Street Teaching in the Tenderloin: Jumpin' Down the Rabbit Hole

by Don Stannard-Friel

Overview

This book is an ethnographic account of San Francisco’s most inner city neighborhood, the Tenderloin. Using its streets as campus and its people as teachers, Stannard-Friel uses storytelling as a way of explaining why inner city social problems, such as homelessness, drugs, prostitution, untreated mental illness, and death of young people by murders and suicides, exist and persist there. The work delves into who lives in the Tenderloin and why, the role of dedicated service providers in meeting people’s needs and encouraging social change, and what lessons university students, many coming from their own challenging backgrounds, learn through community engagement and service learning that encourage understanding, compassion, and meaningful contributions to society. The work also explores how life in the area is changing, and why so many youth report that they “love living in the Tenderloin.”

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781137564375
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan
Publication date:	11/04/2016
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	403
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Don Stannard-Friel is Professor of Sociology and Anthropology at Notre Dame de Namur University, USA. He has also taught at San Francisco State, University of San Francisco, University of California, Santa Cruz, county jail, and a Federal prison for women. He has served as a Campus Compact - Carnegie Foundation Fellow for Political Engagement; California Site Director, Notre Dame-AmeriCorps; and Director of NDNU’s Dorothy Stang Center for Social Justice and Community Engagement.

Table of Contents

Preface: What Waits Below
1. Wild Awakenings
2. Jumpin’ Down the Rabbit Hole
3. Höküao’s Tears    
4. It Was a Terrible Time                                                                 
5. Stories of Survival
6. R I P Josh Mann
7. One Sadness After Another and Another           
8. The Drug Store
9. Tender Loin
10. The Mental Hospital Without Walls
11. I've a Feeling We're Not in Kansas (City) Anymore
12. Don’t Count Me!
13. The Secret Garden
14. Trendy Loin
15. The Soul of the City
16. Compassion as Pedagogy

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“Through his teachings, his writings, his advising, and through the example of his own life, Stannard-Friel fiercely strives to uplift and illuminate the oppressed, the poor, the overlooked and the imprisoned. There are few higher callings.” (Kevin Fagan, Staff Writer, San Francisco Chronicle, and recipient of the James Aronson Award for Social Justice Journalism)

“In this book, accompany students and street teachers to learn from San Francisco’s Tenderloin. Face despair, hope, separation, awe, tragedy, and enduring questions about each of our roles in encountering our fears and becoming the people we were meant to be in community with others. Jump down this rabbit hole—and then be inspired to jump down your own.” (Laura Nichols, Associate Professor of Sociology, Santa Clara University, USA)

Editorial Reviews

Read Stannard-Friel’s book for a variety of reasons: to learn a different way of teaching; to identify a unique approach to community-based learning; or to experience, through narratives, a walk through the Tenderloin. Enroll in his class through this book. You will be immersed not only in a community, but in the pedagogy of compassion in action. Know that you will jump down the rabbit hole and reemerge thinking differently about teaching and learning with the community.” (Patrick M. Green, Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement, Vol. 21 (4), 2017)

From the Publisher