Everyone remembers their favorite teachers. What we often can’t remember are the exact moments that left such a fond impression on us.

And while good teachers help us understand their subject, the absolute best of them help us think differently about the world.

Author taught a first-year college course and noticed some strange student behavior

Years ago, Joseph Fasano, a poet, writer, and author, was teaching an introductory college course on composition, writing, and critical thinking. By all appearances, he was crushing it.

“One semester I thought [my students] were just really focused on taking notes,” he wrote in a recent Instagram post, noticing that the students were spending an awful lot of time scrawling in their notebooks.

He wasn’t wrong, but it wasn’t the material in his lectures they were paying attention to. They weren’t diligently taking notes just to pass an exam.

“Turns out they were compiling a book of all the slightly unhinged things I’d said. It’s 152 pages long,” he wrote.

As an author and poet, Fasano has more than a way with words. He has a way of capturing essential truths and reflecting them in ways that are incisive and memorable. His students were eager not to let those nuggets escape them. Once the book was completed, they gifted it to him, and he calls it “the best thing my students ever gave me. … I love these kids.”

The first page reads, “You once said in class that you wanted to be sure that what you were saying was being heard and absorbed. Well… here ya go.”

A few of the most memorable quotes from those 2016 lectures, as handwritten by Fasano’s students:

“Who taught you wonder, love, and learning were supposed to be easy?”

“Your assignment is to read a writer someone told you not to.”

“Every day of your life is a rough draft.”

“Another day, another chance to make the mistake that will save you.”

“The only thing more painful than becoming yourself is not becoming yourself.”

Fasano may call the quotes “unhinged,” but the rest of us just see wisdom.

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The post went viral, and people are wishing they could have taken Fasano’s course

The post racked up 179,000 likes and 1,300 comments in just two days, and the response has been nothing short of overwhelming. A few standouts:

“This is the best thing I’ve ever seen. You can actually see how you’ve positively influenced your students. What more could we want as teachers?”

“This book needs to be published.”

“Do you teach classes for 23 year old girls preferably for free”

“And evidently they love you. What an accomplishment. I hope this book gives you the peaceful sleep you have earned. Please do not stop.”

“This is the most thoughtful, touching thing ever. What great kids. What a great teacher. Thank you for your passion, for inspiring them and for making the best kind of impression on them. What a gift!”

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Calm wisdom like this lands hardest when times are tough

A few sentences scribbled in a notebook. A couple of motivational quotes. Why are Fasano’s words landing and resonating so deeply with hundreds of thousands of social media users?

“I have a feeling it is resonating with people because we’re all looking for a teacher, a guide, an adult in the room,” Fasano told Upworthy. “Especially when those seem to hard to find right now.”

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The words are beautiful and memorable, but they wouldn’t have quite the same impact if we didn’t have physical proof that they touched his students. They were compelled to write them down, and it’s easy to imagine that taking that introductory course with him may truly have changed the way some of them viewed the world.

Though Fasano only teaches occasionally, he continues his work as a poet and author. Fellow poet Dorothea Lasky described him as “A poet brave enough to return poetry to its troubled and eternal origins…This is the poet I trust to see the world as it is, quietly writhing around us.”

Fasano was able to pass on some of his gift to his students. But what’s even cooler is what they were able to give back to him—and so did thousands on social media.

“This is clearly the good side of social media,” he wrote on Instagram regarding the flood of appreciative and heartfelt messages. “I can’t (but can) believe people are this beautiful.”

A single door can open up a world of endless possibilities. For homeowners, the front door of their house is a  gateway to financial stability, job security, and better health. Yet for many, that door remains closed. Due to the rising costs of housing, 1 in 3 people around the world wake up without the security of safe, affordable housing. 

Since 1976, Habitat for Humanity has made it their mission to unlock and open the door to opportunity for families everywhere, and their efforts have paid off in a big way. Through their work over the past 50 years, more than 65 million people have gained access to new or improved housing, and the movement continues to gain momentum. Since 2011 alone, Habitat for Humanity has expanded access to affordable housing by a hundredfold. 

A world where everyone has access to a decent home is becoming a reality, but there’s still much to do. As they celebrate 50 years of building, Habitat for Humanity is inviting people of all backgrounds and talents to be part of what comes next through Let’s Open the Door, a global campaign that builds on this momentum and encourages people everywhere to help expand access to safe, affordable housing for those who need it most. Here’s how the foundation to a better world starts with housing, and how everyone can pitch in to make it happen. 

Globally, almost 3 billion people, including 1 in 6 U.S. families, struggle with high costs and other challenges related to housing. A crisis in itself, this also creates larger problems that affect families and communities in unexpected ways. People who lack affordable, stable housing are also more likely to experience financial hardship in other areas of their lives, since a larger share of their income often goes toward rent, utilities, and frequent moves. They are also more likely to experience health problems due to chronic stress or environmental factors, such as mold. Housing insecurity also goes hand-in-hand with unstable employment, since people may need to move further from their jobs or switch jobs altogether to offset the cost of housing. 

Affordable homeownership creates a stable foundation for families to thrive, reducing stress and increasing the likelihood for good health and stable employment. Habitat for Humanity builds and repairs homes with individual families, but it also strengthens entire communities as well. The MicroBuild® Initiative, for example, strengthens communities by increasing access to  loans for low-income families seeking to build or repair their homes. Habitat ReStore locations provide affordable appliances and building materials to local communities, in addition to creating job and volunteer opportunities that support neighborhood growth. 

Everyone can play a part in the fight for housing equity and the pursuit of a better world. Over the past 50 years, Habitat for Humanity has become a leader in global housing thanks to an engaged network of volunteers—but you don’t need to be skilled with a hammer to make a meaningful impact. Building an equitable future means calling on a wide range of people and talents.Here’s how you can get involved in the global housing movement:

Speaking up on social media about the growing housing crisis 

Volunteering on a Habitat for Humanity build in your local community

Travel and build with Habitat in the U.S. or  in one of 60   countries where we work around the globe

Join the Let’s Open the Door movement and, when you donate, you can create your own personalized door 

Shop or donate at your local Habitat ReStore

Every action, big and small, drives a global movement toward a better future. A safe home unlocks opportunity for families and communities alike, but it’s volunteers and other supporters, working together with a shared vision, who can open the door for everyone. 

Visit habitat.org/open-door to learn more and get involved today. 

From the outside gate, Far Meadow Farm looks quite standard. A fenced-off riding area with two horses; hens pecking at the ground. Trees gather around the buildings, and in the gaps between them, you can see glimpses of the moors beyond: windy, dramatic landscapes shaped by wild remoteness, rain, and lacerating winds.

Here, on a small farm in Godley, a bucolic suburb in northwest England on the edge of Manchester, you’ll find farmer Alan French, a 76‑year‑old local who refuses to let his little slice of pastoral heaven disappear—not again.

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“I just think, piss off, leave me alone, I’m not moving. Every time I move somewhere developers want it,” French told the Manchester Evening News. “This is no longer a rural place. It’s going to get worse if they get their way.”

Before moving to Godley, French had to leave two previous homes to make way for development. Now, he’s been here for 17 years, and the humble farmer is fed up. As a huge new housing project backed by Tameside Council closes in around him, he keeps repeating the same four words to anyone who asks what happens next: “I am not moving.”

A life of being pushed along

French grew up in the days when the strip of land between the Tameside and Stockport boroughs still felt rural, its fields and farmhouses sitting just outside Manchester’s reach. As the city expanded, housing estates descended on places like Romiley, a village just a few miles south of Godley, and local councils turned to a planning tool that lets them seize land for “the greater good.”

In the United Kingdom, it’s a compulsory purchase order, or CPO. In the United States, it’s eminent domain, the power government agencies use to acquire private land for things like highways, schools, pipelines, and housing.

Over the course of his life, French has had to leave two homes: both in Romiley, both because of compulsory purchase orders tied to development projects. That’s a pattern.

Now, with Godley Green Garden Village looming, he’s scared it’s happening again. Yet the 76-year-old farmer remains resolute: he will not sell Far Meadow Farm voluntarily.

What’s coming to Godley

For Tameside Council, Godley Green Garden Village is not just another development. It’s their flagship, a 15-year project that will see 2,150 homes built between Hyde and Hattersley, east of Manchester. The site sits on land that used to have green belt status, a planning zone meant to keep cities from sprawling endlessly outward. Places for Everyone, a region-wide development plan, removed this particular patch’s protected status, clearing the way for housebuilding.

Greater Manchester, like most big U.S. metros, has a housing crisis you can feel in people’s lives. Local reports describe tens of thousands of people on social housing waiting lists. Younger households can’t find anything affordable near work. Older residents struggle to downsize. Tameside Council argues that schemes like Godley Green are how they meet government-set housing targets and give more people decent places to live.

The outline for Godley Green goes like this: two “village” centres on either side of a small waterway called Godley Brook, each with some shops, commercial space, and community facilities. Developers say they’ll reserve more than half the land in the final master plan for open space, parks, and habitat areas. The plan also includes expanded school options, healthcare facilities, sports fields, and walking paths. About 15% of the homes—roughly 323—will count as “affordable” in a mix of rentals and ownership schemes.

Council leaders echo that........

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