Trampolines, Not Hammocks: When Work Restores Dignity

<![CDATA[In the 1990s, I taught office skills in a welfare-to-work program. Most of my students were women, and most came in with a beaten-down mindset. Some carried visible scars — one came to class with bruises around her neck after her ex-husband broke into her home and tried to murder her. Others carried invisible scars, the result of generational poverty and lives spent hearing they would never amount to anything.]]>