Discusses a method of teaching human development through the use of writing journals and reading the novels of May Sarton. Uses excerpts from students' journals to highlight the process by which human service workers begin to overcome the distance between their worlds and the worlds of the elderly with whom they will work. (Author)

Case studies are presented of three gifted students, indicating the social and academic problems which are standing in the way of their potential development. The students include a Vietnamese-American ninth-grade girl who has difficulty with English and does not feel accepted by other students, an underachieving seventh grade boy who speaks out…