Dedication


To my parents, Adelle and the late Norman Rubin, who taught me:

Everyone should carefully observe

which way his/her heart draws him/her,

and then choose that way

with all his/her strength.

- Hasidic saying


To my study participants who taught me:

It is the heart that makes a wo/man rich.

S/he is rich according to what s/he is,

not according to what s/he has

- Henry Ward Beecher


To Julie Beth, Lynne Michelle, Natalie Jill, Andrea Jane, Steven Rubin (Stephanie Robin), Colson Rubin (Kelsey Robert) and Tess Amira, my nieces and nephews and Jean (John), Doug, and Allen educators who inspired me to pursue my studies in education, and whose names I borrowed or modified slightly to use as pseudonyms for my participants, and who taught me:

Never take a path that has no heart in it.

You can't lose if your heart is in your work,

but you can't win if your heart is not in it.

- Carlos Castanada