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Ordinary People-Extraordinary Results

True Stories from Around the World, with Discussion Questions and Internet Sources

By Patricia F. Neyman, 2009

This book was born out of the conviction that in our media-saturated world there is far too much emphasis on the negative. Everywhere it is the same: each of us is left, most of the time, with the feeling that we personally are helpless to change anything. Yet there are people all over the world tackling the big problems with some success. We just don't hear about them nearly as often as we hear the negative, apparently better-selling, news.

The readings presented here are focused around true stories of basically ordinary citizens who have overcome obstacles and sometimes confronted danger to do something so imortant to them that they just had to keep going no matter what.

These people are all extraordinary in the sense that they tackled problems most of us would have felt were so big that nothing could be done. All have affected the lives of thousands or millions of others. In some cases, the result of their persistance and refusal to quit has finally been to be copied in other regions or countries. All have been honored in various ways, some even receiving the Nobel Peace Prize or a Goldman Environmental Prize.

Their stories are not merely interesting, but lead naturally into discussion or writing about issues that concern all of us. Hopefully the issues are ones that anyone could relate to, regardless of age or social, ethnic, or cultural background.

There is a list of questions after each story, and some extra-credit questions in Appendix 1. These are intended to stimulate readers to express their thoughts on various subjects related to the reading. Some questions are intentionally somewhat controversial. Hopefully students of diverse cultures and places will find them relevant.

Some of the questions also ask a student to do online research, which of course will provide excellent practice in using both scanning and intensive reading skills. Getting students to make use of the Internet is critical. It offers the possibility of solving problems faster than before, due to the fact that we can share the results of what we have done, no matter where we are. Whether successful or unsuccessful, this can help others in far-off places to benefit from our experiences and vice-versa.

For ESL/EFL teachers and students, an analysis of the vocabulary has been included in Appendix 2, and in Appendix 3 some comments about learning vocabulary. The subject of how to teach vocabulary and how students learn it is a vast one. I have included this in case ESL/EFL learners or EFL/ESL teachers are interested in pursuing the subject. In many selections there are references to videos available online which would be especially good for English listening practice.

I originally planned to restrict the vocabulary to the General Service List of the 2000 most frequent words occurring in English texts intended for the general public. (West, 1953; Nation, 1990) These make up 87% of the average written text. However, this turned out to be impossible, so the text is somewhat academic in nature. I did, however, exclude extremely complex sentences and verb forms, while still not artificially over-simplifying.

Check back for additions!!! This book is not quite finished.

Contents of Book

	Person	Country of Birth	General Description	Some Possible Classroom Writing/ Discussion Subjects
1	*Chiune Sugihara*	Japan	Risked everything to help thousands of Lithuanians escape through Russia and Japan as the Nazis came closer and closer.	Difficult decisions, long journeys, refugees, courage, losing everything, fleeing disaster, Nazis, World War II
2	*Muhammad Yunus*	Bangladesh	Created a banking system allowing poor people to borrow money for starting a small business so they can lift themselves out of poverty.	Borrowing money, small business, poverty around the world
3	*Margie Richard*	US	Pollution fighter - took on Shell Company in Louisiana after they destroyed her community.	Environmental problems, environmental justice, citizen action, fighting a large corporation
4	*Winnie Mabaso*	South Africa	Her heart went out to the many orphans in her neighborhood and their families; and she organized her neighbors to help them.	Orphans, raising money for a project, AIDS, health care
5	*Jesús León Santos*	Mexico	Made barren land green again; organized farmers to improve agricultural methods.	Reclaiming poor land, country to city migration, sustainable agriculture, green revolution, industrial agriculture
6	*Wangari Maathai*	Kenya	Organized communities to improve their lives by planting trees and reclaiming the soil and water; worked for democracy and peace .	Benefits of trees, problems in caring for planted trees
7	*Sompop Jantraka*	Thailand	Works with families and communities to keep families from sending their girls to a life of prostitution and slavery.	Why people sell their children, rights of children, exploitation of children
8	*Inderjit Khurana*	India	Brings education to children in slums around railroad stations, enabling them to escape the cycle of poverty .	Educating poor children, special problems of poor children, integrating specially-schooled children, potential political problems for reformers
9	*Karen Tse*	United States	Establishes legal rights systems in emerging democracies, so people don't get forgotten once they are thrown in jail.	Elements of justice systems, rights of the accused.
10	*Fabio Rosa*	Brazil	Passionate advocate for bringing electricity and its benefits to the millions of poor in this world who are still without electricity.	Alternatives in providing electricity, supporting development economically, benefits of electricity, solar energy, providing services for the poor.
11	*Sabriye Tenberken*	Germany	A blind woman who is empowering and creating educational opportunities for the blind, starting with a training center in Tibet, a region where people used to hide their blind children.	Abilities of the blind, or others with special needs, Tibet, treatment of blind children, importance of education
12	*Bunker Roy*	India	Has established “Barefoot Colleges” all over India. Run and staffed by the villagers themselves, they bring expertise in solar energy and other technology to their communities, so they can “develop themselves.”	The place of "experts" in development, villager point of view about development, potential of solar energy, potential political problems for reformers.
13	*Iqbal Masih*	Pakistan	Iqbal was forced at age 4 to start making rugs under terrible conditions in order to pay back a family debt. He managed to escape at age 10. In the 3 years he lived after his rescue, he repeatedly risked his life to help free other children. He also inspired many people, including some 7th-graders in the US who have raised over $350,000 to build schools all over the world.	Courage, child labor, young heroes, what children are capable of, debt-bondage.
14	*Patricia Guerrero*	Colombia	She and other Colombian women displaced by internal conflict have built a city for themselves, and have tirelessly fought for over 10 years to get sexual assault as weapon of war recognized as a violation of human rights.	Women's rights, effects of internal war, refugees, hope in a seemingly hopeless situation
15	*Searching for suitable person*
16	*Food for Thought*	You Don't Have To Be an Action Hero to Take Action
	*Appendix 1*	Extra-Credit Questions
	*Appendix 2*	Anlysis of Text (Vocabulary)
	*Appendix 3*	Are You In a Hurry to Learn English?

References Cited:

West, M. 1953 A General Service List of English Words. Longman, London

Nation, I.S.P. 1990 Teaching and Learning Vocabulary. Newbury House, New York.

See also Bauman, J. 1996 Vocabulary Resources for Material Writers. Materials Writers Newsletter, Vol IV, No 3; October 1996. The last has a general discussion of English vocabulary reading lists and can be found online.

Every effort has been made to trace and contact copyright holders of the pictures in this book. However, in some instances this has proved imposible. If notified the author will immediately remove any picture whose copyright holder requests it to be removed, or make other arrangements with the copyright holder. Anyone wishing to contact me regarding this book should email me at pf41n at yahoo dot com. (Eliminate spaces and commas, and replace the word "dot" with the appropriate symbol.)

This page last updated on: December 11, 2009