Two Books on How Literature Can Solve the Education Crisis

Rose has created educational and literacy programs for young people who fall through the cracks in school. As a young person, he was placed in a vocational track after a testing mixup -- a program that wasn't a good fit for Rose. His new book about his education and his current teaching is called "Lives on the Boundary."

Barron was part of the Sphere jazz ensemble and records for the ECM label. He joins Fresh Air to perform some of the songs that influenced his playing.

Le Guin has a new collection of essays called "Dancing at the Edge of the World," about her life as a writer of genre fiction, her perspective as a woman sci-fi author who is also a mother, and the various tropes she explore in her classic works, like 1969's gender-themed "Left Hand of Darkness."