PHIL 414

Animal Cognition & Consciousness
with laboratory component

Required Readings:
Rader & Radner, Animal Consciousness
Dennett, Kinds of Minds
Allen & Bekoff, Species of Mind
Bekoff, The Cognitive Animal
Altmann 1974 Observational study of behavior

Many articles and excerpts posted on the Blackboard site. Be sure you can access Blackboard!

Course Description:

This course examines the notions of intelligence, cognition, reasoning, consciousness, and mental content as they appear in the philosophical views and empirical studies of animals in individual and social contexts. Cognitive ethology strives to scientifically measure the extent and limits of the mental lives of animals. We will review scientific findings that suggest striking likenesses and intriguing differences in the (apparent) thought processes of humans and animals, and ask whether the research techniques that brought us these results are fully adequate to measuring such unobservable entities as conscious experience and thought. Techniques of measurement range from naturalistic observation, to the processing of vocalizations, to memory and problem solving tasks, to the imaging of brain processes through fMRI scans, etc. Students will face the challenges and rewards of practicing some of these techniques in the service component of the course. (Students will participate in veterinary clinic or shelter work to provide needed animal care while studying animal behavior using cognitive ethological methods.) We will compare methods for measuring consciousness and intelligence in animals to those used for human beings, and ask questions about types of consciousness, and the process of dividing unobservable entities into types. These issues provide a forum for a review of the relevance and impact of philosophy on science, and vice versa. How much does theory create data, and how much does data merely inform theory? Do scientists assume a specific philosophical position in order to do science? Finally, we will survey axiological questions and explore how theories developed by communities of humans do, and should, impact the care, use and treatment of animals in our society.

The service component: Laboratory Credit 25 hours of service is required, but 30 hours of observation is the standard minimum data set for adequate statistical analysis.

What is service learning? Service learning is a pedagogy that integrates experiential learning and community service in an academic context. Through activities and experiences mutually negotiated between academic and community partners, service-learning addresses identified community needs while enhancing the academic curriculum.

Why does this course incorporate service learning?

1. The course is aimed toward creating and developing a powerful learning environment. i.e., to integrate academic knowledge, practical skill and community impact.First, students will come to understand scholarship in philosophy, psychology and ethology in the classroom. Successful students will show an understanding of the philosophical questions surrounding consciousness, cognition, thought, scientific methods in cognitive ethology and debates regarding the ethical treatment of animals. What are consciousness, intelligence and thought? How can science adequately measure such things? When do we know when a policy should take such notions into consideration? How should we weigh human benefit against animal suffering? How can we ever decide such issues as these? This learning will be measured through mini-papers, papers and in-class structured reflection exercises.Second, students will build practical skills, ranging from facility in communication and public relations, to appropriate application of theory to real situations with animals, to cooperation and dependability. These qualities will be measured in part by the absence of negative/presence of positive (service host supplied) quality reports on student interaction with service host personnel and animal wards, and (student created) papers and structured reflection exercises focusing on the link between scholarship on animal consciousness and practice.Third, community impact will be measured by positive impact on animal care at partner sites in the Cleveland area. Specifically, the following data {pending time constraints, student project topics and situational factors} will be collected for and presented in the research project papers and posters:
   • Baseline/Update data describing shelter intake, adoption & euthanasia rates
   • Reduction of fertility among feral animals
   • Reports on animal behavior and measures of cognition
   • Demand for animals for use in benign research study
   • Implementation of public beliefs in policy & practice
2. There are at least 3 components of the course content that are deeply enhanced by, if not impossible to accomplish without, student experiences gained through service:Research: Because this course asks you to become proficient in common methods for measuring animal consciousness and cognition (and because your final project will present your own research in cognitive ethology), an experiential component is necessary for the development of methodological technique and skill. Your participation at the service site provides you with the opportunity to conduct observational and behavioral research while gaining experience and exposure to animal services in the area. The service component is your laboratory section.Philosophical Analysis: Further, as we ask philosophical questions about this research, student exposure to how philosophical positions held by a community are manifested in policy and practice is essential. Philosophy is often criticized for limiting itself to armchair critiques, and bad philosophy is done without a full understanding of the practical problems that arise with efforts to implement theory. This course fosters the proper activity of philosophy, in which critical details are considered as we create, adopt, and reject the studied theoretical constructs. Impact Comprehension: Your work at the service site will assist the site in the achievement of their objectives, providing a synergy between community and university. Is this impact driven by philosophy? Both philosophers and scientists have argued that philosophy is obsolete and/or useless. This work will provide a context for developing a well-informed position on the actual and potential impact of philosophy on research and on community. This component of the course is impossible without the inclusion of service experience.

Course Objectives & Educational Outcomes:

Successful students will be able to: Apply several methods in cognitive ethology to collect data for the assessment of psychological states, cognitive abilities, and mental dispositions of animals encountered in a shelter or care facility setting.

As measured by: The final research project will be presented as a paper & poster. The project supports a well-defined thesis on some aspect of animal cognition that is supported by data the student has collected over the course of the semester using these methods. Methods are clearly and accurately described in the report, and derived data meets professional standards.

Successful students will be able to: Modify learned methods in cognitive ethology to manage, modify, correct, reciprocate, and/or better understand experienced interactions with animals.

As measured by: A variety of measures, including: reviews by service site volunteer coordinators or appropriate staff members; research paper topics; structured reflection exercises; mini-papers/reflection papers.

Successful students will be able to: Recognize, describe, and engage in careful analysis of philosophical questions/concepts pertaining to such methods and measures of consciousness.

As measured by: Structured reflection exercises ask students to apply concepts learned in class to situations and observations at the service site. Structured reflections should take paragraph form, and written reflections will be the basis for class discussions.

Successful students will be able to: Critically discuss and analyze the similarities and differences in approaches to measuring animal and human cognition; critically discuss & analyze the similarities and differences in theory construction in the sciences of human cognition and animal cognition.

As measured by: Structured reflection exercises, mini-papers, and the final paper ask students to note such similarities & differences, and use philosophical methods of critique, review and analysis in order to understand such similarities and differences, and the reasons behind them.

Successful students will be able to: Explain, using philosophical concepts, the role and impact of domestic animals commonly owned as pets in the greater Cleveland area; demonstrate knowledge of the function of
animal shelters and veterinary clinics and community need for their service.

As measured by: Structured reflection exercises and mini-papers will ask students to note area needs and services and explain the response of institutions to community need.

Successful students will be able to: Critically discuss the relevance of philosophy to policy and human action. Explain a variety of views on the interaction between philosophical position and scientific method. Defend a philosophical position against objections.

As measured by: Structured reflection exercises, mini-papers, and the final paper ask students to describe, consider, develop and defend views in these areas.

Who are our Community Partners? How do I sign up at a service site?

The Cleveland Animal Protective League is our primary service partner. They are prepared to take and train all the students in this class, and they are aware that you need to collect data for your projects as you volunteer. Their website is www.clevelandapl.org/volunteer.htm and I strongly encourage you to visit this website during the first week of class. I have arranged university based transportation to and from this site, and some students will need to drive the university van to and from the site. People who become authorized to drive the van to this (or any) site, and drive people to and from the site, will receive extra credit. The Cleveland APL offers opportunities for people interested in working with cats, dogs, small animals such as rabbits and ferrets, and has options for people on the Pre-Veterinary track.

You may volunteer at another site if you wish to make contact, draw up an agreement with that site, and have it approved by me. Possible sites include:

Wolf Park Indiana* (www.wolfpark.org) (wolves, foxes, coyotes);

The Cleveland Museum of Natural History* (raptors, raccoons, bobcats, and more);

Shaker Animal Clinic* (Contact Dr. Prueter at jprueter {at} shakeranimalclinic(.)com) Madison Ave., Lakewood, Ohio 44107).

The Medina Raptor Center (http://www.medinaraptorcenter.org/index.html);

Cleveland Animal Rescue Center;

Cuyahoga County Animal Shelter;

Euclid Animal Shelter;

Feline Haven;

Back to the Wild (contact Mona Rutger at 419-684-9539 or e-mail mona {at} backtothewild(.)com);

Friends of the City of Cleveland Kennel;

Place a Pet Foundation;

Stay-a-While Cat Shelter;

Jane Miller* trains psychiatric service dogs; you can volunteer to work with her by emailing her a jmiller {at} oberlin(.)net. See www.deltasociety.org for more information.

Some people already volunteer at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo*. If you do, you may use your zoo work for this class. If you wish to assist a graduate student working at the zoo, you may do so for lab credit, but you must be hired by that graduate student and clear your work with me.

*highly recommended alternative placements.

Description of Service Roles at the Cleveland APL

The 25 hours of required service duties will vary slightly among our partner institutions, depending on their individual missions and needs, but all will include some interaction with animals. Possible duties and experiential opportunities are briefly outlined here.

• Assistance at animal shelter, care, and control sites involving activities that meet the needs of
  specific service hosts. For example:
  • Interacting with animals at clinics and shelters (visiting and handling shelter animals for socialization, as well as routine care and feeding, kennel cleaning & laundry, walking, training, re-training, and play)
  • Assess & evaluate behaviors of animals in the shelter
  • Work with dogs, cats, and other small animals to keep them socialized and people-friendly to help ensure their adoptability.
  • Collecting of baseline data & relative changes in: number of animals in shelters, trends in animals entering shelters, health & adoptability status, shelter deaths & euthanasia rates, shelter use by prospective pet owners, adoption rates, and shelter capacity, current use of advertising & media in pet adoptions, success of adoption events, availability of low-cost spay/neuter programs, feral populations, city policies, etc.
• Participation as a Foster Care Associate, possibly including:
  • Caring for an animal (feeding, grooming, medicating, socializing) in your home
  • Monitoring physical and psychological health of the animal
  • Ensuring the safety of the animal
• See handouts for more information on opportunities and duties.

Reciprocal Relationship Standards:

The service component is designed to meet the needs of our service partners while enhancing your understanding of the class concepts. Your participation at the service site benefits your research, and your conscientious adherence to service partner site policies, effective cooperation, and completion of tasks assigned to you is expected (Note that following protocol in a laboratory is required in experimental science courses.)

You will be asked to interact with animals in order to experience, test, practice and evaluate a variety of behavioral and observational methods used in the cognitive ethological sciences to measure animal consciousness and cognition. The type of interaction you have with the animals will depend to some extent on your background and your special interests and abilities, as well as the needs of the various service sites. Every effort will be made to create a mutually beneficial match between student and service role. While you will have as much freedom as possible in selecting a site and role that matches your interests, the partner site must also place you as a worker that meets their needs.

Grading Scale:

A 90% -100% 360–400 points D 60%–69% 240–279 points

B 80% -89% 320–359 points F 0%–63% 0–239 points

C 70% -79% 280–319 points

Methods of Assessment: Mini-Papers, Reflections, Final Research Project (Paper & Poster)

Mini-Papers: 100 points (25%) will be determined by 10 mini-papers, each worth 10 points. These papers will often ask students to apply material already covered in lectures or discussions to a service based experience. Mini-papers have a short essay format, and occasionally morph into in-class writing. They are always due on Friday at 11:59. Graduate students are exempt from mini papers.

Mini-Papers: 100 points (25%) will be determined by 10 mini-papers, each worth 10 points. These papers will often ask students to apply material already covered in lectures or discussions to a service based experience. Mini-papers have a short essay format, and occasionally morph into in-class writing. They are always due on Friday at 11:59. Graduate students are exempt from mini papers.

Structured Reflection & Discussion Days: 120 points (30%) will be determined by discussion days/structured reflection days. You will sometimes need to prepare a little extra for these days, and it is a good idea to have reflected on your experiences at the shelter before you come to class. Topics & Questions will be announced in class. You will have 10 minutes at the beginning of class to write down your views on the topic and apply the philosophical theories learned in class to it. Discussion topics will range from: Explain the need for animal shelters/veterinary clinics in utilitarian terms—to—What is assumed about animal consciousness by behavioral measures used at your shelter/clinic. Discussions may be free form or may take a debate format. Sometimes there will be an activity that facilitates the discussion. While we will be reflecting on emotional experiences, the main point of the discussions is to provide a place for you to evaluate your philosophical views and how your experiences may have altered, finessed, or strengthened these views. Graduate students must participate in 10 of the 12 discussions.

Extra Credit, not to exceed 21 points, will be available throughout the semester

Final Research Project (Paper and Presentation): 180 points total (45%)

Undergraduate Research Paper: 120 points total (30%)

The research paper has 2 parts:

• The scientific portion will follow standard research paper format, including an abstract, introduction, hypothesis, methods section, results, discussion, conclusion, and appendices for data and test diagrams. 8-12 pages (2,400–3,000 words) (60 points)
• The philosophical portion will raise, explain and discuss 3 philosophical issues connected to the data, research methods, conclusions, possible implementation of such conclusions, or other closely related aspects of the research. Philosophical works must include a thesis position, reasons for the position, consideration of an objection to the thesis being presented, and replies/responses to the described objections. (2,400–3,000 words) (60 points)

(Graduate & Undergraduate) Presentation: 60 points total (15%)

The presentation will follow standard research format, containing sections on main findings, background, hypothesis, methods, results, discussion and conclusion. Due to high enrollment, presentations must be done in pairs. Find someone in the class who is working on a similar aspect of cognition to work with in the development of your shared PowerPoint. You will be asked to point out philosophical issues as part of the presentation; such issues should be raised at the end of the scientific presentation. Grades will usually be the same for both people on the team, though unusually excellent or poor performance may change that.

Graduate students will write TWO research papers, each comprising 30% of the grade. (120 points each, 240 points total)

• The first research paper will be scientific, including an abstract, introduction, methods, subject descriptions, data, results and discussion sections (about 3000 words) and be modeled after sample papers from such journals as Ethology or Journal of Comparative Psychology.
• The second research paper will be philosophical in nature, modeled after articles found in journals such as Journal of Philosophy or Philosophical Review, and will contain an in depth analysis of the methods, inferences, and conclusions drawn in the scientific paper, from a philosophical perspective.

Service Component Completion

The fourth credit hour for this course is comprised of your work at the service site. The service component is specifically designed to accommodate your process of data collection. A certain amount of data are essential for project completion, and adequately serving the site is necessary for data collection, thus, adequately serving the site is necessary to pass the course. Hours of completed work will be recorded at the site, and your travel time is not included in worked hours.

Evaluation of your performance relative to the standards of the service site will be done by service site personnel. If anyone is determined to have inappropriate behavior or unacceptable performance by the service site reviewer, that student will report to me for immediate placement at another site. I cannot guarantee my ability to place you at a third site, should such a circumstance arise, and multiple site replacements will probably result in inadequate data collection and subsequent failure in the course.

If you have a conflict with the site, please bring the conflict to my attention immediately, so that we can make an effort to resolve the problem and/or place you at another service site.

Schedule (subject to change)

Week 1: Introduction, Philosophy

T. Jan. 15 Why do you think anyone else is conscious?

Syllabus & course requirements

What is Service Learning? How do I get involved with a service site?

Sign up for APL Orientation on Saturday!

Call to sign up for Van Training! call 368-2907 to register, the map to the site can be found here www.case.edu/fionadmin/does/web/Location/htm stop by the CCEL, in the basement of Thwing, to get a van packet before you go. Bring a valid, current driver?s license to the training.

Read: Nagel?s ?What is it like to be a Bat?? on Blackboard

Read: Chalmers? Hard Problem on Blackboard

R. Jan. 17 Van Drivers Safety Awareness Training at 9 am or 1 pm (extra credit)

R. Jan. 17 What is philosophy? Ontology, Epistemology, Axiology

Read: Altmann Observational Study of Behavior on Blackboard

Read: Species of Mind chapters 3 & 4

Sat. Jan. 19th Animal Protective League Orientation 11:00 am ? 3:00 p.m.

If you have questions, contact APL volunteer coordinator Danielle
Begalla at dbegalla {at} clevelandapl(.)org or 216-377-1627

Week 2: Naturalistic Methods: Building an Ethogram & Collecting Data

T. Jan. 22 Jenni Mueller on ethograms in general & methods for collecting data (scan sampling, etc.)

R. Jan. 24 Jason Wark and Christine Cassella on building an ethogram & collecting data

Read: Radners book chapter 2, 7 and 8

Read: Rosenthal article posted on Blackboard

Week 3: Defining and Measuring Consciousness ?

T. Jan. 29 Practice taking data webcam live feed from the APL!

Kinds of Consciousness

R. Jan 31 Cartesian Criteria for consciousness, defining consciousness

Read: Articles on Animal Training Posted on Blackboard

Wolf Park Intensive Behavior Seminar Feb 1-3 ($325.00). I will give lab credit for this. See
vior_Intensive_Seminar.html%253Fitem_id%253Dotgx” target=”_blank”>http://wolfparkstore.com/?mainURL=/store/item/otgx/Seminars_Photo_and_Behavior/Beha vior_Intensive_Seminar.html%253Fitem_id%253Dotgx for details.

Week 4: Clicker Training, Operant Conditioning, Canids

T. Feb. 5 The Training Game demo

Assignment for Feb. 14th discussion: find 2 research articles on the animal of your choice and one of the following cognitive processes: memory, cognitive maps, insight, tool use, tool making, learning by imitation, learning by trial and error, concepts, problem solving, theory of mind, pretend play, deception, numerical concepts, language (or some other cognitive process approved by me).

R. Feb. 7 The Training Game

Dog learning and social structures

Calming Signals & Millan?s leader of the pack

Week 5: Planning your research, solving problems at your service site

T. Feb. 12 First Service Shift Due Today

Discussion/Structured Reflection Day

R. Feb. 14 Discussion/Structured Reflection Day: developing a possible
research study

Read: Cognitive Animal 7 ?Raven Consciousness? and 31 (Parrots)
and 39 (Communication in Birds)

Week 6: Bird Brains, Corvid Cognition, Problem Solving

T. Feb. 19: Ravens & Crows, Alex the Parrot

R. Feb. 21: Holly Mathews and George, from MNH

Read: Cognitive Animal 46 (Monkeys) and 34, 36, 37, 38

Week 7: Theory of Mind, communication and language

T. Feb. 26 Theory of Mind

Vervet Monkey Calls

Kanzi, Lou Herman?s Dolphin Lab

R. Feb. 28 Second service shift due today

Discussion/structured reflection day

Read Cognitive Animal 40 & 42

Week 8: Mirror Experiments & the Self

T. Mar.4 Mirror Experiments

R. Mar. 6 third service shift due today

Discussion/reflection day

Read: TBA (posted on Blackboard ? Gorilla Cognition readings,
readings on Kanzi)

Spring break: March 10-15

Week 9: Gorilla Gorilla, Gorilla, and Bonobos

T. Mar. 18 Koko movie

R. Mar. 20 Guest: Elena Hollein & Gorilla research

Read: Psychiatric Service Dogs readings (on Blackboard)

Read: Cognitive Animal 54

Week 10: Empathy, Learning

T. Mar. 25 fourth service shift due today

Discussion/structured reflection day

R. Mar. 27 Guests: Jane Miller and Simcha: Psychiatric Service Dogs

Read: Kinds of Minds

Week 11: Dennett

T. Apr. 1 Kinds of Minds

Octopus video excerpts

R. Apr. 3 Kinds of Minds

Sign up for presentations (they start next week!)

Week 12: Presentations

T. Apr. 8: 5 teams

R. Apr. 10: 5 teams

Peer Feedback/discussion (your presence at others? presentations, with rapt attention and apt questions, will give you discussion points)

Week 13: Presentations

T. Apr. 15: 5 teams

R. Apr. 17: 5 teams

Peer Feedback/discussion

Week 14: Presentations

T. Apr. 22: 5 teams

R. Apr. 24: 5 teams

Peer Feedback/discussion

Final Paper due date: May 1st at 11:59 pm

Dr. Monica Cowart
monica.cowart {at} merrimack(.)edu
Fall 2002

"The real point of ethics is to offer tools for thinking about difficult matters, recognizing from the start as the very rationale for ethics, in fact that the world is seldom so simple or clear cut. Struggle and uncertainty are part of ethics, as they are part of life." - Anthony Weston

Course Objectives:

(1) To introduce students to some influential theories and classics in the field,
(2) To teach students how to critically evaluate philosophical arguments, and
(3) To help students explore the connections between the philosophical theories they read and the organizations they assist

Course Requirements:

(1) Readings completed prior to class
(2) Participation/ Classroom Activities 25%
(3) Midterm Exam (10/15) 25%
(4) Service Learning Project Group Essay 25%
(5) Service Learning Project Group Oral Presentation 25%
(6) Minimum of 30 service learning hours

Required Text:

John Arthur, ed., Morality and Moral Controversies: Readings in Moral, Social, and Political Philosophy, Prentice Hall, 2002

Course Packet

Course Schedule:

I. Metaethics

Week 1
Introduction; Structure of Course
"Getting Started" and "Thinking for Yourself' from Weston's A Practical Companion to Ethics (Course Packet);
Explanation of Service Learning Organizations
Guest Speaker Director of Service Learning Center

Week 2
William Shaw's "Relativism in Ethics"
Mary Midgley's "Trying Out One's New Sword"
Pick service learning sites; Evaluate Cultural Relativism

II. Ethical Theories

Week 3
John Stuart Mill's "Utilitarianism"
Implications of Mill's view

Week 4
Immanual Kant's "The Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysics of Morals"
Implications of Kant's view

Week 5
Aristotle's "Nichomachean Ethics"
Implications of Aristotle's view

Week 6
John Rawl's "A Theory of Justice
Implication's of Rawl's view

Ethical Theories Midterm Exam

III. Sexuality and Violence

Week 7
Lois Pineau's "Date Rape: A Feminist Analysis"
Camille Paglia's "An Interview About Date Rape"
Robert Baker's " 'Pricks' and 'Chicks' : A Plea for 'Persons' " (Course Packet)

IV. Economic Inequality and Justice

Week 8
Peter Singer's "Rich and Poor"
Excerpt from Peter Unger's Living High and Letting Die
Robert Nozick's "The Entitlement Theory"

Week 9
James Rachel's "What People Deserve"
Garrett Hardin's "Lifeboat Ethics: The Case Against Helping the Poor" (Course Packet)
Writing Workshop on Constructing Philosophical Arguments
Group Progress Reports

V. Understanding Forms of Oppression

Week 10
Peggy McIntosh's "Invisible Knapsack" (Course Packet)
Marilyn Frye's "Oppression" from The Politics of Reality (Course Packet)

Week 11
Charles Murray's "Affirmative Racism"
James Rachels' "Reverse Discrimination"
Richard Wasserstrorn's "On Racism and Sexism: Realities and Ideals"
Ellison v. Brady

VI. Free Speech

Week 12
John Stuart Mill's "Of the Liberty of Thought and Discussion"
Lawrence and Gunther's "Prohibiting Racist Speech on Campus: A Debate"

Week 13
Alan Dershowitz's "Political Correctness, Speech Codes, and Diversity"
Sekulow and Berman's "Internet Censorship: A Debate"

VII. Animals and the Environment

Week 14
Peter Singer's "All Animals Are Equal"
Bonnie Steinbock's "Speciesism and the Idea of Equality"
William Baxter's "People or Penguins"
J. Baird Callicott's "The Land Ethic"

VIII. Final Projects

Week 15
T 12/3 Final Presentations Groups 1 3
Th 12/5 Final Presentations Groups 4 6

Final Project Essays Are Due during our scheduled Final Exam Period!

Service Learning Project: Paper Structure

Target Length: 20 pages

Introduction: Discuss the Corresponding Contemporary Moral Issues

Thesis: It should tell me the structure of your paper AND preview your arguments.

I. Description of Organization

Your description should demonstrate an insider's point of view. In other words, do not just provide statistics, facts, etc. that could be acquired from a website. Your description should in some way convey that you understand your organization and its current needs. You also need to explain how the needs were assessed. For instance, if you interviewed the leader of your organization and s/he told you that their top two needs are x and y, then how were you able to confirm those needs based on your service learning experience. Given your perspective, were their other needs that you felt were more important than the ones mentioned? Overall, you must convey the strengths and weaknesses of your organization, the group that they are trying to help, and why outsiders should care.

II. Theoretical Assessment of Organization

Would you classify your organization in terms of a Kantian, Utilitarian, or Aristotelian framework?
Use arguments and passages from the relevant text to justify your classification.

III. Formulation of Action Plan

Explain your action plan in detail so that it is clear how it is designed to help solve one of your organization's pressing needs.
What obstacles/problems do you expect to encounter?

IV. Possible Objections: Theoretical, Applied, Practical

A. Theoretical Objection Use Kant, Aristotle, or Mill
1. Anticipate a possible theoretical objection to your plan
2. Refute the objection

B. Applied Objection Use a Contemporary Moral Theorist
1. Anticipate a possible applied objection to your plan
2. Refute the objection

C. Practical Objection How would a non philosopher object to your plan?
1. Anticipate a possible applied objection to your plan
2. Refute the objection

V. Final Evaluation of Project

A. What issues did you encounter while implementing your plan? How did you resolve these problems?

B. What lessons did you encounter? What would you do differently if you were in the same situation again?

Course: PHI 203: Philosophy of Education
Session: Fall 2000
Instructor: Dr. Michael S. Russo
Course Hours: Mon, 3:26 6:15
Location: Philosophy Department Seminar Room
Office: 1079 Hempstead Ave.
Mon/Wed: 12:15 3:15pm
Tues/Thurs: 3 5:30pm

I. Course Objectives

Since the time of Plato philosophers have been concerned with the best way to educate young men and women. Indeed, some of the greatest thinkers in the history of Western thought have developed provocative theories about the goals of education and the means to attain these goals within the classroom. The aim of this course is to examine some of these great theories of education in order to determine what they can tell us about the proper way to educate students today.

Because this is a service learning course, students will have the opportunity to put what they are learning in the classroom into practice by working one on one with at risk children from the Uniondale or Hempstead school districts.

II. Required Texts

• John Dewey. Experience and Education.
• Michael S. Russo. Philosophy of Education (On Line Collection of Readings).
• Michael S. Russo. Creating a Service Learning Web Site: A Guide for Students.
• Michael S. Russo. Research in Philosophy: A Guide for Students.
• Charles Sykes. Dumbing Down Our Kids. New York: St. Martin's, 1995.

III. Absences

As is stated in the college catalogue, "students are expected to attend classes, regularly and punctually." Because your active participation in this class and during field work is so essential, only one unexcused absence will be permitted during the semester. After the first unexcused absence, your grade for this course will automatically be reduced by 3 points
for each subsequent absence.

Be advised that attendance will be taken at the beginning of each class. Students who arrive to class late are responsible for reminding the instructor to change the attendance record from absent (A) to late (L). Three lates will officially count as one absence in determining your grade for this class.

IV. Grading System

Your grade for this class will be based upon the following:

40 hours of Service Learning at an approved site
Service Learning Web Project 70%
Index Page (5%)
Service Learning Journal (15%)
Page of Annotated Links (10%)
Bibliography (10%)
Article/Book Reviews (10%)
Research Paper (20%)
Cumulative Final Exam 30%

A. Forty Hours of Service Learning

This course requires you to spend a minimum of forty hours mentoring at risk youth. Among the sites where you can perform this service are the following:

• Percy Jackson Youth Center (Hempstead, NY)
  
• Rising Star After School Program (Hempstead, NY)
  
• California Ave. School/After School Program (Uniondale, NY)
  
• Molloy Big Brothers/Sisters (Thursday Afternoons from 3:30 5:30pm only)

For more information about any of these programs, see Elizabeth Cazalet, Director of Service Learning, at the Center for Social and Ethical Concerns [1079 Hempstead Ave]. If there is another site where you would prefer to do your mentoring, please speak to me first.

B. Service Learning Web Project

The specific components of your service learning web project are explained in Creating a Service-Learning Web Site: A Guide for Students. See the course schedule for the dates in which each of
these components are due.

The topic of your web site should focus on a social problem facing children on Long Island or on a educational issue or concern confronting our schools. Resources will be handed out during the second week of class to help you identify an issue that is meaningful to you.

Unlike typical assignments, the work that you do on your web project will never have to be submitted to your instructor in hard copy. On the dates in which each component of the project is due, I will inspect your work on line and email you with my comments and a grade for your work.

One entire class period will be devoted to teaching the skills necessary to create a basic web site. Students who are interesting in creating a more visually interesting site are invited to attend one of the extra sessions that are available to learn more advance web design skills. See the course schedule for the specific dates that these extra sessions will be offered.

C. Final Exam

The final exam for this class will be cumulative. It will, in other words, include all of the material that has been discussed in class. The exam will include a combination of objective and essay questions.

V. Reading Assignments

This course has been prepared for you in a way best suited to maximize your understanding of the subject matter. I would readily acknowledge that reading philosophical texts can often be difficult for the novice. To assist you in this process, however, I have done three important things for you:

I have put several of my course notes on line to provide background information on some of the philosophers we will be studying.

I have put almost all of the texts that I am planning to use in this class on line in my own edited editions.

I added margin notes and questions for reflection to each of the on lines texts that you will be reading for this class.

It is extremely important for you to come to class each week having done the assigned readings and having made a diligent effort to answer all of the review questions. If you don't do the readings prior to the class in which they are discussed, you

Course Schedule

9/11 Introduction to Course

9/18 The Crisis in American Education Sykes
Dumbing Down Our Kids (pp. I Look over Education 82) "Guidelines for service Learning"; print out copies of SL Contract and Time Sheet. The Crisis in American Education Sykes, Dumbing Down Our Kids (pp. 83 193)
Meet with coordinator to set up your service.

10/2 Platonic Idealism Plato

11/11 Submit S L Contract to Instructor; begin mentoring.

11/12 Platonic Idealism
Creating Your SL Web Site
Meet in Academic Computer Lab

11/13 Aristotelian Realism
Optional Web Design Class when: 3:30 5pm at 1079 Hempstead Ave

12/6 Roman Pragmatism – Quintilian
Annotated Links Page due
Optional Web Design Class when: 12 1:30pm at 1079 Hempstead Ave

12/11 Education in Medieval Europe Augustine
Bibliography due

12/13 Enlightenment Approaches to Locke; Kant, What is Enlightenment?
Book/Article Reviews due

12/15 Rousseau's Naturalism Rousseau I / II

12/16 Rousseau's Naturalism Rousseau III / IV

12/17 The Progressive Traditionalist Debate Ravitch, "Left Back"
Research Paper Due Hutchins, "Tradition"
Dewey, "Proposal"
Hutchins, "Grammar"
Dewey, "Higher Learning"

Optional Review Class when: 3:30 5pm at 1079 Hempstead Ave

Final Exam see exam schedule

Contact Information
Lisa Heldke
Old Main 106A
x7029
heldke {at} gac(.)edu

Office Hours
M 3:30-4:30, T 9:00-10:00, W 2:30-3:30, and By appointment
(I encourage you to come talk to me at any point, about the issues the class is discussing, or for consultation on papers or help with understanding a reading assignment. Feel free to schedule an appointment if none of these times works for you.)

Course Texts
John Dewey, Democracy and Education
W.E.B. DuBois, The Education of Black People
DuBois, "The Talented Tenth" (on the web at http://douglass.speech.nwu.edu/dubois.htm)
Paolo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed
Deschooling Society (on the web at http://www.1a.psu.edu/philo/illich/deschool/intro.html)
Alfie Kohn, "Teaching About Sept. 11" (http://www.rethinkingschools.org/~sept11/16 02/kohn162.htm)

Bring your text to class every day; we will be doing a lot of textual work in class.

Time Commitment
Plan to spend a minimum of two hours outside of class for each one hour in class. Some weeks will require more time, due to papers, etc. But, at the very least, plan on committing about ten hours per week to the course. Plan on an additional 12 to 15 hours, spread out over the course of the semester, for your work in a community organization (described below). I understand that this may be more time than you believe you can devote to a single class; if that's true for you, I would encourage you to think about dropping the class, because you will be frustrated by the amount of work I expect, and the amount of your attention the class will demand.

About Me

• I'm a philosopher; my favorite word is "why?" When I ask you why, I'm inviting you to develop your ideas further.
• I make mistakes. I'm happy to have them pointed out to me if you do it respectfully. I'll do my best to return the favor to you.
• I work best with honesty. If you're having trouble with the class or with me, come and give me the real deal. Even if it's messy in the short run, the long run results will be better.
• I think teaching works best when learners are actively engaged in deciding what goes on in the classroom. I will be working pretty hard to persuade you that you need to take an active leadership role in your learning in this class and in all your education.

About The Course
Why are you in college? For what do you think a college education should prepare you?

A couple of years ago, I asked a group of Gustavus students those questions. I was particularly interested to know why they had chosen to attend a liberal arts college. Their answers caught me up short because, aside from the occasional comment about wanting to be a well rounded individual, every student in the group said that they chose to go to Gustavus to fulfill particular career goals, and to secure employment for themselves in the future.

"Well, isn't that obvious?" you might be thinking to yourself. "Isn't getting a job what education particularly college education is all about?" In part, sure. Most everyone has to make a living at some point in their life, and college can help prepare you for the world of work. But liberal arts colleges have not traditionally been in the business of job training. And people aren't only employees they're also family members, neighbors, and members of their society. Your education is preparing you for those roles as well, whether you realize it or not.

Look at any educational institution (a public elementary school or college, a parochial high school), and just by looking at it you will be able to tell quite a lot about how the relevant society is structured and run. That educational institution is helping to reproduce the next generation of society members. Schools produce people who will fit into the society of which they are a part. Sometimes they do so well, sometimes poorly. Sometimes they are explicitly directive; sometimes the guidance is much subtler. But however they do it, schools of all sons educate/train/indoctrinate/groom people for community participation.

You're being educated for community membership right now here at Gustavus. I bet you'd like to know something about how it's happening, to decide whether and to what degree you want to be the kind of community member you're being educated to be.

If so, you're in the right place. This course (as the title suggests) explores the relationships between education and community; the (direct and indirect) ways that we get educated for participation in community life. We'll focus particularly on education and participatory democracy, since that's the kind of society you currently live in, and the kind of society in which Gustavus is located. What does it take to educate someone to be a participant in a democracy such as the United States? What equipment and knowledge do we need to be good participants? How do educational institutions succeed or fail to meet those needs? (For instance, does a democratically run school necessarily produce good participants in democracy? Does an undemocratic institution necessarily fall to prepare its students for democracy? Have most of us been very well educated to become active community members?) To facilitate our study, we'll read philosophers who address these questions from very different perspectives, motivated by very different concerns.

Throughout the course, we'll come back to the question of your education. What do these theorists have to say to yon about how you should view your own education, how you should go about it, and what you should be doing with it now and after you leave this place? Sometimes it may seem like a theorist's perspective is just too far removed from your own to be relevant in the least (what can you learn from someone who lived a hundred years ago?). At those times, I invite you to think harder and deeper for I think every one of these theorists has much to say to all of us, even if it doesn't seem at all obvious. (Philosophy classes tend to make you look pretty hard for the connections between theory and your everyday life; that's part of why they're so valuable for teaching critical thinking.)

How can you take a course about the relationship between school and society, if the course spends all its time in school and none in society? Well, you can … but it doesn't work very well.

That's why each one of you will be working in the community, in a setting that gives you a firsthand opportunity to think concretely about the relationship between school and society. That might mean working in an elementary school classroom or tutoring in an English as a Foreign Language class. Or it might mean leading after school programs with adolescents, or evening recreational activities at a nursing home. This community experience will be illuminating for you on two levels. First, how is your organization educating its participants for community participation? Second, how does your participation in this organization educate you for membership in your community?

Course Goals
This course introduces you to the discipline of philosophy. It also fills the requirements for both a writing credit and an Area C (Meaning, Value and the Historical Perspective) credit. In order to meet the spirit of these various requirements, it has two goals: 1) to enable you to become familiar with a body of philosophical ideas and theories about education and social change; and 2) to give you the opportunity to develop some philosophical skills in thinking and reasoning, both orally and on paper. I consider myself obliged to fill these two goals in this class. If at any time you think I am failing to do so, I urge you to talk with me about this. (This is, after all, your education, and if you think the goals of the general education program at Gustavus are important, you're entitled to make sure they're being achieved.)

I also have another goal. I want to contribute to the transformation of society; I want this to be a more just world by the time I die. One of the ways I think I can contribute to that is by creating spaces in which people can think together about important questions. So, my real goal in this class is for you to think hard, read a lot, and engage with each other, not because you have to, but because by doing so, you might take us a little way down the road to more social justice. The following components of the course are designed to help you meet the course goals.

Course Components
You must complete all assigned coursework in order to pass the course; failure to do so will mean failing the course. Some components contribute a fixed percentage to your final grade. Others get factored in other ways. Here are the specifics:

1. Participation (20% of final grade): Your regular, active presence in class is expected. "Active presence" includes making productive contributions to discussions, and also being an engaged listener. Time in class will be a mix of large and small group discussion, with small pieces of lecture thrown in as the need arises. You'll assign yourself a participation grade for the class, based on your own assessment of how well you achieved specific goals you set. See the page of this syllabus labeled "Discussion: Goal Setting" for more information, and for your first assignment.

3. Participation in a community organization: This semester, each of you will spend at least one hour per week (or at least twelve hours during the term) working in the St. Peter community. The Community Service office (staffed by Sara Pekarria and Kari Lipke) will work with our class to coordinate your volunteer assignments. You may choose any organization that appeals to you and that meets the criteria I've identified. For more on choosing your organization (and for a writing assignment), see the syllabus page headed "Choosing a Social Change Organization."

The purpose of your work in the community is to give you a concrete experience in which to reflect on the ways that education and community connect to each other. How do people learn to become members of a community? How does the community help to educate its members about their rights and responsibilities as community members? How are you being trained to be an active, participating community member?

Each week, you'll write a brief reflection paper that connects up the theory you are reading to the concrete experiences you are having. (See 5b below for details.)

4. Formal Writing (60% of final grade): You'll write three formal papers during the semester. Assignments will give you practice on various skills used in philosophizing (e.g. accurately summarizing an author's arguments, analyzing the quality of their arguments, constructing your own arguments, connecting theory to practice). They will also give you a chance to think more deeply about particular issues raised in class. I don't design the assignments in advance; I wait to construct them so that they can respond to the issues that are arising in the class for us.

For each formal paper except the last one, we will spend one day in an in class writing workshop, during which you will critique one of your classmates' papers. YOU WILL TURN IN THE CRITIQUE WITH THE FINAL PAPER; both you AND your critic need it to get full credit for your paper. Formal papers must be typed (double spaced). In formal papers, spelling, grammar, and syntax count. Please staple papers; I won't be responsible for losing pages if you don't.

See the schedule at the end of the syllabus for the paper writing schedule. Due dates listed are somewhat tentative; they're subject to change, but not without notice. Each of you has one "free" one week extension on one paper (except the final). On the day the paper is due, you may tell me "I'm taking my extension this time," and you may turn the paper in one week later. This offer may only be used once NO OTHER LATE PAPERS WILL BE ACCEPTED so plan accordingly. Tentative due dates for papers are: 10/7, 11/8, 12 17

5. Informal Writing (20% of final grade): In addition to writing formal papers, you will also do a significant amount of informal writing in the course. Informal writing is designed to get you in the habit of thinking through your ideas by writing about them. Therefore, informal writing needn't be as "clean" or polished as your formal papers. Its aim is to give you a chance to try out some ideas without having to worry too much about the mechanics.

A second aim of informal writing is to give you the opportunity to try out your ideas on your classmates. Thus, informal assignments will be designed to be read aloud and talked about in small groups during class and we'll do that at regular intervals throughout the semester. Make it a point to respond to your classmates this term (in writing, or in person) when they say or write something you agree with, disagree with, don't understand, find interesting, or want to hear more about. The conversation between me and you – the class is not the only conversation possible or relevant in School and Society. I hope that your informal papers will generate lots of discussion among the members of the class.

Informal writing will be graded on a percentage of work completed basis. For instance, if you do 94% of the informal assignments, you get an A. I won't grade individual assignments. Informal writing will come in three varieties:

a. Occasionally, I'll ask you to write something during class, or for the next day's class. It might be a question or response to a question, it might be a response to a reading, or a response to how class is going. These writings may be the foundations for small group discussions, or I may just collect them and redistribute them randomly, to give you an idea of what other people are thinking. (I might ask you to write about how your organization might think about a particular issue,
for example.)

b. Each week you'll write a two page (typed, double spaced) reflection paper, designed to connect your experience in the community with the issues we are reading and discussing in class. See "Weekly Writing Assignments" for details. See also "Choosing a Social Change Organization" for your first weekly writing assignment.

c. Your work to evaluate your classmates' drafts counts as informal writing.

This activity contains a writing assignment DUE SEPTEMBER 16

Each of you will spend about one hour a week (for a total of at least twelve hours during the semester) working in the community in an organization that somehow carries on the work of educating people for community membership. This work will give you some concrete experience of the relationship between education and community. You'll experience, firsthand, one way that people are educated into citizenship and community membership, and you yourself will be further educated into community membership in the process.

Include in your letter:

a. An explanation of why you chose this organization:
1. How do you think it will address the goals of this class?
2. Will it address any personal goals that you have?

b. A discussion of your expectations.
1. What do you think this work will be like?
2. What do you think the organization will be like?
3. What do you think you will be able to offer the organization?
4. What do you think you will learn from the experience?

Special Dates to Note
Most Mondays (beginning September 16) you will hand in a weekly writing assignment about your social change organization. See "Weekly Writing Assignments" for details (If you don't hear otherwise, assume that one is due.)

October 12: Nobel Conference
October 18-21: Reading Days

Nov 28 Dec. 1: Thanksgiving Break

December 13: Final class day
December 14: Reading Day
December 16-19: Finals

Reading and Assignment Schedule
This schedule is subject to change, addition, and deletion, but not without notice. If you miss a class period, please be sure to check with a classmate, to see if the assignments for the next day have changed. This is especially important with respect to informal writing assignments, which may be given at the drop of a hat.

9/4 – Course goals; course syllabus
9/6 – Dewey, "Creative Democracy The Task Before Us,"
"Democracy Is Radical" (handouts, in various volumes of John Dewey: The Later Works) Feyerabend, "Democratic Judgment Overrules 'Truth"' (handout)

1. The Terms of the Discussion: Democracy, Citizenship, Community, "Service Learning"

9/9 – Discussion with reps of the Community Service Office
9/11 – Kohn, "Teaching About Sept. 11" (on the web);"The Age of Ingenuity" (handout)
9/13 -Karl and Boyt, "Renewing the Democratic Spirit" (handout, from the book Civic Responsibility and Higher Education)
9/16 – Sandro, "An Organizing Approach to Education" (handout, from the book Higher Education Exchange)
9/18 – Illich, "To Hell With Good Intentions"; Cruz, "A Challenge to the Notion of Service"; Palmer, "Community, Conflict and Ways of Knowing" (handouts)
9/20 – Summing up discussion (readings TBA)

2. John Dewey: Education and the Vocation of Democracy

9/23 – Dewey, chapter I and intro (by Hooks)
9/25 – Dewey, chapter 2
9/27 – Dewey, chapter 4, summary of chapter 5 (handout)
9/30 – Dewey, chapter 6
10/2 – Nobel Conference
10/4 – Formal Paper #1 Draft day
10/6 – Flex day: watch this space
10/9 – Dewey, chapter 14
10/11 – Dewey, chapter 17
10/14 – Dewey, chapter 19
10/16 – Dewey, conclusion
10/18 – Reading Day
10/21 – Reading Day

3. W.E.B. DuBois: Education and Responsibility to One's Culture

10/23 – DuBois, "Education and Work," Dewey, chapter 23
10/25 – DuBois, "The Talented Tenth" and "Ed and Work"
10/28 – DuBois, "Field and Function of the Negro College"; DuBois, "Field and Function"
11/1 – DuBois, "The Revelation of St. Orgne the Damned"
11/4 – DuBois, "Whither Now and Why?"
11/6 – DuBois, summing up day
11/8 – Draft Evaluation Day: Formal Paper #2

4. Paolo Freire: Education for Resistance

11/11 – Freire, Chapter 1
11/13 – Freire, Chapter 1
11/15 – Freire, Chapter 2
11/18 – Freire, Chapter 2
11/20 – Freire, Chapter 3
11/22 – Freire, Chapter 3

5. Ivan Mich: Education as the Reproduction of Society

11/25 – Illich, Chapter 1
11/27 – No class (drive safely!!)
11/29 – Thanksgiving break

12/2 – Illich, Chapters 2 and 3
12/4 – Illich, Chapters 4 and 5
12/6 – Illich, Chapters 6
12/9 – Illich, Chapter 6
12/11 – Illich, summing up
12/13 – Where have we been?

12/17 – Final papers due in my office by 5 p.m. without exception

Kathie Jenni / University of Redlands

Course Description:
A four week long internship at Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Kanab, Utah that is grounded in study of the history, issues, philosophies, and strategies of the animal welfare movement. One and one half days per week are devoted to class time; the remaining three and one half days each week are devoted to full time work in all aspects of the Sanctuary: cleaning, feeding and watering, socializing with and exercising animals, veterinary care, adoption services, humane education, and community outreach. Students may specialize in one facet of animal care during their final two weeks.

Prerequisite: instructor permission and acceptance by the Best Friends
Internship Director.

Course Objectives:

• To introduce students to philosophical thought about animal human ethics;
• To train students in the philosophical skills of identifying and questioning assumptions, critically evaluating alternative arguments, making conceptual distinctions, and arriving at well reasoned judgments;
• To train students in the care of abandoned and abused animals; and
• To integrate philosophical thought about animals with practical experience helping them.

Weekly Topics:

Week 1:
Fundamentals: History and principles of the Humane Movement,
anthropomorphism and animal feelings, dualism and evolutionary biology, individuals and species, compassion vs. respect, cruelty vs. thoughtlessness, images vs. realities (of animals, practices, and activists), various forms of activism.

Week 2:
Animal Rights Philosophy and its Opponents: Alternative criteria for moral standing, resources/property vs. rights bearers, anthropocentrism and speciesism, competing theories of animal rights (Peter Singer, Tom Regan, and others), objections to animal rights (R.G. Frey, Carl Cohen, and others).

Week 3:
Specific Moral Issues and Debates: Applications of theories to selected issues: use of animals as food and factory farming, pet overpopulation and euthanasia, spaying/neutering of companion animals, hunting and fishing, vivisection.

Week 4:
Connections between Animal Treatment and other Social Issues: Child and animal abuse; environmentalism, feminism, and animal rights; animals as healers and animal therapy.

Assignments and Evaluation:

This course is offered on a Credit No Credit / Narrative Evaluation Basis only. The following elements will be considered in your evaluation.

• Weekly Reflective Writing Assignments: each week, you will be given one or two short (1 2 page) writing assignments that will ask you to consider course ideas throughout your week of Sanctuary work. You'll be asked to discuss these reflections at the end of each week, and they will be collected on Fridays. (Please see sample reflective writing assignments on next page.)

• Academic Journal: you should keep a journal of your reflections on class sessions, readings, and Sanctuary work. While the weekly writing assignments provide one model of appropriate journal entries, you are encouraged to record your thoughts about whatever aspects of your experience seem most compelling to you. As a guideline, you should write a substantial entry (1-3 pages) every other day at a minimum. Journals will be collected at the end of the course and returned to you after grading is completed.

• Final Reflection Paper: you'll be asked to write a 3 4 page final reflection on your experience as a whole and the evolution in your thought about animal human relationships throughout the month. Please identify the most important things you have learned about animals, people, philosophy, culture, or yourself. Bring your final reflection with you on the last day of class.
• Class Participation and Overall Effort: you're expected to come to each class prepared to discuss all reading assignments. Your efforts in class discussions and Sanctuary work will be important to your overall course evaluation.

Course Texts and Readings:

Please purchase the following two books before we go to Utah. Readings will be selected from these texts throughout the term; weekly assignments will be made in class.

Torn Regan and Peter Singer, eds., Animal Rights and Human Obligations, 2nd ed. (Upper Saddle River, NJ: 1989).

Carl Cohen and Tom Regan, The Animal Rights Debate (Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield, 2001).

Taking Animals Seriously: Sample Reflective Writing Assignments

In your own reactions and those of staff to animals this week, can you distinguish instances of anthropomorphism or sentimentality from accurate assessments of feelings? How so? Provide examples.

How do stereotypes of animals affect this society's treatment of them, and how do those stereotypes diverge from reality? Consider this question especially as you work with pigs, birds, and cats.

Consider the lines Americans draw between animals we treasure as companions, and animals we use for food and other products. Why do those particular lines exist? Are there good reasons for them? Why do other cultures (e.g., those that consider dogs to be a food source and cats to be vermin) draw the lines in different ways? Which lines make sense or seem justified to you, and why?

Which abuses of animals that you have worked with were due to cruelty or maliciousness, and which to thoughtlessness or inattention? Which, if any, are worse and in what ways? What kinds of preventive or corrective efforts does each call for?

What evidence of sensitivity to pain and pleasure, intelligence, self-consciousness, and emotional responsiveness have you encountered in your work with animals this week?

Are there uses of animals that are not exploitative? If so, what is it that makes them unobjectionable? More generally, can you say what makes some practices involving animals exploitative and wrong, and others unobjectionable or even laudable?

What ideas for resolving conflicts of rights have you developed from your encounters with "destructive dogs" (dogs condemned to Sanctuary confinement or death because of chasing or biting behavior)? Do your ideas diverge from traditional thinking about conflicts between humans and nonhumans? How so?

What would Peter Singer, Tom Regan, R.G. Frey, and Carl Cohen think of the Sanctuary's "no kill" policy (and why)? Its policy of spaying/neutering all animals in residence and all adopted out? Its serving only vegetarian and vegan lunches?

Have your lunchtime experiences at the Sanctuary affected your thinking about the ethics of using animals for food? Did your work with pigs affect it? If so, how? If not, why not? Do you think that the Sanctuary should request or require of workers and volunteers (which it does not at present) that they eat a vegetarian or vegan diet? Why or why not?

Based on your observations at adoption clinics and other interactions of Sanctuary staff with the public, discuss what varieties of activism and education seem to be most effective, and why. Could those types of education/activism work in other contexts e.g., efforts to reform intensive farming or to end vivisection? Why or why not?

 

LIBERATION THEOLOGY

PROLOGUE

Violence

“You gringos, ” a Salvadoran peasant told an American visitor, “are always worried about violence done with machine guns and machetes. But there is another kind of violence that you should be aware of, too. I used to work on a hacienda. Myjob was to take care of the dueho’s dogs. I gave them meat and bowls of milk, food that I couldn’t give my own family. When the dogs were sick I took them to the veterinarian. When my children were sick, the dueho gave me his sympathy but no medicine as they died. “

Cited in N. Scheper‑Hughes, Death Without Weeping

Oppression

Imagine a wondrous new machine, strong and supple, a machine that reaps as it destroys. It is huge and mobile. Think of this machine running over open terrain and ignoring familiar boundaries. Itplows acrossfields andjencerows with afierce momentum. As it goes, the machine throws off enormous mows of wealth and bounty while it leaves behind great furrows of wreckage.

Now imagine that there are skillful hands on board, but no one is at the wheel. In fact, this machine has no wheel nor any internal governor to control the speed and direction. It is sustained by its ownforward motion, guided mainly by its own appetites. And it is accelerating.

William Grieder, One World, Ready or Not

Conscientization

At a base community meeting one evening Ipresented a slide show of portraits taken of my Alto friends. Midway into the presentation the slide of a mother with her toddler presenting a bloated belly came onto the screen. Jodo Mariano, the political orientador of UPAC, led the discussion. ”What does this baby have?” he asked.

“Worms!” the adults and children yelled back. 

“And who here has not suffered with worms? ” (Silence) “How did this child get sick?” 

“Crawling barefoot on the ground. “ “Putting mud and dirt into its mouth.” ”The house has no pit latrine.” 

“And how might this problem be solved?” 

“Medical exams.” ”Worm pills.” 

“No!” Terezinha suddenly jumped to her feet. “No, for the child will still be without shoes, and the house still won’t have a latrine and the children will still be drinking ‘amoeba juice’ from the public water spigot. “

“So what is the answer then? asked Jodo Mariano.

“Building latrines.” ”Unido! ‑ working together!”

N. Scheper‑Hughes, Death Without Weeping

Liberation

“Today I spoke up at the women’s circle in the creche,” an elderly Alto woman commented. ”Later in talking I realized that this was thefirst time I had ever spoken out in public. I was always somebody who kept quiet and accepted whatever was said. But I learned today that I did have an opinion although I was raised para ndo ser pessoa [not to be a person].

N. Scheper Hughes, Death Without Weeping

Liberation Theology

“For [Pedro Trigo, Venezuela's leading liberation theologian] liberation theology was just beginning–what had gone before was pre‑history. True liberation theology must arise out of the ‘everyday’. . . “

P. Berryman, Religion in the Megacity

COURSE DESCRIPTION

Liberation Theology focuses upon a radical movement for the transformation of Christianity that originated in the “Christian Base Communities” of Latin America and spread from there to North America and the Third World. Tested in the fires of civil wars in Central American and political repression in Brazil and other parts of Latin America in the 1970s and 80s, Liberation Theology today seeks to respond to the forces of globalization. Liberation theology and Christian base communities will be studied in comparison to other religious movements in Latin America such as Pentecostalism. This course is offered in conjunction with the Latin American Studies program and the Catholic Studies Program. We will give special attention to the impact of the new global economic order on the poorest segments of Latin American societies.

This course fulfills the Experiential Learning requirement of the Liberal Studies program. As such it integrates theory and practice in studying forms of religious engagement. All students registered in this course will perform 25 hours of service to a community or within a community organization or agency.

COURSE OBJECTIVES

I . Students will gain knowledge of the variety of contemporary religious movements in Latin America and their various responses at the local level to the forces of globalization and to political and economic oppression.

2.  Students will be able to discern the resources within the Christian tradition for developing prophetic social criticism, utopian models of society and theories of social justice.

3. Students will be able to situate “Christian base communities” in their Latin American historical and social contexts and to assess their strengths and weaknesses in promoting social change.

4.  Students will understand the potential role of theological ideas in shaping change oriented ideologies through their connection with critical social theories.

5.  Students will be able to reflect critically on the strengths and weaknesses of liberation movements and of liberation as a theological concept.

6.  Students will be able to articulate at a basic level their own vision of a just society.

7.  Students will be able by reflecting on their own experiences in a service context to raise questions about the relationship of service to the creation of a just society.

8.  Students will be able to articulate their own understandings of the relationship between learning and liberation.

9.   Students will be able to trace the connections among experiences in the service context, their own reflections on those experiences, theories of justice and liberation, and their own efforts to act well in serving others.

10.  Students will become more articulate in written and oral communication.

REQUIRED TEXTS

M. Argueta, One Day of Life

P. Berryman, Liberation Theolog

G. Gutierrez, Theology of Liberation

A. Peterson et al, Christianity, Social Change and Globalization in the Americas

Nancy Scheper‑Hughes, Death Without Weeping

 

COURSE OUTLINE AND READING LIST

1.                INTRODUCTION: WHAT IS LIBERATION THEOLOGY?

Sept. 16                A. Learning and Liberation

Sept. 16                B. Service Learning and Praxis

Sept. 16                C. The Changing Face of Religion in Latin America

                                Video: “Americas: Miracles Are Not Enough.”

II. THE CONVERSION OF THE LATIN AMERICAN CHURCH

Sept. 23                  A. Conscientization

                                Readings: M. Argueta, One Day of Life; Selection from Paulo Friere, The Pedagogy of the Oppressed (handout)

Sept. 30                  B.  The Emergence of Liberation Theology

                                    Reading: P. Berryman, Liberation Theolo , Introduction, Chapter I

Sept. 30                  C. Solidarity with the Poor

                                    Reading: Berryman, Chap. 2

Sept. 30                  D. A Prophet of Non‑violence

                                    Film: Romero (reserve)

III.    VISIONS OF HOPE: THE EMERGENCE OF CHRISTIAN BASE COMMUNITIES

 

Sept. 30                  A.  Jesus’ Kingdom of Nobodies

                                   Readings: Selections from John Dominic Crossan, Jesus: A Revolutionary

Oct. 7                  B.     The Bible and Everyday Life

                                    Readings: Berryman, Chap. 3

Oct. 7                  C.   The Struggle to Create Community

                                   Reading: Berryman, Chap. 4

IV.   RECOGNIZING THE NEW FACE OF HUMAN SUFFERING: THE EVERYDAY VIOLENCE OF THE GLOBAL ECONOMIC ORDER

Oct. 7                  A.    Bom Jesus and the Nordeste: 600,000 Square Miles of Suffering

                                   Readings: Nancy Scheper‑Hughes, Death Without Weeping, Chaps. I and 2

Oct. 7                  C.    Moral Triage: The Ethics of Survival

                                   Reading: Scheper‑Hughes, Chap. 3

Oct. 14                D.    Delirio de Fome: False Consciousness and the Structures of Everyday Violence

                                    Readings: Scheper‑Hughes, Chaps. 4 and 5

Oct. 14                  E.   Everyday Death and Body Praxis

                                    Readings: Scheper‑Hughes, Chap. 6

Oct. 21                  F.   The Everydayness of Children’s Death

                                    Group Presentation of Scheper‑Hughes, Chap. 7

Oct. 21                  G.   The Pragmatics of Motherhood: The Social Production of Love

                                    Group Presentation of Scheper‑Hughes, Chap. 8

Oct. 21                  H.   Internalized Alienation: A Political Economy of the Emotions

                                    Group Presentation of Scheper‑Hughes, Chap. 9

Oct. 21                  I.    Jeito: The Tactics of Survival

                                    Group Presentation of Scheper‑Hughes, Chaps. 10 and I I

Oct. 21                  J.    Everyday Struggles Against Everyday Violence

                                    Readings: Scheper‑Hughes, Chap. 12

V.   RESPONDING TO THE NEW FACE OF HUMAN SUFFERING: BUILDING AND RE‑BUILDING A THEOLOGY OF LIBERATION

Oct. 28                  A.  Theology and Critical Reflection on Praxis

                                    Readings: Berryman, Chaps. 5‑6; G. Gutierrez, A Theology of Liberation,

                                    Chaps. I and 2

Oct. 28                  B.    Liberation and Salvation

                                    Readings: Gutierrez, Chap. 9

Nov. 4                  C.    History and Eschatology

                                    Readings: Gutierrez, Chaps. 10 and I I

Nov. 4                  D.    Sacrament and Solidarity

                                    Readings: Gutierrez, Chap. 12

Nov. 4                  E.    Hearing Other Voices: Latin American Women Challenging and Revising Liberation Theology

                                    Readings: Selection from Daniel Levine, Popular Voices in Latin American

                                    Catholicism; selections from Mev Puleo, The Struggle is One; M.C.Bingemer,

                                    “Women in the Future of the Theology of Liberation.” (handouts)

 

VI.    FUSING MULTIPLE RESPONSES TO HUMAN SUFFERING: RELIGION, GLOBALIZATION AND THE PRACTICE OF EVERYDAY LIFE 

Nov. 11                  A. Liberation Theology, Religious Pluralism and Globalization

                              Readings: A. Peterson et al (eds.), Christianijy, Social Change and Globalization in the Americas, Introduction and Chap. 10

Nov. 11               B.  Exploring the Challenge of Evangelical Communities and Afro‑Brazilian Religions to Christian Base Communities

                                Readings: J. Burdick, “Rethinking the Study of Social Movements: The Case of Christian Base Communities in Urban Brazil.” (handout)

Nov. 11                  C.  Do Christian Base Communities Liberate Women?

                                    Reading: Peterson, Chap. I

                                    Group Presentation of M. Nussbaum, Women and Human Development

Nov. 18                D.    El Norte and Beyond

                                Reading: Peterson, Chap. 7

                                Group Presentation of El Norte and Peterson, Chap. 8

Nov. 18                E.  Creating Democratic Societies in the Wake of War: The Role of Religion

                                  Reading: Peterson, Chap. 6

Nov. 18                F.   Exploring the Non‑violent Alternative to Social Change

                                Group Presentation of Men With Guns and Selections from Romero Archives

Nov. 18                G. Taming the Runaway Machine: New Approaches to Development in a Liberationist Perspective

                                 Group Presentation of Gutierrez and Amartya Sen’s Freedom as Development

Nov. 25                H. The Practice of Liberation

                                Individual Presentations of Service Learning Projects

 

COURSE REQUIREMENTS 

A.   Class Participation

1. Reading the assigned texts and participating in class discussions

Participation in the classroom process is vital to the success of our discussion and to the individual’s growth. It is imperative that each student come to class prepared by prior reading and reflection to share insights and judgments, questions and problems with the rest of the class. Participation in the classroom process will constitute 15% of the grade for the course.

2. Evaluation of Class Participation

I will evaluate each student’s participation on the basis of the following criteria:

a. Attentive listening. (Are you alert and actively engaged in thinking about the material under discussion? Are you respectful of the ideas of your fellow students and as prepared to learn forin them as from the instructor?)

b.   Frequency and clarity of your oral contributions. (Are you adequately prepared for each class discussion? Do you make a consistent effort to contribute to the class discussion?)

c.  Knowledge of the reading matter under discussion and the ability to grasp its central themes. (Have you read the material carefully and critically?)

d. The ability to take an independent stance towards the ideas under discussion and to develop the position reflectively. ( Have you thought through the issues and come to your own conclusions?)

e.   The overall development of your power of oral expression during the course of the quarter. (Has your ability to contribute to the class grown during the quarter?)

3. Class Attendance Policy

Clearly it is impossible to meet the objectives and requirements of the course if students do not attend class regularly. Consequently one unexcused absences will lower your final grade by one letter. Two unexcused absences will be considered excessive and lead to failure of the course. Excused absences will be granted only for serious reasons.

B. Seminar Leadership

All students are expected to play a role in leading the seminar. This will take three forms: 1) a group presentation, 2) contributions to the Blackboard discussion forum and 3) an individual presentation at the end of the quarter. The group presentation and the individual presentations together will count for 15% of your grade for the course. Blackboard entries will count for 15% of your grade for the course.

1. Group Presentation

Students in groups of three will take the responsibility for leading the seminar for 25‑30 minutes. Topics for the presentation focus on specific chapters in Scheper‑Hughes and Peterson that the class as a whole will skip. See the Course Outline for the schedule of these presentations. Each group should plan to meet with me before the scheduled presentation to discuss ways in which the material can be presented that build upon the class discussions. Please save at least 10 minutes for structured group discussion.

2. Blackboard Discussion Forum

I have set up a Blackboard discussion forum for this class. The purpose of the forum is to extend the discussions that occur in class. Student contributions to Blackboard can raise questions about the material about to be discussed, pick up a loose thread left dangling from a previous class, add ideas that did not arise in the class discussions but that you would like feedback on, share your experiences with research and service learning. Don’t worry that your ideas might not be completely worked out or that your articulation of them may not be perfect. The Blackboard discussion forum is a place to try out thoughts and to seek the response of others.

Further suggestions: 1) you could share some of your reflections on service learning with the class through Blackboard; these comments can be downloaded and included with your journal; 2) post comments on the readings or follow up on points of discussion in class that you wish to take further. Seek clarification of confusing ideas. Engage your fellow students; 3) apply theories developed in class to your own social context; 4) post questions, quotes or comments that will prepare the class for your group presentation; 5) seek help from other students as well as from me regarding any confusions about the course material or any problems regarding your service placement. You must make at least four substantive contributions to the Blackboard discussions forum, two of which will be before midterm, in order to receive a passing grade of “C” for this part of the course. A higher grade requires entering into a real dialogue on the themes and issues of the course.

3. Individual Presentations

All students will present a I0‑minute summary of their service learning projects on November 25. Please think about the ways in which you can make your project interesting and intelligible to other members of the class. Each student should bring a short excerpt (I or 2 xeroxed pages) from a service learning j oumal or from the research paper to share with the class. Explain how your work doing this project contributed to your understanding of the themes of the course.

C.   Service‑Learning Requirement

Liberation Theology focuses upon the notion of praxis. Praxis is action grounded in emancipatory symbols and critical social theory. But praxis also generates thought. A purely theoretical approach to the study of liberation theology that involves the simple accumulation of knowledge would betray the message at its core, the way, say, a silent movie on the life of Mozart might also violate the heart of the matter. If we wish to learn about liberation, so liberation theologians argue, we cannot do so apart from reflective social engagement. In other words, the service that you perform is intrinsic to the learning process of this course.

All students will complete 25‑30 hours of service in a community agency. If you are not currently involved in service within a community organization, the Steans Center for Community‑based Service learning will find an appropriate placement for you. If you are already engaged in some sort of service on behalf of others, you may continue this service as a way of meeting this course requirement under the following conditions: a) your service must involve at least 25‑30 hours of direct engagement over the course of the quarter, b) the supervisor of your service work must indicate his or her willingness to evaluate your service work, c) you must describe your role in the organization and explain how you believe this service can be related to the themes of the course, and d) you must have the opportunity to interview a leader or group of leaders in your organization regarding the worldview and value system that inform his, or her, or their commitments.

D.   Reflective Journal

All students will keep a journal of written reflections. For each week of the course students will write at least two entries. In encourage you to write at length. Each entry should be at least one and one‑half typewritten pages in length (double‑spaced). This means that your journal for the course will ultimately be a minimum of 30 pages.

The first entry will focus on the course readings for the following week. The second entry will focus on your experience in your service context. Initially there may not be a lot of connection between the two entries. As the course progresses, you will be expected to look for connections between at least some of the readings and their themes and what you are experiencing as you do your service work. You will be expected to integrate some aspects of your learning in class with some aspects of your learning through service.

1. An Intellectual Journal

The first entry each week focuses on the ideas, themes, and issues raised in the reading and the class discussions. This entry should be a personal and thoughtful wrestling with the themes, issues, questions, and problems of the course as they arise in the texts under discussion. Maintain a balance between analysis, reflection and creative expression in your journals. Avoid general summaries of the text. Also avoid using the texts as mere launching pads from which you take off on your own. Engage the texts.

Write clearly and coherently. Feel free to write as much as you wish. A major purpose of this requirement is to train ourselves in the craft of writing. Analyze the key metaphors or ideas, the author’s line of argumentation, and the structure of the work. Evaluate these ideas and positions; compare and contrast them with other course readings and with your own ideas. Draw upon your own experiences as you attempt to understand the readings. Criticize constructively. The journal material may be used as your basis for raising questions, focusing upon key issues, and participating in the class discussions. What does this reading add to your understanding of liberation, social justice, and the roles of religions in achieving both?

2. A Service Learning Journal

The second entry for each week of the course will reflect on your service placement. In developing this section of your journal you should keep these directions and questions in mind:

1. Attentive. Pay special attention to the people that you are working with; their history and backgrounds to the extent that they willingly reveal them (respect the privacy of others!), the community organization or agency and its mission, and the ways in which it seeks to carry out its mission. Some part of each entry should be given over to description and structured observation. Keep your eyes open. Think about the following questions:

•       What can I learn from the people around me and the place where I work?

•       Who are the people I work with: what history, traditions, experiences do they bring with them as we work together?

•       What are their strengths?

•       What are their core values?

•       How do they express them?

•       How do they articulate their needs and aspirations, hopes and struggles?

2. Reflective. Pay special attention to your own thoughts, feelings, emotional reactions, and values. Working in an unfamiliar context will frequently bring to the surface aspects of yourself (which you will value as positive or negative) that you were not aware of. Some part of each entry should reflect on what these experiences are teaching you about yourself as well as about others. Think about the following questions:

•       What do I learn about myself through this engagement with others?

•       What are my fears and hopes, strengths and weaknesses, values and assumptions?

•        How do I experience alienation and liberation?

•        How does my engagement with others alter these feelings, values, hopes?

•        What false understandings have I internalized?

•        How can I use the service experience to liberate myself from such forms of false understanding?

3. Theoretical. Ideas are tools. “Truth,” as William James says, “is a leading function.” Some part of each entry should attempt to relate the themes and ideas developed in the readings and class discussions to your experiences with social engagement. (I expect that this section might be relatively brief in early entries but grow larger as the course develops). Think about the following questions:

•     How do the ideas, themes and explorations of this class (or other classes too!) relate to my experiences of social engagement?

•     Do they elucidate my experience or, on the contrary, do I find some other set of ideas more illuminating in my attempts to learn through action?

•     What are the strengths and weaknesses of liberation Christianity as providing a framework for service and action? What other frameworks work better for me?

4. Practical. The purpose of a service learning journal, we might say paraphrasing Marx, is not so much to understand the world but to change it. Thought has consequences. Some part of each entry ought to reflect on how you hope to put into practice what you’ve been learning. Think about the following questions:

•       How might I better serve the people around me?

•       How might I empower both them and myself through this service?

•        What stereotypes, twisted feelings, and misshapen values do I need to work on in myself?

•       How do I accomplish my own liberation in conjunction with working for the liberation of others?

•       What are my strengths and skills which I can use on behalf of others?

•       What are their strengths and skills which I can draw upon to transform myself?

We will do in‑class exercises with the j ourrial frequently so always bring your journal to class. I will formally review your service learning journals three times during the quarter. I will informally review your journal on September 23 . Journals are due for the first formal review on October 7 . Journals are due for a second review on November 4. 

 Journals are due for final review on November 25 . Students are graded on the learning that they achieve through service. The journal is the primary expression of your learning in the service context as well as in the classroom. It will count for 45% of your grade for the course.

E.   Quizzes

There will be four quizzes during the course of the quarter. These quizzes will not be announced beforehand. They will test basic knowledge and comprehension of the assigned readings. Students who use the study guides while doing the readings will adequately prepare themselves for the quizzes. Each quiz will be worth up to five points. Together the quizzes will count for 10% of your grade for the course.

F.   Plagiarism

Plagiarism, like other forms of academic dishonesty, is always a serious matter. This course adheres to the University’s policies on plagiarism as stated in the current Bulletin/ Student Handbook. Consult any of the writing manuals for sale in the bookstore for instructions about proper citation or acknowledgment of the work of others in class assignments or you may consult the links on Blackboard.

Liberation Theology

Service Learning Exercise

Third Class

As we go around the class, please respond by addressing both questions below.

a)        Continue to describe your early experiences in your service context. What, if anything, have you found surprising? 

b)        Reflect on yourself as you exercise your service. Describe something that you did that you were happy with. Focus on some interaction that expressed a strength of yours (whether or not you knew that you had that particular quality or strength.

 

Liberation Theology

Service Learning Exercise

Fourth Class

Please respond to the following questions. You may use them to focus your journal entry and I encourage you to share these ideas on Blackboard.

1.    What false understandings of the people you are working with or the community that they are part of that you brought to your service have your uncovered?

2.    What is one particularly noteworthy strength of the people you are working with or the community organization within which you are working and how can you build on it?

Liberation Theology

Service Reflection

Week Five

Berryman discusses what he calls the hermeneutic circle or the circle of interpretation followed by CEBs as they try to make sense of their world and find an appropriate course of action. As we discussed it in class, the circle goes from Experience to Text to Experience. You have been having a series of experiences in your service placement. Now find a text (passage from a book, scene from a movie, lyrics from a song) that both illuminates your experiences (helps you to understand them, puts them in context) and orients you to praxis (guides you about how to act both effectively and transformatively).

The text that you choose should be one that shapes you. It need not be a “text” from this class. Again, I encourage you to put these “texts” on Blackboard so that others can think about them as well.

LIBERATION THEOLOGY

TAKING STOCK

At just past the mid point of the course we should pause and examine our progress in terms of our learning goals and our own desired outcomes for the course.

A.              SERVICE PLACEMENT

1.      What have you learned in your work in your service placement that you never expected to learn? What is important about this learning?

2.      What brick wall have you found yourself running up against? (The brick wall can be something internal or external; something unique to your placement site or something systemic.) How are you dealing with it?

B.               COURSE THEMES

1.      What idea or theme developed in the class discussions and readings seems most clear and relevant to you? Explain.

2.      Above all, what theme or idea do you most want to get a stronger grasp of by the end of the course? Explain.

 

Liberation Theology

Service Learning Exercises

October 28, 2002 and November 4, 2002

A.     Making Connections (Oct. 28)

Pick one idea/theme that we have discussed in any of our readings so far that does connect with some experience(s) at your service site. Be prepared to discuss the connection. Explain why the idea helps you to understand your service context more deeply and/or to act more purposeftilly.

B.     Interview (Nov. 4)

This exercise will be presented in class on November 4 1h . Between now and then you are to have a conversation with one person in a leadership capacity at your service site. You should focus on three questions:

I . How did you come to work here? What motivated you or led you to work here?

2.   Why do you do what you do? What are your values and beliefs as they relate to your work service?

3.   Why are you hopeful; that is, why do you believe that this work will bear fruit? What are the grounds of your hope?

Inquire gently but try to push beyond platitudes (“I wanted to make a difference.” “I wanted to give something back.” “I believe in the Golden Rule” etc.) You might ask, for example, of someone who affirms belief in the Golden Rule why they hold that belief when the way the world runs seems to suggest that that is a very na1ve way to live‑Well, that doesn’t sound too gentle, but figure out a way to converse that is a genuine exploration that gets beneath the surface. Then ask yourself what you have learned from this conversation.

Liberation Theology

Service Learning Exercise

November 11, 2002

Liberation theologians paint their theological picture on a huge canvas. They see human history in its totality as the drama of humans’ encounter with God and of God’s realization of the Kingdom of God. Occasionally our lives are clearly swept up into the chaos of history (9/11/01). Mostly, however, we are caught up in the micro‑events of our daily lives. We are deeply connected to the micro‑stories of our own lives and we are little aware of the larger historical successes that shape our lives.

1. Tell a story of human transforination that has happened at your service site (a new story, please!). (The transformation can be a small one and the story can be about your own transformation or about the transformation of someone you have taught or someone you have met at your service site.)

2. Think through how this micro‑story is linked up with larger historical processes as you understand them and with the drama of human history as you envision it. What do you learn from your micro‑story that sheds light on the macro‑drama of human history?

Liberation Theology

Service Learning Exercise

Week Nine ‑ November 18, 2002

TOPIC:   “We hold these truths to be self‑evident,” argued Thomas Jefferson. But in the world of the 181h century the truth of human rights was anything but self‑evident and Jefferson himself self‑consciously confronted his own inability to act in light of the ideals that he set forth. We face similar dilemmas of finding and following transformative truths: a) What are the truths that should guide human action in a global context? b) What do they imply for action in solidarity?

TASK:     In small groups discuss these two questions with specific reference to what you have learned in class and in your service context. Your discussion of action guided by true insights into our global context should focus on what is within the power of ordinary human beings like yourself to accomplish. Think about your actions during this past quarter. What truths did they reveal? Where do both actions and truths lead you? What can your group agree upon in terms of these two questions? It would help if the group could work from individual responses to the questions posted on Blackboard before the Nov. 18th class.

LIBERATION THEOLOGY

Individual Presentations

November 25, 2002

TOPIC:  Learning and Liberation

We are all involved in forms of service that involve teaching, tutoring or coaching. In some way we are all engaged in the practice of education. The task in this final presentation is to think through specifically what we have learned from this form of practice. (In other words you are asked to do a critical reflection on praxis.) Think about the following questions as you develop your thoughts, but think of them in terms of your concrete experiences with service.

1.    Is there a connection between learning and liberation? Someone might suggest to you that education is simply the formal means through which young people are socialized to perform certain functions necessary to the maintenance of society with some being tracked into high‑skill, high‑pay functions and others to low‑skill, low‑pay functions. In other words, education is not liberation but a sophisticated machinery to produce different classes of workers, a human assembly line.

Is the educating you are doing in your service context liberating? How so or how not so? Liberating for whom? If it is liberating, what makes it so? From your experience as an educator when and under what circumstances does education liberate? What do you mean by liberation in this case?

2.    We have all told deeply affecting stories of transformation but we struggle to place our experiences in a larger context of social change. So, reflect on this question as well. Is “liberation” the concept that best describes your vision of a transforination that would lead to a just society? Is there a better way of thinking about such a transformation; i.e., just as Gutierrez argues for “liberation” versus “development” as a necessary guiding principle to achieve a just society, you could argue for an alternative to liberation.

Whether or not you see “liberation” as a guiding concept for action, how does service fit into the process of achieving a just society, if at all? What sort of service?

LOGISTICS: Each of you will have a maximum of 10 minutes for your presentation. Handouts are helpful! You might, for example, share a section from your journal. Please limit your own comments to 67 minutes maximum. Leave the remainder of the time for discussion and questions. Try not to repeat your comments from earlier in the course. Time yourself carefully. If you do not leave time for discussion, you will be downgraded. On the other hand, you are each assigned ten minutes to share your ideas. Use them well.

Please share the responsibility of raising questions or points for discussion when others are presenting. Your active participation for the whole session is part of your presentation. Good luck!

Professor Joni Doherty
Phone: X1025 (Home: 924 0206, please do not call after 9 p.m. unless it is an emergency!)
Email: doherq {at} fpc(.)edu
Office: Edgewood 005B
Office hours: Mondays, 1:30 to 2:30 pm; Tuesdays, 10:00 to 12:00 noon; or by appointment

Time: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 1:40 to 2:55
Location: CR205

Peer Advisor: Melissa Taylor
Phone: 2961
Email: taylorm {at} fpc(.)edu

Course Description
The questions raised by the relationship between the individual and the community form the connective theme of the general education program at Franklin Pierce College. As the first step in the sequence of our interdisciplinary core curriculum, this course begins the exploration of these important questions by examining aspects of community life in modern America. Students will be invited to participate in a semester long study and discussion of the responses to the experiences that our living together continually produces. Readings, writing assignments, and activities will be used to stimulate thinking about the various issues that arise as we examine our social nature and develop personal approaches to issues that require us to balance the claims of membership in a community with our rights as individuals.

Course Objectives

• Become familiar with the FPC Individual & Community Integrated Curriculum
• Develop critical thinking skills
• Accept the academic challenge of college level writing and oral communication
• Learn collaborative skills
• Become actively involved in our community
• Explore the tensions between our rights as individuals and our community responsibilities
• Understand the evolution of concepts such as free choice, beliefs, values, independence, and autonomy in the context of their relationships to community standards.

Required Materials
Border Texts Randall Bass, ed.
Granny D, Doris Haddock
Diversity Consciousness, Richard D. Bucher
Money & Politics, National Issues Forums
Violent Kids, National Issues Forums
Racial & Ethnic Relations, National Issues Forums
Brown Accordion Folder
I&C Binder and Inserts

Grading
20% Civic Engagement Project
30% Writing
15% Midterm exam
15% Final exam
20% Participation /preparation

Course Requirements

Formal Writing
You are required to do 14 pages of formal writing. Guidelines will be distributed in class. You should select three pieces, including the 5 page paper, for your portfolio. Late papers will not be accepted. The grades for formal writing will depend on thoughtfulness, organization, length, grammar, and spelling. College Writing grading standards will be distributed with the first paper assignment.

Oral Presentations
This will consist of a 5 to 7 minute presentation that will be based on the 5-page analytical review essay of a reading from Border Texts. Guidelines will be distributed in class.

Civic Engagement Project
In order to complement the classroom discussions, all IC101 students participate in an experiential learning process through working on a civic engagement project. Our class will do this as a group project. First, you will receive training on how to moderate deliberative dialogue forums. Then, working in teams, we will moderating forums for students at nearby schools. Each student will write a 3 page paper reflecting on this experience (Guidelines will be provided later in the semester.)

Informal Writing
The relationship between writing and thinking is a close one. Writing helps generate deeper thoughts. Therefore, you will be asked to write a number of informal pieces.

Exams
There will be a midterm exam and a final exam. Both exams will be in essay format. The midterm will be cumulative to date; the final exam will cover all the semester's materials. All final exams must be taken during the time scheduled by the college for these exams.

Participation/Preparation
Active involvement in class activities is an important part of this course. Students will be given a grade for participation in every class.

In lieu of regularly scheduled class meetings, our class will attend two Deliberative Dialogue Forums, one on each of the following topics, and the lectures listed in the course schedule.

• Money & Politics
  Tuesday, September 24, 6 to 8 pm, Cheshire Hall
  Friday, September 27, noon to 2 pm, Manor

• Gender: What Difference Does It Make?
  Tuesday, October 29, 6 to 8 pm, Cheshire Hall
  Friday, November 1, noon to 2 pm, Manor

Students are urged to attend other College events (plays, lectures, concerts, etc.).

CALENDAR

A PUBLIC VOICE

Tuesday, September 3 – Introduction
What is a Liberal Arts Education?

Thursday, September 5 – Complete reading Granny D. Book 1
Questions for Book I dui today

Friday, September 6 – Doris Haddock lecture, Tent, 12:30 to 1:30

Monday, September 9 – Last day to add/drop classes

Tuesday, September 10 – Complete reading Granny D.
Questions and 500 word essay due today
2 page response to Doris Haddock lecture due today.

Thursday, September 12 – IT Presentation. Meet in Library classroom

Tuesday, September 18 – Models of communication
Read Money & Politics discussion guide

Thursday, September 20 – Money & Politics forum in class today

Tuesday, September 24 – Money & Politics forum in class today

Thursday, September 26 – Attend Money & Politics campus wide forum in lieu of class today

BORDERS OF IDENTITY: STORIES OF SELF AND HOME

Tuesday, October 1 – Read Border Texts pp 1 24; Diversity pp 1 22

Thursday, October 3 – Read Diversity pp 26 51 and Border Texts, pp 20 24, and:
The Quiet House, pp 25 28
Screen Memory, 92 103

BORDERS OF COMMUNITY: BELONGING AND ALIENATION

Tuesday, October 8 Read Diversity pp 57 88; Border Texts, pp 107 112

Thursday, October 10 Read Border Texts:
Two Ways to Belong in America, pp 116 119
Collective Trauma, 186 195
The Last Best Place, pp 196 202

Tuesday, October 15 Class cancelled. Monday classes will be held today due to holiday.

Thursday, October 17 Midterm

Tuesday, October 22 Bibliographic Instruction. Meet in Library classroom.

GENDER: WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE?

Wednesday, October 23 Attend lecture on Gender, speaker TBA, Cheshire Hall, 7 pm

Thursday, October 24 Read pp 94 122; Border Texts, The Visitor, pp 29 35

Tuesday, October 29 Read Gender: What Difference Does It Make?
and Border Texts:
The Gravity of Pink, P 55 57
A Long Line of Vendias, pp 144 160

Thursday, October 31 Attend Gender forum in lieu of class today

BORDERS AS BARRIERS: OTHERNESS AND DIFFERENCE

Tuesday, November 5 Read Border Texts, pp 205 210 and:
Helping and Hating the Homeless, pp 229 238
Makes Me Wanna Holler, pp 239 246

Thursday, November 7 Read Border Texts:
Feelings About Difference, p~247 259
The White Man, pp 61 267
Ethnicity: Identity and Difference, pp 295 305

Tuesday, November 12 Read Diversity, pp 127 154
Moderator training in class today

Thursday, November 14 Read Diversity, pp 158 187
Moderator training in class today

Monday, November 18 Attend Cheney Lecture on Religion & Society: Religious
Diversity with Bob Abernathy, NBC News correspondent and
host of Religion and Ethics Newsweekly, Cheney Hall, 7 pm

Tuesday, November 19 Read Violent Kids. Practice forum in class today.

Wednesday, November 20 Advising & Registration. Edgewood 003A 2 to 6 pm

Thursday, November 21 Violet Kids forums in Fitchburg, MA

Friday morning. Violet Kids forums in Fitchburg, MA

Tuesday, November 22 Forum debriefing

Thursday, November 28 Thanksgiving

Tuesday, December 3 Read Race & Ethnic Relations Discussion Guide

Thursday, December 5 Read Diversity 192 203; Border Texts, pp 557 563, and:
The Concept Nation, pp 473 475
Who and What is an American? pp 581 588

Tuesday, December 10 Student Presentations

Thursday, December 12 Student Presentations

Tuesday, December 17 Final Exam, I to 3 pm

DELIBERATIVE DIALOGUE FORUM SCHEDULE

Terrorism (optional)
Monday, September 9, 6 8pm
Location: Alumni Lounge

Money & Politics (required)
Tuesday, Sept. 24, 6 8pm Locations: Alumni Lounge, Cheshire Hall, Cheney Hall or Friday, Sept. 27,12 2pm
Location: Alumni Lounge

Gender: What Difference Does It Make? (required)
Tuesday, October 29, 6 8pm Locations: Alumni Lounge, Cheshire Hall, Cheney Hall or Friday, November 1, 12 2pm
Location: Alumni Lounge

Sex: Creating Public Policy for Private Passions (optional)
Tuesday, November 19, 6 8pm Locations: Alumni Lounge, Cheshire Hall, Cheney Hall or Friday, November 22,12 2pm
Location: Alumni Lounge

VIOLENT KIDS FORUM REPORT PAPER GUIDELINES

Due: Tuesday, November 19 Please type and double space this paper.

Group Project (3 pages)
In this collaborative report you will be analyzing the Violent Kids Forum you moderated at Academy Middle School. The primary goal is to describe the common ground reached by the participants, as well as the concerns that still need to be resolved. Be sure to address the following in your report. You should incorporate results from the pre and post forum questionnaires into your report.

1. Did participants share a definition of the problem? Do they agree on the causes? How did the middle school forum differ from campus forums?
2. Did the deliberation change anything?
3. How did the kids come out on the conflicts, contradictions, and trade offs? What were they willing or not willing to do to solve the problem?
4. Did any general sense of agreement emerge? Was there a range of actions which were consistent with one another that had everyone's support?
5. What unique information came out of the forum? What implications do the results have for community action or public policy?
6. How has your thinking about this issue changed as a result of the forum

Personal Reflection (1 page)
Each team member also needs to write a personal essay that addresses the following:

1. What did you learn about moderating/ public speaking as a result of this forum?
2. What did you learn about the topic as a result of this forum?
3. What did you learn about yourself as a result of this forum?

This course is designed to develop the student's ability to think critically about contemporary ethical issues, both personal and social, and to develop a normative value system as a basis for distinguishing the good and bad in human conduct.

II.          Course Objectives

1)       To expand the student's understanding of the methods and concepts of philosophy, especially as they address the issues of right conduct in personal and social life.

2)        To introduce the student to the great writers of philosophy, especially St. Thomas Aquinas, in the West as they address issues in ethics.

3)       To enable the student to read and critically examine philosophical argument and to develop the ability to formulate and express their own philosophical arguments on ethical issues.

4)        To enable the student to critically examine one's self and society so as to make intelligent and useful choices in a pluralistic world.

III.       Method of Teaching

1.       Reading, library research, video presentations, lectures and class discussions on the topics on the topics listed in the course schedule.

2.      Small and large group discussion to apply the concepts and ideas found in readings and lectures

IV.       Required Text:

Readings in Philosophy 206

V.         Course Requirements:

1)       All required reading

2)       Term paper of 1. 8-20 pages (Guidelines attached) or the Service-learning project. (See below)

3)       Various short written assignments

4)       Three examinations on the dates specified in the Course Calendar

VI.        STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES

A student with a disability, who requires some type of accommodation, such as extended time on a test, note-takers, textbooks on tape/CD, etc., MUST voluntarily disclose his/her needs to Diane Stoelting, Coordinator, Specialized Support Services, in the Office of Academic Support (OAS). He/she must provide Ms. Stoelting with documentation from a qualified professional that clearly diagnoses the disability and the individual's functional limitations. After reviewing the documentation (in consultation with Health Services and/or Counseling Services if needed), she will determine what accommodations are appropriate on a case-by-case/course-by- course basis. The student must inform professors about his/her need for accommodation(s).

VII       Academic Honesty: Please consult your student handbook for the university policy on academic honesty. This policy will be strictly adhered to.

VIII.   Office Hours:

Office hours:      M/W/F:                9:00 AM – 10:00 AM
                          T/Th:                    9:30 – 11:00 AM

I recommend that you schedule an appointment or contact me by email.

Office:                Upper level Gallagher Center
Phone:                 286-8573
Fax:                     286-8753
e-mail:  mpf {at} niagara(.)edu

IX.      Course Outline

1. Normative Ethical Theory

a)            Virtue ethics:

Reading: Readings in Philosophy 206

b)           Deontology

Reading: Readings in Philosophy 206

c)            Utilitarianism

Reading: Readings in Philosophy 206

d)           Natural Rights

Reading: Readings in Philosophy 206

2.       Human Freedom

a)            St. Augustine:

Reading: Readings in Philosophy 206

b)           Aristotle

Reading: Nicomachean Ethics. BK. II

c)            Aquinas

Reading: Pocket Aquinas, pp. 187-189

d)            Jean-Paul Sartre

Reading: Readings in Philosophy 206

3.       Virtue

a)            Aristotle

Reading: Nicomachean Ethics, BK. 11, VI

b)           Aquinas:         

Reading: Pocket Aquinas, 27; 183; 193; 204-217; 279

4.        Justice

a)            Aristotle

Reading; Nicomachean Ethics Bk V., The Politics

b)           John Rawls

Reading: Readings in Philosophy 206

5.       Friendship

a)            Aristotle:

Reading: Nicomachean Ethics, BK. VIII & BK. IX

b) Gabriel Marcel and Martin Buber

Reading: Handout

6.       Pleasure and Happiness

Reading: Nicomachean Ethics, BK X

7.        Issues in ethics

Life issues:         Abortion

                              Euthanasia

                              Capital Punishment

                              War

                              Bioethics

Environmental Ethics
Business Ethics: Hostile Takeovers
Poverty and Affluence

VI.      Class Schedule

1/12              Introduction: "Why should a person be moral?"

1/14              Nature of Morality

1/16              Nature of Morality

1/19              Holiday

1/21              Normative Ethical Theory

                    Virtue Ethics – Video – BK 1

1/23              Normative Ethical Theory 11

1/26              Virtue Ethics – Aristotle

1/28              Deontology – Kant

1/30              No Class – Out of class assignment­

2/2                Utilitarianism

                    Natural Rights

2/4                Natural Rights II

2/6                Guest Lecturer

2/9                First Examination

2/11              Poverty – Social Responsibility (video)

­­­­2/16              Human Freedom – Augustine

2/18              Freedom II – Aristotle

2/20              Freedom III – Jean-Paul Sartre­

2/23              Suicide and Euthanasia

2/25              Suicide and Euthanasia II

2/27              Freedom III – Jean-Paul Sartre

3/1               The morality of war – Just War Theory

3/3               War

3/5               Virtue – Aristotle

3/6-3/15        Winter Break

3/15              Virtue – Aquinas

3/17               Virtue III

3/19               Second Examination

3/22               Abortion

3/24               Justice – Aristotle

3/26               Justice – Aristotle

3/29              Business Ethics:        Ethics in America – Hostile Takeovers

3/31              Friendship – Aristotle

4/2                Friendship II – Buber & Marcel

4/5                Environmental Ethics – "Silent Spring"

4/9                Holiday

4/12              Holiday

4/16              Bioethics

4/23              Bioethics II

4/26              Capital Punishment

4/28              Capital Punishment

4/30              Issues in ethics

5/3                Review and Conclusion

5/8                Final Examination 12:10 – 2 : 00 PM, Saturday

THE RESEARCH PAPER

Due in class: April 7, 2004

The Assignment

Each student is required to write an 18-20-page research paper on a topic related to ethics. You are required to use a minimum of 5-7 sources for your paper.

Instructions for Composing the Research Paper Please follow these directions for composing and typing the Research Paper:

1.           COVER PAGE — Type the following information on the cover page:

a)           essay title — the topic you have researched;
b)           your name;
c)           course number, section, number, course name;
d)           date paper is due

2.           TEXT OF THE ESSAY:

The text of the essay is 18-20 typewritten pages, double-spaced, with one­ inch margins – approximately 25-28 lines of text per page, approximately 60 spaces per line. Paragraphs are generally a minimum of three sentences, a maximum of ten sentences. The first line of each new paragraph is indented five spaces. Sentences begin with capital letters and end with periods, question marks, or exclamation points. When you are finished typing your essay, staple all the pages together in the upper left­hand comer.

We urge you to divide up the 18-20 pages of the text of your research paper in the following manner:

PAGE ONE AND TWO: summarize in a clear and concise manner the topic you have researched and the major ideas you are going to explore in your paper, including your own experience with this topic from your Service-learning project.

PAGE THREE THROUGH SIXTEEN: summarize in clear and concise manner the results of what you have learned about the topic from your research.

PAGE SIXTEEN TO END: summarize in a clear and concise manner the ideas, insights or conclusions you have come to as a result of your research and your experience with your Service-leaming project.

LAST PAGE: include a complete bibliography

3.            GRAMMAR, PUNCTUATION, STYLE

Research papers are composed in standard, written English. Please check for grammar, punctuation and style. Please check for spelling/typing errors. A good way to check your paper is to have someone else read it and to read your paper aloud to yourself

4.           DOCUMENTATION

Your research paper will require you to refer to specific ideas and passages from the documents you have researched. In writing your paper will need to quote directly from the document or use an idea from the document. Direct quotations, longer than one sentence, are typed differently than the main of the text. They are typed single-spaced and all lines of the quote are indented ten spaces.

When using a direct quote or an Idea from the document, you MUST document this in the following manner: author's last name, title of the document, and page number. This information is placed in a parenthesis after the quotation or after the sentence using the author's idea.

Example: (McRaith, "Giving Justice a Family Base," p. 395)

THE SERVICE-LEARNING PROJECT AND

EVALUATION

SERVICE-LEARNING PROJECT REGISTRATION DUE 23 January, 2004

SERVICE-LEARNING PROJECT EVALUATION DUE IN CLASS 28 April, 2004

The Assignment: Each student is required to engage in a 18-20 hour Service-learning project to experience the praxis of justice and social responsibility and to promote sensitivity to diversity and multiculturalism. The service-learning project will enable students to critically reflect on the philosophical and ethical principles inherent in the praxis of justice. In the first class, students will be introduced to the various opportunities available through Learn and Serve Niagara/NUCAP. However, you may select any other program which offers you a first hand experience in direct community service with the permission of your instructor. You are required to fill out the "Service-learning Project Registration Forms" and return them to the NUCAP office by the deadline. Once your project has been approved, you may proceed to complete the 15-20 hours of service. After completing your service, you are required to write a 5-page evaluation of your experience and submit it on 3 May 2001.

Instructions for the 5 Page Evaluation You are required to submit a 5 page, typewritten evaluation of your service-learning project. Please describe what you have learned personally from your experience of service. How did this experience change some of your assumptions or ideas? Please describe the components and ideas which you have learned from the course material and your research paper, which helped you, reflect more critically on Justice and ethics.

THE SERVICE-LEARNING PROJECT JOURNAL

Each student must keep a journal to record reflections on the service-learning project experience. Students are required to make one journal entry after each contact session in the service project experience. Some classes will include time for students to reflect with the class on their service-learning project experience and the journal entries will provide the material for this.

Please use the following method for journal entries:
Sit down at least once a week and choose one or two "critical incidents" that have taken place during the week and explore them in detail in your journal. Remember, "critical" means having strong impact on you in terms of your objectives. Here are some steps for organizing your reflecting and writing.

1.      Identify the event or occurrence with as much specificity as possible — the problem to be solved, issues involved, etc. You may not have precise ideas on this when you start writing. Just start writing.

2.       Describe the relevant details and circumstances surrounding the event so that you and the teachers who read your entry will understand what happened. What? When? How? Where?

3.       List the people involved; describe them and their relationship to you and to each other.

4.       Describe your role in the situation — what you did, how you acted.

5.       Analyze the incident. How well or badly did you understand the situation? How did you handle it? What would you do differently the next time? Why?

6.       Analyze this incident in terms of its impact on you and explain why you view it as critical/ How does it relate to your particular objectives? What have you learned from this experience? How has your perspective on yourself been changed and/or reinforced? Where do you go from here?

In spite of the complexity of this sort of writing, your journal entries need not be long or arduous. The importance of this exercise is learning to sift through your experience for what is important in terms of specific objectives you have for yourself. You must edit your writing accordingly.

Journals will be checked periodically by the instructor.

0 points for Philosophy
10 points for English
should be begun by Mon 2/2 required for Service Learning Paper
should be finished by mid-April for Psychology

Doing Service Learning means offering a set number of volunteer service hours to the community through a pre-arranged system. For this learning community, students will be required to offer 25 hours of service to the agency partner of their choice. They will also be required to keep a Service Learning Journal. give a brief oral report on their Service Learning experiences, create a Psychological Inquiry. and write a Philosophical Reflection on their Service Learning. In addition, students must write a Research Paper, and the topic of the Research Paper must be connected In some way to their Service Learning. Guidelines and due dates for the Service Learning Paper for Psychology, the Philosophical Reflection. and the Research Paper will be distributed separately You MUST attend ONE of the "Orientation Sessions for All Service Learning Students" listed on the attached handout. The orientation session will give you more information about Service Learning in general and will help you understand how to contact your agency and get started on your service. The time you spend at this orientation session WILL count towards your 2 5 hours.

To choose your agency. first choose a theme from the following list which interests you.

?community service companionship environmental issues
HIV/AIDS homelessness tutoring / education

After dividing into groups, so that you are with other students who have chosen the same theme, agency information sheets will be distributed to you Choose an agency that you think will work well for you. Please attend one of the "Meet Representatives from Community Organizations" meetings announced on the attached handout if you would like to talk With agency representatives before beginning your service. Please be aware that some of the agencies ask for more service hours that are required for this course. If this is the case with your agency, discuss this with your agency representative and come to an agreement with him/her. In addition, please be aware that some agencies require training for their volunteers. Training time will count towards your 25 hours.

Service Learning Journals provide space for students to record their experiences with service learning. Explore how those experiences can be viewed through the eyes of the various disciplines Of the teaming community, and begin to formulate ideas for their research papers. Journals can be kept In any notebook or binder, but the notebook must be separate from the "writer's notebook!. Students will be required to make at least 10 entries in their Service Learning Journals– approximately one per 2.5 hours of service. Entries should be approximately pale in length (about 250 words). Quality of thought is more Important than quantity. Entries should discuss what was accomplished during the service sessions and should reflect upon the significance of the experience.

Service Learning Oral Reports

0 points for Philosophy
5 points for English
Oral Reports will take place on Mon 3/2, required for Psychology
Mon 4/6, and Mon 4/13
Mon 3/30,

Service Learning Oral Reports provide students the opportunity to share their service learning experiences with their classmates and instructors. Students will sign up for one of the dates listed above. Approximately 6 students will present each day. Oral reports should take approximately 5 minutes and are informal. Possible foci include (but are not limited to): the most Important things learned, the most rewarding experience, the most difficult experience. and the affect of service teaming on the student's plans for the future.

CREATIVITY, WISDOM, & ME

GUIDELINES FOR SERVICE LEARNING PAPER FOR PSYCHOLOGY

This paper consists of a discussion of four different topics in psychology that you found examples of during your service learning experiences and/or during your reflective journaling about those experiences. Since it is based on both your service learning and your journal about your service learning, this paper, as well as the actual service and the journal are all three required for a passing grade.

You may choose any four topics from either the material covered in the textbook, material brought up in class discussions, and/or material you locate from other sources (including chapters in the textbook that are not assigned). Each topic discussion should be one to two paragraphs in length, and should include the following: (1) a clear description/definition and example of the topic; (2) a clear explanation of how it ties into the course; and (3) an explanation of how the service or journal reflection helped you to better understand this topic.

For example, suppose your topic is the James-Lange theory of emotion. You would want to say that the theory attempts to explain the process of emotional response and specifies that the emotion isn't actually felt until the person perceives a physiological response. For example, when a person is about to be hit by a truck, the James-Lange theory would predict that the person wouldn't feel fear until the physiological response to that fear was felt. Perhaps it would tie into your service learning because you worked with someone who had a neck injury and couldn't move or feel anything below the neck. If that person reported not feeling things as intensely since the injury occurred, it could be considered evidence for the theory. You might say that this example helped you understand the theory better because it brought the theory to life and gave you an opportunity to discuss it with someone who had a special insight about it. DUE DATE: Monday, April 27