My favorite

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/29/us/29prison.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin

My very favorite student since I started teaching at the college level was about my age. Let's call him B. B left school for a while and then came back.

B came to my office once to talk about a speech he was giving, and let me know he might not be the most dependable student. I thought that was an odd thing to tell me. But, B explained, he was an alcoholic. He had been to rehab, just got out, and was trying to adjust to college life again. I was really taken back by this information. But, B was intelligent, witty, and fascinating - we talked for hours at a time in my office.

So, when B made a presentation (a damn good one) about the difference between rehab and incarceration, I listened. It made so much sense to me - he talked about alcoholism as something that needed to be addressed because locking an alcoholic away for a while was just a bandaid - that person would eventually get out and get into worse trouble - of all kinds of varieties. It was provocative and interesting. And he never mentioned his personal experience with the issue in his presentation - just made the pitch.

I have often looked back on him and wondered if he didn't have a lot of good ideas. What if we addressed problems? The question of course, being how? And that's where all my fiscally responsible friends will jump down my throat. But I can't help but think it would, in the long run, be more economically sensible to get rid of the problem itself, whatever that problem is, than just punish those who illustrate it.

The last time I heard from B he was doing very well. He has been published by the Times at least once, and I am so very proud of him. He's an example to me - we can do just about anything, as long as we're willing to accept some help.