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- In the small village in southern Italy where my grandfather was born close to ninety years ago, without electricity or modern medicine or cars, people lived, regularly, well into their nineties (I know because I walked through the cemetery). My grandfather, who moved to the United States when he was ten, and became an accomplished, educated, professional American man, died of cancer in his early seventies — twenty years earlier than he might have if he had remained in his village. If my grandfather had not retained some of the habits of his childhood — he loved the woods, raised his own chickens, ate home-cooked meals and drank red wine — he might not have made it to sixty (because of the way he smoked and drank, and the otherwise sedentary life of the suburbs). The 20th century modernized the peasant — and killed him.
- Students at the urban high-school where I teach are relatively poor. Though their family income and buying power is greater than that of my grandfather in the 1930’s, their fundamental poverty is far greater than my grandfather’s was. My students face serious health problems because of their sugary, nutrition-free diets. Because of their phones, they have serious trouble focusing on their schoolwork — or anything, for extended periods of time. My grandfather could raise animals, make wine, mushroom, identify plant species, construct buildings, and grew up in an era before TV. He entertained himself by reading poetry. My grandfather was not a better, more self-reliant person than my students — but the poverty of his childhood had windows and doors; the…
