some of the classroom Legos she bought with her own money.

“I couldn’t stand the thought of him being home all summer with nothing to do,” Huber said.

Give these kids a box of crayons, a ruler and a pair of scissors, and they are amazed.

“They’ll say: ‘These are mine? All mine?’”

It’s time again for my annual plea on behalf of the Tom Fennessy/Mike Harden Back to School Project. The small-time operation does an increasingly big thing: It fills thousands of backpacks, loaded with school supplies, for kids throughout central Ohio.

The project, named for two Dispatch columnists who championed the poor, needs about $85,000 to meet its goal of giving away 10,100 backpacks this year, an increase of 800 from last year, said