When Robert Shafran started community college in upstate New York in 1980, he was puzzled that some of his fellow students seemed unusually friendly, acting as though they already knew him. That mystery is retold…

Emily Crabtree likes to learn. And she loves the classroom. But it wasn’t always easy. An undiagnosed reading disorder often meant struggling in the classroom. “I was a B-C student,” she admitted. “It was a…