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Susan Friedman, a Visiting Assistant Professor of English at the University of South Florida, has found through her own teaching experience that incorporating autobiographical texts and self-writing into her pedagogical practices can foster a classroom environment that pays attention to subjectivity to promote mindful, ethical behavior in both teacher and student, and teach empathy for the other. Her pedagogical practices are greatly influenced by progressive, feminist, and psychoanalytical pedagogies that she believes fall under the auspices of what feminist pedagogue Bell Hooks terms "engaged pedagogy." In this essay, the author shows why and how self-reflective personal writing improves the well-being of the writing subject, and how self-writing taps into a student's multiple intelligences, possibly facilitating the writing process for some learners. It is the author's intention to promote the use of self-writing in the college classroom as a valuable resource for teaching empathy.

1Boy Crusoe

By Allan Eric

Also published as" A Yankee Crusoe" . A 15 year old hard working and studious farm boy finds the lure of adventure on the seas as a merchant seaman more than he can resist. This is his story. " I was born in a little town in the State of Maine, near the close of the Civil War. My boyhood life did not differ materially from that of the average farmer's son in the remote country districts of New England--except, perhaps, that I read more and thought more. Hard work on the rugged soil, two terms each year in the little yellow country schoolhouse, a day's fishing now and then filled the early years of my life full to over-flowing. " What he gets is enough excitement and adventure to overflow his wildest dreams. How he experiences disaster and uses his wits and knowledge to overcome every problem makes for a great read. - Summary by Phil Chenevert