Campus Compact » Syllabi History, Civics, and Service

Community and Culture

tdomf_26a6d — Fri, 08 Jul 2005 12:47:16 +0000

EWS 475 Community and Culture Winter, 2005

Class Location: Bldg. 66, Room 247

Instructor: Jose Calderon, E-mail: jzcalderon {at} csupomona(.)edu

Office Hours: 2-4 on MW and 1-3 on Tuesday's in Bldg. 5, Room 119

Description of Course

This course examines how multi-racial communities have become mosaics of competing land interests and demographic transformations. This will be achieved through the reading of various articles that combine community and multicultural issues with issues of global, local, and regional development and restructuring; through the study of examples of building community (particularly in Los Angeles county); through class discussions; and through participatory community service and action research. This course will provide students with the opportunity to apply social research to a specific community service site. We will apply the concepts and theories being learned in the classroom to specific sites in the region.

Readings:

John Horton With Jose Calderon, Mary Pardo, Leland Saito, Linda Shaw, and Yen Fen Tseng The Politics of Diversity

Gilda Ochoa, Becoming Neighbors

Community and Culture Reader (Available at Ask Copy and Printing, 3530 Temple Ave. #D in Pomona )

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

This class will be run in a seminar format. Assigned readings will be used as a basis for class discussion and dialogue. Class attendance and participation are expected. In cases of borderline grades, class participation and attendance will be taken into consideration. Assignments need to be turned in on time. Unless there is a crisis emergency, please do not ask for an extension or an incomplete. I will dock points for papers that are turned in late. If all the requirements have not been completed by the end of the semester, a final grade will be given based on the work completed. Papers should be typed, double-spaced, numbered, proofread, and include references.

Students, in this course, are required to be involved in a neighborhood, city, or specific community site (preferably work that involves service to the community). The final paper will allow the student to write about what has been learned in the site. It is also meant to connect what has been learned in the field to the readings and to other literature.

Materials: Purchase a three ring binder to hold your typed field notes. You may take down jottings at your site, but these should be used to produce final field notes that are placed in your binder. At mid-term and the end of the semester, you will turn in your typed filed notes.

Grades Will Be Allocated as Follows:

Participation 20%

Cultural group Presentation on Readings 20%

Field Note Journal 30%

Final Paper and presentation 30%

1.) Participation – Weekly attendance in the class and at least two hours per week of field work at a community service or research site are required for the course. 20% of your final grade will be based on your field work at the site, class attendance, completion of the readings for each class, and your participation in weekly discussions.

2. ) Learning Through Creativity, the use of Cultural Mediums, and Critical Analysis

During the semester, each student will work with a group and facilitate a class presentation and discussion on a section of the assigned readings. The presentation segment should use a creative medium or combinations of mediums (i. e. video, theater, art, music, collage, dance, rap, poetry, etc.). The presentation should include : 1. the primary connecting arguments or themes in the readings 2. the literature or data used to sustain the arguments (and particularly any problems or holes in the data) 3. your evaluation of the author's arguments 4. the meaning or usefulness that the material has for your lived experience or for the particular site that you are involved in Remember, the class presentation will be carried out collectively in a group. Data from your particular site will be welcomed for this presentation.

In your presentation, Do not merely summarize the argument of the author/s but develop your own thinking and criticality about what the author/s are saying. (20%).

4.) Fieldnote Journal and Site Visit Analyses

Transforming Communities Seminar

tdomf_26a6d — Thu, 09 Jun 2005 15:02:20 +0000

WASHINGTON SEMESTER PROGRAM

American University

Professor Katharine Kravetz

Office Phone: (202) 895-4931

Home Phone: (202) 686-0247

E-mail: kkravet {at} american(.)edu

TRANSFORMING COMMUNITIES SEMINAR SYLLABUS

GOVT-417-001T and 418-001T or JLS-464-001T and 465-001T

All human existence throughout history, from ancient Eastern and Western societies up through the present day, has strived toward community, toward coming together.

Consequences of War

tdomf_26a6d — Tue, 24 May 2005 11:22:28 +0000

What This Course Is About
Between June 24h and June 30th, 1916, the British army fired 1,500,000 high explosive shells at German forces dug in along the Somme front-roughly 120 shells per football field's worth. The next day, July 1, 1916, the artillery fired hundreds of thousands more shells to cover the advance of wave after wave of British troops against untouched German machine guns. By the time the fighting fizzled out for the winter, 419,654 British and almost 200,000 French soldiers were casualties; German casualties are still uncertain eighty years later. Throughout the pre-attack bombardment, Britons on the eastern coast of England could hear the dull rumble of the guns, and for the next months they listened day and night to the guns as they went about their daily chores, while hundreds of thousands of their children, brothers, husbands, lovers, and friends died.

Today, the First Battle of the Somme is history: a distant, boiled down, desiccated "event," a symbol of slaughter or military incompetence, just another item in a lumpen category labeled "old battles." The tonnages of shells fired and the numbers of men involved figure in scholarly discussions of the industrialization of war, in accounting-like exercises weighing German vs. Allied resources, and in postdicting the outcome of World War I as a conflict for hegemonic dominance.

Yet at the same time, the guns of the Somme echo through our lives still today. Just listen to the opening lines of T. S. Eliot's "The Waste Land," which are set in the Somme trenches of spring, 1917, where the thawing of the frozen mud pushed forth the bones ("dull roots" and "dried tubers") of those killed the previous year:

April is the cruelest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
Winter kept us warm, covering
Earth in forgetful snow, feeding
A little life with dried tubers.

More prosaically, the Somme and, by extension, World War I brought women into the industrial work force as never before (their skin stained bright yellow by the explosive in those millions of shells), made women's suffrage irresistible, and brought labor into party politics. Together, these echoes of the guns of the Somme-to say nothing of the consequences of the mass slaughter on those who survived it and those who merely heard it in process when the wind blew in off the English Channel-fundamentally changed gender relations and class relations in Great Briton, and so too the meaning of British citizenship.

In America, World War I-and before it the Spanish American War and the Indian Wars and the Civil War and the War of 1812 and the War of Independence-and after it World War II and the Korean War and the Vietnam War and the Gulf War-also fundamentally changed gender relations and class relations and the meaning of citizenship. Indeed, the world we live in today at the end of the 204' Century is incomprehensible without reference to the wars that we have made and that have made us. What would our economy and class structure be without the educational investment of the World War 11 GI Bill of Rights? What would race relations be without the Korean War integration of the armed forces? How different would our politics be without the disillusionment bred of the Vietnam War? How would the women's movement have developed differently without the experiences of the Vietnam anti-war movement to draw on? How much poorer would our lives be without The Naked and the Dead, The Bridges of Toko Ri, Paco's Story and In the Lake of the Woods? How much less colorful would our language be without "snafla," "catch-22," "wasted," "lit up," "let's crank" and "shit happens"? And where would we be without Country Joe and the Fish?

This course is about these, the consequences of war and, in particular, the consequences of World War 11, Korea, Vietnam and the Gulf for America today. In any number of political science and history courses at Rutgers, you can learn about the causes of these specific wars or of war in general. This course will therefore largely ignore what these wars were "about" and concentrate instead on three related questions and one major theme: How have America's recent wars affected social mobility and changed class relations? How have they changed race relations? How have they changed gender relations? And, combining all these, how have they changed the basic meaning of citizenship in American and what it means to be an American?

How We Are Going To Answer Our Big Questions?
As important as what this course is about is how we are going to study it. Since this affects you perhaps even more that the subject matter itself, I suggest you read the following carefully. If this course-as is-appeals to you, please stay. If it doesn't-and I would be the first to admit that it isn't for everyone-please leave. There is no shame in transferring to another 395; the department offers lots. But if you do choose to stay, the following description of how we will precede, how the course will be organized and course requirements is the contract between us.

This is not a "normal" course. In my mind, a normal course has four critical characteristics: (1) each student must work alone on pain of expulsion; (2) the professor is an expert in the subject and has the final say; (3) the course begins from the general and abstract and only slowly, if ever, works down to the concrete; and (4) students' primary activities involve listening to what the professor has to say, reading what other experts have to say and, to the extent that they do research, compiling other people's answers to the questions the professor poses. This is not the kind of course I want to teach.
Consequences of War inverts these four defining characteristics of a normal course. First, I will require you to work together in groups. There will be a series of individual assignments ultimately worth 40% of your grade, but many of these will be about your group and the bulk of your grade-60%–will be a collective, group grade. Second, I am not an expert in the subject, and indeed intend to learn about it through your original research. Third, we will start-and perhaps finish-at the most concrete level, as from one end to the other, this course will involve the collection and analysis of the data from three New Brunswick families each of which was deeply involved in World War II, Korea, Vietnam and the Gulf War. You will conduct oral history interviews, collect letters and photographs, trace these families moves from home to home, read high school yearbooks, listen to lots of "golden oldies," skim yellowing newspapers, watch old movies, etc., etc. Finally, the product of these efforts will be not a regurgitation of what others have said, but instead a data collection for other researchers to mine. Specifically, you will: (1) prepare a multimedia family history for the family you work with; and (2) create a multimedia website on the Internet on which you will post all your data (photos, letters, interview transcripts, video clips, music, etc.).

The CASE Component
This course is a CASE course offered as part of the Rutgers Citizenship and Service Education (CASE) Program. As a CASE course, Consequences of War can be taken only if you also register for 790:399:03 (Index no. 21054), a 1 -credit for community service add-on. For this one credit, you will be required to attend CASE orientation and do 40 hours of community service with an approved CASE Community Partner (e.g., the Vet Center, a VA hospital, the New Jersey Vietnam Era Educational Center). (Placement options will be discussed on the first day of class.) In addition to working at your site, you will have service-related writing assignments (see Organization, Requirements and Grading below) and, as you will see from the syllabus, many of our class sessions will be devoted to discussing your service experiences.

CASE courses are designed to teach you not only a subject, but the knowledge, skills and mental orientation to make you an engaged and effective citizen. Given that Consequences of War is about going to war-which many define as the ultimate requirement of citizenship-about how going to war has changed essential features of the American system and about the very meaning of citizenship itself, it is a natural CASE course.

CASE courses are also designed as "active learning" courses, that is, as courses in which you learn by doing, not merely reading. Again, Consequences of War is a natural CASE course, as you will see in the next section and in the following section: Rationale, Or Why Do I Bother With All This?

Organization, Requirements and Grading: The details of how the class as a whole will work, as well as what is expected of you-and why-will be spelled out in class. In brief, however, let me note the critical points here:

1. CASE Component: As a student in a CASE course, you are required to: (1) register for 790:399:03; (2) attend the mandatory 3 hour CASE orientation on Saturday September 13 at 8:30 AM or 12:30 PM; (3) complete and submit all required CASE paperwork (Student Information Sheet, Service-Learning Contract, etc.) on time; (4)complete at least 40 hours of service by November 24 and submit a time sheet signedby your site supervisor as proof (Pass/Fail, personal grade)

2. CASE Component: You will be required to keep a daily journal of your service work. Entries will in part respond to questions I pose for reflection and in part will recordyour own responses to your service site and experience. Journal entries will be handedin weekly on Wednesdays, beginning Wed. September 24. As soon as our courseWebsite is up, all journal entries will be posted no later than Wednesday on any given(10% of your final grade, personal grade)
CASE Component: On designated days (see syllabus) and whenever otherwise appropriate, al] or a portion of our class time will be devoted to reflection of your work experience, journal entries and the related questions of class, gender, race and citizenship that are the subject matter of this course.

4.Course Component: In the first few weeks of the semester, I will assign a series of"mini-essays" (500 words maximum) that will involve either reflection on big, philosophical questions or careful analysis of data I will supply (dates and subjects as-signed). (10% of your final grade, personal grade)

5. Course Component: The major "output" of this course will be three multimedia familyhistories and a Consequences of War Website on the Internet. For these purposes, youwill be divided arbitrarily into three groups. Each group, as a group, will be assignedto work with one family, will be responsible for creating a family history for that fam-ily, and for one third of the materials posted on the course Website. How you decidewho is responsible for doing what is up to you, but each group will submit just oneproject and all group members will receive exactly the same grade for it. (60% of yourfinal grade, group grade)

6.Course Component: Because group work is an essential part of this course, and a capacity to work in a team is an essential life skill that doesn't come naturally, you will have a series of short group dynamics assessments to complete during the semester (dates and exercises assigned). These are designed to teach you how to observe, analyze and improve group interaction. (10% of your final grade, personal grade)

7. Course Component: Your being a good group member (responsible, on time, hard working, creative) is essential to your group's success, and being a good member of a Community Partner's team (responsible, on time, hard working, polite, self-starting) is essential to your CP's ability to serve people in need. The quality of your participation in your group and at work will therefore be assessed by the other members of your group and by your site supervisor. (10% of your final grade, personal grade)

CASE orientation and hours (individual grade) P/F
CASE journal and CP evaluation (individual grade) 10%
Mini-essays (individual grade) 10%
Group dynamics assessments (individual grade) 10%
Participation (individual, assigned by rest of group
and CASE site supervisor) 10%
Final project (group grade) 60%

NB: Registration peculiarities aside, Consequences of War is, in effect, a single, 4-credit course and you will receive the same grade for both pieces, a grade that reflects your performance on all requirements. If you fail to attend orientation or to complete your hours, you will receive a T/F for both 395 and 399. Likewise, your site supervisor's evaluation of your service will figure in your final, combined grade for 395 and 399.

Rationale, Or Why Do I Bother With All This? It is no accident that I teach my course the way I do. In fact, I have worked long and hard to develop this particular organization. I will explain at length in class, but again, let me outline the basics here.

I believe that I have a responsibility to teach three distinct, but related things: knowledge, skills, and attitude. Specifically, in this course:

Knowledge: I want to make sure that at the end of the semester you know something about the consequences of war, about class, gender and race in America, and about the meaning of citizenship in this country at the end of the 20th century. Now, from a teaching point of view, the problem is that no one learns much sitting passively listening to lecture after lecture. Learning takes place only when you have to engage the material directly. This is why I have constructed this course this way. Rather than presenting you with theories and facts, neatly pre-blended, I want you to search out the facts, actually create data where there was ignorance, while at the same time exploring the available literature and picking it over for what is useful to you in your research.

Skills: I want to make sure that at the end of the semester you have improved your
critical thinking, writing, public speaking, team work, and Internet skills, all of which
will be essential when you venture forth into the "real world."

I . Thinking: Making good arguments is hard work; it requires learning how to assess your position and that of the other side, how to identify the grounds on which tocompare and contrast the two, how to weigh evidence, and how to construct acompelling case for your preferred position while fairly representing the alterna-tives. You can learn these skills only by exercising them-a lot-and this is whywe will spend much of the semester arguing with each other about what you thinkyou are finding and what you think it means.

2. Writing: Good writing also doesn't come naturally; it too requires a lot of practiceand often a lot of second effort. This is why I require lots of mini-essays andweekly journal submissions, to say nothing of multiple drafts of your final proj-ects-and why I not only permit but encourage rewrites. And while this will spoilmany a nice Saturday for me, it is a good thing for you because there is no way tolearn to write except to write and rewrite.

3. Speaking: Like it or not, you will all have to make public presentations in your professional lives-but like good thinking and good writing, good public speakingskills don't come naturally. They have to be learned, and they can be learned onlyby doing. This is why this course requires that you spend most of your time interviewing people of different backgrounds, working at your CASE placement and debating in class. It is also why I require everyone to participate, no exceptions. I wouldn't think of excusing one of you from writing papers, because you have to learn how to write, and I therefore wouldn't think of excusing one of you from interviewing or serving or participating in class, because you have to learn how to speak in public.

4. Team Work: An ability to collaborate with or even organize a work team is per-haps the single most important job skill we all need. But there is an irony here: while we do not teach you how to work together and call collaborative workcheating, business leaders tell us that our graduates' biggest weakness is that theydon't know how to work in teams. This is why I require you to work in arbitrarilyassigned groups. Working effectively in a group, especially in a group of strangers,is hard and can be learned only the hard way-by doing. I know how hard it is towork in these groups, to get along with some group members, to deal with freeriders, even to schedule group meetings. But while I sympathize with your frustrations, I also know how essential it is in my own life that I know how to handle allthese difficulties, because I must do so day in and day out, just as you will have to,day in and day out, in your own working lives.

5. Internet: Finally, folks, let's face it, the Internet is "where it's at," as we used to say in the 60s. But while everybody talks about it, and many of you in the MTV generation are fearless Internet surfers, few have any real experience in using theInternet either to conduct research or to share it. In this course, therefore, we will,together, learn a lot about the Internet, in part with instruction from experts at Al-exander Library, but largely by doing. And just to keep us all honest, I would re-mind you that our Consequences of War Website will be out there on the Net forthe whole world to see, warts and all!

6. Attitude: Knowledge and skills are fine, indeed essential, but insufficient. The most important thing I have to teach-and the hardest thing to teach-is attitude. And in this class, I want to concentrate on two attitudes in particular: an attitude toward yourself and an attitude toward others.

1. Sense of self: Although we surely don't intend to, too often at Rutgers (and at colleges across the country) we discount our students' potential and even actively discourage our students from taking daring, creative initiatives. Too often, the structure of our courses and the assignments we give not only assume that students can't be creative, but even bar creativity. I've decided to gamble on you, and to turn things around. I have therefore left this course and even the core project you will undertake largely unstructured and undefined. I can encourage you-and I will certainly push you-but I can't actually teach you this critical "can do" attitude, this essential belief that the only limit to your life is the limit of your imagination. But I have, to the best of my ability, set this course up to give you the chance to develop it on your own!

2. Citizenship: Without meaning to be cute, citizenship is a state of mind. Being a "good" citizen requires that you possess essential knowledge about your community and essential skills related to working effectively in and for your community. But the essence of citizenship is an attitude, a habit of the heart, a reflexive sense of connectedness to others. Too many Americans today, including us-you and me-haven't got enough of this critical feeling. Again, we can and will study citizenship, talk about citizenship, and write about citizenship, but the habits of the heart that are citizenship are only learned by doing. And therefore, in this class, I am going to send you out to do citizenship.

I know that this seems like a lot. I know that I expect a lot that other professors do not. But I also believe very strongly that you need to know all this stuff, and this is the most effective way I have figured out of teaching it. So again, if you do not agree, or would prefer a more traditional research seminar, unencumbered by all the CASE, writing, public speaking, Internet and group work requirements I impose, you should not take this course. If you elect to stay, however, you are signing up for the whole package, no exceptions.

Course Etiquette: Some simple rules of etiquette apply in all my classrooms and courses. First, each and every student in my classroom is owed a common respect. My classroom is a safe place in which every student may feel free to do their best without fear that he or she will be put down by anyone. Put differently, I will not abide by dis's, mockery, slurs or any such. Second, while I believe in vigorous debate and the highest possible intellectual standards, I also believe very strongly in fairness. As I will tell you over and over, I believe that the measure of your argument is how fairly you present-and then demolish opposing arguments.

Reading Assignments: There are very few assigned readings in this class, but all assigned readings are required. Readings must be prepared for the date assigned, as they will be the topic of discussion. Those marked with an (*) are available for purchase at the Douglass Cooperative Bookstore. All readings are on reserve at the Douglass Library.

Advising: I will do my best to keep an eye on you and to call you out if I think you look like you need help; but there are more of you than me. It is therefore up to you to come to me if you need help-on anything. I come to class early in order to be available to talk. I have regular office hours. If you have course conflicts, I can arrange alternative meeting times, just ask. And don't be shy. Advising is part of my job! I am happy to help you with course stuff, with planning your future, internships, picking a graduate school, and with navigating the Rutgers bureaucracy. Perhaps most important, I'm a good listener if you need someone safe to talk to, and I can help you find help if you need it.

Course Outline
September 3: Introduction: What this course is about, what you are going to produce and how. CASE and the CASE component. An opportunity for the disinclined to bail out.
Exercise: To be assigned in class.

September 8: What's citizenship? Who is how much of a citizen? Why am I a citizen?
Readings: D. Michael Shafer, ed., The Vietnam War in the American Imagination chapters 1, 4, 6, 10 and 11.
Exercise: To be assigned in class.

September 10: Workshop on Teamwork
Exercise: To be assigned in class.

September 15: Library Orientation 1: Review of basic library research techniques and resources, introduction to electronic data sources, databases, census data, etc.
Exercise: To be assigned in class.

September 17: Project Planning Session: Brainstorming about the variety of materials and approaches to them.
Exercise: To be assigned in class.

September 22: Library Orientation II: Introduction to Internet resources and to Rutgers' Special Collections.
Exercise: To be assigned in class.

September 24: CASE reflection and first impressions of families
NB: First journal entries due.
Exercise: To be assigned in class.

September 29: Introduction to Oral History
Readings: Donald A. Ritchie, Doing Oral History, entire.
James West Davidson and Mark Hamilton Lytle, After the Fact: The
Art of Historical Detection Chapter 7.
Rutgers Oral History Archives: Interviews with Roland Winter and
William Bauer.
To be assigned in class.

October 1: Workshop on Teamwork
Journal entry due.
Exercise: To be assigned in class.

October 6: Project Planning Session: Brainstorming about the variety of materials
and approaches to them.
Exercise: To be assigned in class.

October 8: Project Planning Session: Brainstorming about the basic structure of
the final project in print and on the Web.
Journal entry due.
Exercise: To be assigned in class.

October 13: Race: Seminar on war and race in America taught by the race group.
Readings: To be assigned by race group.
Exercise: To be assigned in class.

October 15: Gender: Seminar on war and gender in America taught by gender group.
Journal entry due.
Exercise: To be assigned in class.
Readings: To be assigned by gender group.

October 20: Creating Webpages I (Workshop):
Exercise: To be assigned in class.

October 22: Creating Webpages (Getting Started)
Journal entry due.
Exercise: To be assigned in class.

October 27: Class: Seminar on war and class in America taught by class group.
Readings: To be assigned by class group.
Exercise: To be assigned in class.

October 29: Mid-Term Assessment and Course Correction: Reports by each group about how things are going, where the projects are, what is and isn't realistic, etc.
N-B: First journal entries to be posed on Web.
Exercise: To be assigned in class.

November 3: On demand feeding; working session.
Exercise: To be assigned in class.

November 5: On demand feeding; working session; CASE reflection.
Journal entries posted on Web.

November 10: On demand feeding; working session.
Exercise: To be assigned in class.

November 12: On demand feeding; working session; CASE reflection.
Journal entry posted on Web.

November 17: On demand feeding; working session
Exercise: To be assigned in class.

November 19: On demand feeding; working session; CASE reflection.
Journal entries posted on Web.

November 24: On demand feeding; working session.
Exercise: To be assigned in class.

November 26: No class. Friday Schedule.
Journal entries posted on Web.

December 1: Race Group Presentation

December 3: Gender Group Presentation
NB: Final, reflective and summarizing journal entry posted on Web.

December 8: Class Group Presentation

December 10: Conclusion
Commentary

Public History

tdomf_26a6d — Mon, 23 May 2005 13:40:40 +0000

History 431, section 400
T, TH 4:35 to 5:50
346 MARB

gary daynes
175 TMCB
422-9392
gdaynes {at} byu(.)edu
Office hours: TBA

Introduction

Most classes at BYU are subject-matter classes.

Leadership in Learning Communities: A Course in the Fall 2004 Freshman Academy

tdomf_26a6d — Wed, 18 May 2005 11:37:41 +0000

Student Development 158R
Fall Semester 2004

Download this syllabus as 84 K PDF.

The Social Protest Novel

tdomf_26a6d — Mon, 01 Nov 2004 00:00:00 +0000

Institution: Sonoma State University
Discipline: English
Title: The Social Protest Novel
Instructor: Tim Wandling

The Social Protest Novel

Professor Timothy Wandling Phone: 664 2796
Office: N362A 0ffice Hours: M 10 12, Th 1 3
Email: wandling {at} sonoma(.)edu
Class list: engl4721 {at} sonoma(.)edu

Key questions and goals:
To study and understand activist writing.
To practice and participate in activist work and writing.
To understand the ways writers speak to audiences.
To examine the place in literary history of social protest literature.
To analyze this literature effectively.
To reflect upon the literature with reference to your own life and times.
To make a difference in your local community.
To participate.

Requirements:

Comparison and contrast essay (due 2/27): 250 points

Service Learning project (See handout): Due 5/13 150 pts

Reflective Journal (ongoing) 100 pts

A 3-5 page piece of your own activist writing (4/24) 250 points

Attendance, participation. 100 points

In class quizzes and writing (on going) 200 points

Service Learning Component:
In order to accomplish several of the above requirements, you will work closely with one of the following organizations. We will continually examine the role writers (that means YOU and the writers we will study) play in bringing about change or raising awareness in global, national, and local communities.

St. Joseph's Health System: Contact: Dory Magasis Escobar, 547 2289 Mission: To continue to improve the health and quality of life of the people in the communities they serve. You will work as and with neighborhood organizations working for social change.

Family Connection: Contact: Bonnie Shand Mission: To support families as they transition from Homelessness to permanent housing. You will work with and on mentoring/support teams for such families. Commitment is yearlong.

Scheduled Readings for the Social Problem Novel
Finish reading by date in parenthesis.

Rebecca Harding Davis, "Life in the Iron Mills" (2/4)
"Jonathan Swift, "A Modest Proposal" (2/11)
Thomas Carlyle "Condition of England Question" (2/13)
Elizabeth Gaskell, Mia Barton (2/18)
"Chartist Poetry", selections (2/25)
Charles Dickens, Hard Times (2/27)
Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin (3/11)
Melville "Bartleby" and Thoreau, "Civil Disobedience" (3/20)
Emile Zola, Germinal (3/25)
Choice: Upton Sinclair, The Jungle OR Jack London, Martin Eden OR George Gissing, The Nether World (4/15)
Choice: John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath OR Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man (4/24)
Studs Terkel, selections form Hard Times (5/1)
Alice Walker, The Color Purple (5/6)
Choice: Barbara Kingsolver, The Poisonwood Bible OR Barbara Ehrenreich, Nickel and Dimed (5/15)

Homelessness in America: An Exploration of Poverty, Human Services and Social Change

tdomf_26a6d — Mon, 01 Nov 2004 00:00:00 +0000

HOMELESSNESS IN AMERICA: AN EXPLORATION OF POVERTY, HUMAN SERVICES, AND SOCIAL CHANGE

Mary Lou Finley, Ph.D., instructor

Wednesday evenings, 7-9:30 p.m.
Antioch University Seattle
Credits: 4 (3 or 5 by arrangement)

COURSE INTENTION

It is the intention of this course to provide a framework for seeking to understand the root causes of the expansion of homelessness in the U.S. during the last 20 years, to convey a sense of the experience of homelessness and its consequences, and to explore efforts to meet the immediate needs of the homeless as well as advocate for long term change which can prevent homelessness.

LEARNING GOALS

1. To gain a greater understanding of the paths to homelessness.
2. To understand how homelessness is related to larger social and economic forces in U.S. society of the 1980s, 1990s, and in the new decade ahead.
3. To gain an experience of and a "feel for" the situation of homeless people in order to have one's own observations to compare to the rhetoric of public debate and to use as a basis for clarifying one's own values and commitments.
4. To understand the services which have been developed to assist people who are homeless and to begin to develop one's own analysis of what is needed
5. To develop skills in critical thinking about social issues and social policy, and to apply those skills to questions related to homelessness.
6. To develop skills in thinking as a social scientist about social issues.

READINGS FOR THE COURSE:

Liebow, Elliot. Tell, Them Who I Am: The Lives of Homeless Women. New York. Penguin Books, 1995 (1993).

Baumohl, Jim (ed.) for the National Coalition for the Homeless. Homelessness in America. Phoenix: Oryx Press, 1996.

Vanderstaay, Steven. Street Lives: An Oral History of Homeless Americans. Gabriola Is, BC: New Society Publishers, 1992. (NOTE: Selections from this book are being reprinted and will be available in class. The book is out of print.)

Real Change (Jan and Feb. issues ), the Seattle homeless newspaper. (Please buy your own copy from a street vendor or from the Real Change office, 2129 2nd Avenue.)

Optional Reading in the Library:

Snow, David and M. Gerald Bradford (eds.) Broadening Perspectives on Homelessness (special issue), American Behavioral Scientist, Vol. 37 No. 4, February, 1994.

Joanne Passaro, The Unequal Homeless: Men on the Streets, Women in Their Place. New York and London: Routledge, 1996

COURSE OUTLINE

INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW

#1 – Jan. 5

Review of syllabus and course goals
Discussion of definitions of homelessness
Who are the homeless?
Approaching homelessness from the sociological perspective; C. Wright Mills: "personal troubles and public issues"
Analysis Vision Strategy
(no reading)

THE EXPERIENCE OF HOMELESSNESS

#2 – Jan. 12 – DAY TO DAY LIFE (and an overview of homelessness)

Routines of daily living
Work and family
Gender and race differences among the homeless

Reading:
E. Liebow, Tell Them Who I Am: Preface, Intro., Ch. 1 3
Ch 2 in Homelessness in America: Martha Burt: "Definitions and Counts"

Optional Reading:
Ch 1 in Homelessness in America: Kim Hopper and Jim Baumohl, "Redefining the Cursed Word: A Historical Interpretation of American Homelessness,"

#3 – Jan. 19: SURVIVAL AND SUPPORT: SHELTERS, SERVICES, COMMUNITY

Homeless shelters as a human services response
Social support and community among homeless people
The limits of "shelterization"

Reading:
-E. Liebow, Tell Them Who I Am: Ch 4 6.
In Street Lives: Tray Casey, pp 16 17.
-In Homelessness in America:
Ch 8, David Now, et. al. "Material Survival Strategies on the Street: Homeless People as Bricoleurs" pp 86 96
Ch. 15 Maria Foscarinis, "The Federal Response: The Stewart B. McKinney Homeless Assistance Act"

Optional Reading:
-Ch 16 in Homelessness in America: Vicki Watson: "Responses by the States to Homelessness"

PATHS TO HOMELESSNESS: HOUSING, INCOME, FAMILY AND PERSONAL VULNERABILITY

#4 – Jan. 26 HOUSE AND HOME: THE DECLINE OF LOW INCOME HOUSING AND ADVOCACY EFFORTS FOR THE HOMELESS

The decline of low income housing: displacement and gentrification.
Public housing and government policies
Subsidizing housing for the poor
'80s and '90s organizing efforts
Race and ethnic differences in homelessness

Reading:
In Homelessness in America:
Ch 3: Paul Koegel et al., "The Causes of Homelessness" pp. 24 33.
Ch 4: Cushing Dolbeare, "Housing Policy, A General Consideration," 34 45.
Ch 7: L. Aron and T.J. Fitchen, "Rural Homelessness: A Synopsis", pp 81 85.
Ch. 11: Kim Hopper and Norweeta Milburn, "Homelessness Among African Americans: A Historical and Contemporary Perspective."
Ch 12: Susan Gonzales Baker, Homelessness and the Latino Paradox" pp 132 140.
In Street Lives: Batman, pp 8 9 and Tanya, pp 21 22
Article from The Weekly of Dec 23. 1999: Nina Shapiro, "Public Housing's Bright New Face" (Library)

Optional Reading
G. Blasi. "And we are not seen: ideological and political barriers to understanding homelessness". American Behavioral Scientist pp. 563 586. (Library)

#5 – Feb. 2 – INCOME, JOBS, AND FAMILY SUPPORT

Changing nature of jobs in America
Special problems of young workers
Changing distribution of income in the U.S.
Welfare "reform" and its potential impact on homelessness
Race and poverty in the US
Family relationships and support

Reading:
In Homelessness in America:
Ch 5. Bristow Hardin, "Why the Road off the Street is Not Paved with Jobs", pp. 46 62.
Ch 6: M. Greenberg and J. Baumohl, "Income Maintenance; Little Help Now, Less on the Way." pp. 63 77.
Ch. 19 Rob Rosenthal. 'Dilemmas of Local Anti homelessness Movements." pp 201 212.
In Street Lives:
Ch 2: Work and Its Discontents pp29 48

Optional reading
Ch 2 and 3 "House and Home" and "Beyond the Panopticon: the Nuclear Family, Men and Social Control" in Joanne
Passaro, The Unequal Homeless (Library)

#6 – Feb 9. – PERSONAL VULNERABILITIES AND HOMELESSNESS: MENTAL HEALTH, ADDICTIONS, HEALTH PROBLEMS and FAMILY VIOLENCE

Deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill: relation to homelessness
Drug and alcohol addictions among the homeless
Health problems: cause or consequence of homelessness?
Battering within relationships as a route to homelessness
Battered women's shelter movement
Street youth: family abuse, disruption
Legal issues of homeless youth

Reading:
In Homelessness in America:
Ch 17: Deirdre Oakley and Deborah Dennis, "Responding to the Needs of Homeless People with Alcohol, Drug, or
Mental Disorders," pp. 179 186.
Ch 9 R. Rosenheck et al., "Homeless Veterans", pp. 97 108.
In Street Lives:
DanieI 30 132; Sherry 144 146; Ron 147 149: Marsha 168 169; Lana 84 88; Martin 89 91.

Optional Reading:
Ch 4 from The Unequal Homeless: Men on the Streets, Women in their Place by Joanne Passaro, (Library)

#7 – Feb 16: PUBLIC ATTITUDES, CIVIL LIBERTIES, AND THE HOMELESS IN PUBLIC SPACE

Controversies over the homeless in public space
Seattle issues: panhandling, parks, tent city
Public attitudes toward the homeless; politics and attitudes

Reading:
In Homelessness in America:
Ch. 14 Harry Simon, "Regulation of the Homeless in Public Space", pp 149 159.
Ch 13 Bruce Link et al., "Public Attitudes and Beliefs About Homeless People", pp 143 148
Feb 1 issue of Real Change

Optional Reading:
-Giuliani's policies for the homeless in New York City: articles in the New York Times; search the internet for recent developments

SPECIAL (OPTIONAL) SESSION – Thurs. Feb 17: FIELD TRIP TO LEGISLATURE IN OLYMPIA FOR HOUSING LOBBY DAY

Current public policy issues regarding housing and homelessness

SPECIAL TOPIC: FAMILIES AND CHILDREN

#8 – Feb 23: HOMELESS FAMILIES AND THE EFFECTS OF HOMELESSNESS ON CHILDREN

Emotional and health issues
Educational issues
Approaches to educating homeless children
Homeless families and the child welfare system: The Washington State class action suit and the Homeless Families Plan

Reading:
In Homelessness in America
Marybeth Shinn and Beth Weitzman "Homeless Families Are Different", pp 109 122.
In Street Lives: Chapter 8 Families 157 182

SUMMING UP

#9 – Mar 2: FOSTERING CHANGE: POLITICS, POLICY, AND GRASSROOTS

What kinds of changes are needed?
Where can we go to seek for workable ideas for change?:
America politics and the dilemmas of homelessness
What kind of advocacy?

Reading:
E. Liebow, Tell Them Who I Am Ch. 7, pp. 223 234.
In Homelessness in America
Ch 18 Eric Lindblom, "Preventing Homelessness", pp 187 200
In Street Lives
Ch 9. "Solutions", 183 223
Real Change mid Feb or early March issue

Optional Reading:
K. Hopper and J. Baumohl, "Held in abeyance: rethinking homelessness and advocacy." in American Behavioral Scientist 522 552. (Library)

#10 – Mar 9: REPORTS FROM STUDENT PROJECTS

(No reading)

DEMONSTRATION AND ASSESSMENT OF LEARNING
1. Reading and class participation

Students are expected to do the reading for the course and come to class prepared to discuss it. Class discussion is an important part of the course. We will sometimes use small groups, and it will be important to be familiar with the readings in order to fully participate.

2. Summary and critique of one reading

Everyone will be asked to pick one of the more advanced articles (e.g., those from the professional literature) and make a 10 minute presentation on it to the class.

This should include a summary of the article's main points and a brief critique of it (e.g., your ideas about what is most important about the article and what you didn't like about it, what you see as its weaknesses). The intention is that your summary can serve as a springboard for class discussion.

3. Interpretive essays

Two short (4 5 page) interpretive essays will be expected for the course. These will allow you to synthesize and reflect on material from the readings and class discussions.

DUE: Feb 2 and Feb 23

4. Individual or collaborative project

This can be either (a) a service learning project or (b) a research project which involves collecting data in the community. A report on this project should be written into a 7 10 page paper and also summarized in a class presentation during the last week of the quarter.

(a) Service learning
In this project you are encouraged to find an agency or organization providing services to the homeless or working on issues relevant to this course. You will be asked to spend some time working as a volunteer for the organization, in a way which will provide a good learning experience for you (about 10 hours over the course of the quarter).

For your project, write a paper on what you have learned from this experience. Your learning may be both content and skills oriented: that is, what did you learn about homelessness about the people involved, the institutional contexts in which they find themselves; and what skills did you develop, what did you learn about your own interests, strengths, and capacities in this context.

We will have some skill building sessions in class on reflecting on what you are learning as an aid in this process.

I have some suggestions about places which would welcome volunteers. However, you may also wish to seek out places in your own community.

(b) Small research project:

For this option, you should select a research topic relevant to the ideas in the class and interview one or two people to collect information on it. You may also need to collect some written information, though this should not be primarily a library research paper. Prepare a paper to write up your results.

Either of these could be collaborative projects among two or more members of the class.

DUE: January 12: A paragraph describing what you would like. to do for your project.

DUE: March 9 : a paper (7 10 pages) describing the results of your service learning or research.

It is my hope that this project will allow you to explore some aspects of homelessness which are new to you, and which you will find challenging. If you haven't had any experience with homeless people or organizations, I would encourage you to choose something which will expose you to this world. If you have already been working with the homeless, I would encourage you to do something which will allow you to stand back and think more clearly about what it all means and what needs to be done: perhaps interview some key policy makers or activists, or do phone interviews with key people working at a national level on some aspects of the problem.

A FINAL NOTE:
I would like for you to think about what you would like to get out of this class, and to work with me to be sure that you have a plan for accomplishing your goals in the context of the goals for the class. The class will surely have students with varying degrees of familiarity with this subject, and what works for one might not be appropriate for another. It is my hope that within the framework of the class you will be able to find a way to pursue your particular interests and develop your own thinking and your own skills.

SUGGESTIONS FOR WRITING PAPERS FOR SERVICE LEARNING AND RESEARCH PROJECTS

SERVICE LEARNING PROJECTS

In writing about your service learning project, the goal is to briefly describe what you did and then to describe what you learned from this activity. I would expect that your learning will relate in some way to the goals of the class (though there may be rare circumstances in which the major learning is of another sort.)

1. Description of what you did:

Consider including information on topics such as these:

Where were you working? Describe the organization and the part of it you were most associated with.

Why did you choose this organization? does it have a particular appeal to you, or do you see its approach as particularly compelling for some reason?
What type of population is served by this setting?

What did you expect to do when you decided to go to this organization? Did the plan for your activities change when you were actually there?
Who did you work with? Clients? Other volunteers? Staff?

2. What did you learn?

You, can think of this work and learning as similar to a small pilot research project. While you will have a limited amount of "data" to draw conclusions from, go ahead and suggest what you have learned even from this limited information. Often in these initial insights and hunches are the seeds for ideas which could be pursued later and which may prove to be important.

The following are meant to suggest possible areas to write about; pick and choose among them, or identify your own.

Possible areas of learning:

- the daily life and routines of people you studied
- the ways the people adapt to their situations (or rebel against them
- the causes of their situation
- description of the community project
- how is this program or project addressing the needs of the people?
- how would you judge the effectiveness of the program or project?

Reflection on what you learned:

Whatever the topic of your learning, consider what this new learning means to you and what implications it has. For example, you could consider questions such as:

*Did what you learned confirm what you had previously expected or was it a surprise? (Compare with any relevant readings; look for confirmation or contrasts).
*Did this learning raise new questions for you? What are they? What might need further exploration?
*What implications does this have for social policy?
*What implications does this learning have for you personally or your future pursuits?

Mississippi as a Social Laboratory: Integrating Intensive Reading, Critical Thinking, and Field Experiences as Civic Education and Academic Mission – A Colloquium

tdomf_26a6d — Mon, 28 Jun 2004 00:00:00 +0000

Summer/Fall 2004

Introduction

People and places in the Deep South

Brown v. the Board of Education: Before and After

tdomf_26a6d — Sat, 01 May 2004 00:00:00 +0000

Educational Studies 370
Spring 2004

Introduction

2004 is the 50th anniversary of the 1954 Supreme Court decision on Brown v. Board of Education, in which racially separate schools were unanimously declared inherently unequal. It is one of the most pivotal opinions ever rendered by the Supreme Court, effecting changes in national and social policy that left no one untouched². In the intervening years additional cases have come before the Supreme Court further redefining the 1954 ruling. During the 1970s and 1980s, the focus of desegregation was on the physical integration of black and white students through such measures as busing, school choice, magnet schools, use of ratios, redrawn school district boundaries, mandatory and voluntary intra- and inter-district transfers, and consolidation of city districts with suburban districts³. In the 1990

Practicing Democratic Education

tdomf_26a6d — Tue, 05 Nov 2002 00:00:00 +0000

This course and practicum is designed for advanced undergraduate students (juniors and seniors). The course is structured around one 10 week quarter, with class meeting once a week for 2 hours. The practicum is designed to extend over 2 quarters.
Course Description
This course will address some long-standing debates about democracy, politics, and the education of citizens. It arises out of the conviction that any particular theory of democracy, or of politics more generally, can and should be evaluated in terms of what it says theoretically about citizen education and by what it does practically to educate citizens.
In order to address the debates in question in a theoretical way, our course will investigate critically some major texts in the history of Western political thought that address the question of citizen or political education, broadly speaking. The texts include Plato s Republic, John Locke s Some Thoughts Concerning Education, John Dewey s Democracy and Education, and Myles Horton and Paolo Freire s We Make the Road by Walking. These texts should be understood as being about political education, as well as actually attempting to politically educate their audiences. In reading and collectively discussing these texts, we will be concerned to trace changing conceptions of education and politics over time, as well as to articulate the various relationships between the practice of theorizing about politics and the practice of educating citizens.
As the title hopes to indicate, this course will also address questions of democracy, politics, and citizen education practically, in the form of an educationa1 practicum. Students will put their education and democratic citizenship into practice by serving as coaches for middle-school students (at St. Bernard s Grade School in St. Paul) who will be researching and debating their own questions about democracy and social issues (in and around their school). The fundamental premise of the seminar is that we learn theoretically about citizenship and education in large part by being engaged practically as citizens and educators. Or to put it differently: to learn what must be learned about democratic education just is to be engaged in the practice of educating democrats.
Given the mix and the demands of the various theoretica1 and practical activities that make up the course, an additional 2 credit practicum course in the political science department (Pol 3070) has been Attached to supplement Pol 3090 (of 4 credits, bringing the total to 6 credits). The practicum course will continue through Winter quarter (for another additional 2 credits). It is hoped that students will continue with the practicum through winter, in order for us collectively to live up to our obligations to St. Bernard s School.
Course Requirements
The requirements of the course reflect its diverse goals.
1) The course will meet once a week (at class time on Tuesdays) to discuss assigned readings. Students are expected to read the materials closely and carefully, and to come to class prepared to engage in discussion and debate.
2) The required practicum component will be satisfied by students coaching activities at St. Bernard s (during class time on Thursdays, to be followed by a discussion period integrating the week s readings and the practica1 experiences at the middle school). The model of student coaching that we will follow has been developed by Public Achievement (sponsored by the Center for Democracy and Citizenship at the University) some of the students at St. Bernard s have previously been involved in investigating civic issues in and around their school with the assistance of Public Achievement coaches. The seminar, therefore, will build upon that experience.
3) There will be a required day-long training session and Issues Convention (scheduled for the second Thursdays of class, September 28) to introduce students to the St. Bernard s environment and to the practice of being a coach, This occurs during regular class time, although we may have to start a little earlier than usual.
4) In terms of writing, students will keep an ongoing notebook/journal that records reflections on their course readings, their coaching experiences, and more generally on the relationship between democracy, politics, and citizen education. The notebook/journal will be submitted for commentary and evaluation at the time of midterm and final examinations.
5) As a final entry into the notebook/journal, students will be asked to evaluate the coaching practicum in terms of what you thought worked or didn t work, and what could be done to improve the overall experiment in practical democratic education.
6) Finally, there will be a take-home final examination (of about 8 typed pages). The exam will principally cover the course readings. Like the notebook/journal, however, the final examination will allow and call for integration of the theoretical literature on political education and the practical educational experiences involved in the course.
Grades
Letter grades for the course will be assigned on the basis of the final examination (50%), the notebook/journal (30%), and class discussion and participation (20%). Faithful attendance and committed involvement in the practicum is essential in order to receive the additional 2 credits of the political science course, as well as to successfully complete the seminar as a whole and to receive an overall grade for it.
Required Books
The following books are available for purchase at the University Bookstore (on the East Bank), with the exception of Locke, which is available in photocopy form at Smith Bookstore on the West Bank).
Plato: The Republic
John Locke: Some Thoughts Concerning Education
John Dewey: Democracy and Education
Myles Horton and Paolo Freire: We Make the Road by Walking
Some additional readings will be provided or placed on reserve.
Readings and Assignments
Week 1: Introductory
General Discussion of citizenship, education, and Public Achievement (26 Sept)
Read: Michael Ignatieff The Myth of Citizenship, in R. Beiner, ed., Theorizing Citizenship
Read: Melissa Bass, Towards a New Theory and Practice of Civic Education: An Evaluation of Public Achievement, MS.
Training Session and Issues Convention at St. Bernard s (28 Sept)
Read: Making the Rules: A Public Achievement Guidebook
Week 2: Justice, the Ideal City, and the Education of Guardians
Read: Plato, The Republic, Books 1-4.
Week 3: Myths, Forms, and Philosopher Kings
Read: Plato, The Republic, Books 5-10.
Week 4: Education of Youth in the Family
Read: Locke, Some Thoughts Concerning Education, sections 1-132.
Week 5: Virtue and the Enlightened Gentleman
Read: Locke, Some Thoughts Concerning Education, sections 133-217.
Submission of notebook/journal
Week 6: Educating a Democratic Public
Read: Dewey, Democracy and Education, pp. 1-163.
Week 7: Method and Curriculum
Read: Dewey, Democracy and Education, pp. 164-360.
Week 8: Populism and Citizen Action
Read: Horton and Freire, We Make the Road by Walking, pp. 1-143.
Week 9: Citizen Education and Social Change
Read: Horton and Freire, We Make the Road by Walking, pp. 144-248.
Week 10: Democracy, Politics, and Citizen Education: Final Reflections
Submission of notebook/journal.
Take-home final examination.

Social and Economic Justice

tdomf_26a6d — Thu, 01 Feb 2001 00:00:00 +0000

"Charity, vertical, humiliates. Solidarity, horizontal, helps."
- Eduardo Galeano

Course Description
Social and Economic Justice will review and study historical and contemporary issues in social and economic justice as they relate to US policy. It will explore the distribution of power, status, and resources in society. It will also address how issues of discrimination affect the vulnerable populations and how advocates can work in the political arena.

Objectives:

-exhibit an awareness and understanding of self in relation to diverse populations;
-analyze the impact of social welfare populations on populations-at-risk;
-identify the forms and mechanisms of oppression and discrimination in society;
-identify issues of power and privilege;
-develop advocacy skills for empowerment;
-learn about national and international movements of social change; and,
-move beyond intellectualization of social issues.

Major Areas Covered:
UN Declaration of Human Rights
History from the perspective of the oppressed
Popular education
Definitions of Social Justice
Analysis of economic principles and how they impact social work practice
Issues of race, gender and class
National and international movements of social justice in the tradition of social work

Texts:
?Beverly, D. P., & McSweeney, E. A. (1987). Social Welfare and Social Justice. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Gil, D. G. (1998). Confronting injustice and oppression. New York: Columbia University Press.
Young, 1. M., (1990). Justice and the Politics of Difference. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
?Handouts

Course Structure:
The course will include lecture, class discussion, and student presentations. Audiovisual material and guest lecture may be utilized, as well.

Grading:
Class Participation 125 points
Community Service 125 points
Persons/Movements of Social Justice 125 points
Proposal for change 125 points
500 total points

Advocacy Proiect
Choose a nonprofit/social service/grassroots organization which is working on issues of economic and social justice. You will spend 30-40 hours there this semester. You will plug into this agency as a volunteer. Get to know their work, mission, strategic plan, budget, how they are financed, etc. And, involve yourself in one of their advocacy campaigns.

You will write five journals on this experience (25 points each – due Weeks 3, 5, 7, 9, 11). Each journal should include the following:

-a summary of your activities
-What you have learned
-relate your experience to readings and discussions from class
-anything else you think is important.

Journals may be handwritten, but they must be legible. Write only on one side of the paper.

Possible Sites:
Project Home
Greenpeace
Amnesty International
Clean Air Council
NASW-PA
Action AIDS
Youth United for Change
Bread for the World
American Friends Service Committee
Eastern Phila. Organizing Project
Kensington Welfare Rights Union
Women's International League for Peace and Freedom
Philadelphia Urban Resources Project

Movements of Social Change

You are to select one of the organizations from the list below. These are all organizations which deal with issues of oppression and/or justice. There will be two parts to your assignment:

1 ) With other members of the class you will plan a presentation on this organization. The presentation will be 25 minutes in length. Your group will then lead a class discussion of 20 minutes. In your presentation you may use poetry, video, movies, slides – be creative!

2) Write a five to seven page paper using the following guidelines (not necessarily in this order.

You are to address each of these points, but your paper should be coherent and flow:
a) communicate the most salient points of this movement;
b) what did you learn from studying this movement?;
c) how does this relate to your service placement and to social work practice?;
d) how does this relate to the values and heritage of the social work profession?;
e) how does this relate to what you are learning in class?;
f) how does/did this movement contribute to a more just society?;
g) critique the movement and its work using the elements of structural analysis;
h) how were you challenged studying this movement? How will you share what you have learned with others?; and,
i) If appropriate, relate to class readings.

Do not just tell about the movement, but apply it, interweaving the responses to the above.

Possible topics:

Settlement House Movements
Catholic Worker Movement
Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo
National Welfare Rights Union
Popular Education Movement
Southern Christian Leadership Council
Gray Panthers
Women's International League for Peace and Freedom

Other Helpful Hints for Your Presentation

-Make it interesting!
-Get others involved. Use role plays, quizzes, questions, etc.
-Be creative – use a song, part of a video, a poem, handouts, whatever.
-You will be graded on content, delivery, how much information you are able to communicate, creativity, etc. If you have any hesitations or concerns about this, by all means, ask for help.

Final Project

For your final project, you will choose a topic of interest to you which relates to issues of justice and to your volunteer site. Examples would include: homelessness, AIDS, welfare, militarism, human rights, spousal abuse, environmental justice, living wage, public education, drugs, violence. This is not meant to be an exhaustive list.

After you have chosen the topic, you will analyze it from the definition of social justice that was discussed in class, as well as the concepts of social/structural analysis. After the analysis, you will formulate a proposal for change which you feel will address this social issue. The emphasis of your paper should be on your proposal, or the action-oriented portion of the paper, however, do not just skirt over the other areas as they are integral to understanding the issue.

YOU MUST DISCUSS YOUR TOPIC WITH ME BEFORE THE SEMESTER BREAK! At the first class after the break, I expect a written proposal of your topic. You may, of course, hand this in early. Please feel free to consult with me as you research and write your paper.

Use at least ten sources, others than readings from class. At least seven of these should be written sources, but you are welcome to experiment with interviews, videos, and other types of sources. If appropriate, you may interweave into your proposal some of the readings from class.

You will submit a six to eight page paper which addresses the following issues (not necessarily in this order. You are to address each of these points, but your paper should be coherent and flow):

-What is the overall goal of your proposal?
-What are the objectives which will help realize that goal?
-What are the underlying issues which you hope to address?
-Who will be involved? Who will be responsible?
-How will you get others involved?
-What is the timeframe?
-What activities will you carry out in order to accomplish your objectives? What will be the result of these activities?
-How will you measure success?
-What are the issues you will be addressing? What are its causes? What is the historical context?

BIBLIOGRAPHY

?Addams, J. (19 10). Twenty years at Hull House. New York: Signet Classic
?Bane Ellwood, Welfare realities
?D. Barlett and J. Steele, America: What went wrong?
?Freire, P. (1985). The Politics of education: Culture, power, and liberation. New York: Bergin & Garvey.
?Funiciello, T. (1993). Tyranny of kindness: Dismantling the welfare svstem to end poverty in America. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press.
?Linda Gordon, Pitied but Not Entitled: Single Mothers and the History of Welfare
?Kozol, J. (1995). Amazing grace: The Lives of children and the conscience of a nation. New York: Harper Perennial.
?(1988). Rachel and her children: Homeless families in America. New York: Faucett Columbine.
?(l 991). Savage inequalities: Children in America' schools. New York: Harper Perennial.
?Liebow, E. (1967). Tally's comer: A Study of Negro Streetcorner men. Boston: Little, Brown and Company.
?(1993). Tell them who I am: The Lives of homeless women. New York: The Free Press.
?West, C. Race Matters
?William Julius Wilson, When Work Disappears: The World of the New Urban Poor
?J. Wright, Address Unknown: The Homeless in America
?Virginia E. Schein, Working from the Margins: Voices of Mothers in P
?Alex Kotlowitz, There are No Children Here: The Story of Two Boys Growing Up in the Other America
?Danziger & Weinberg (eds), Fighting Poverty: What works and what doesn't
?Saul Alinsky, Rules for Radicals

Michael Katz, In the Shadow of the Poorhouse

Haynes & Mickelson, Affecting Chanae: Social Workers in the Political Arena
?Bertha Capen Reynolds, An Uncharted Journey
?Beverly & McSweeney, Social Welfare and Social Justice
?Herbert J. Gans, The War Against the Poor
?Michael B. Katz, Improving Poor People
?Zepezauer & Naiman, Take the Rich off Welfare
?James Patterson, America's Struggle Against Poverty
?Andersen & Hill Collins, Race, Class, and Gender: An Anthology
?Jerry Aaker, Paernters with the Poor: An ememing Approach to Relief and Development
?Iris Mario Young, Justice and the Politics of Difference
?Luis J Rodriguez, Always Running: La Vida Loca: Ganiz Days in LA

Videos
Arms for the Poor
Women in the Third World
The Global Assembly Line
The Many faces of the Homeless
We Have a Table for Four Ready: The Story of St. Francis I
Battered
Ida B. Wells: A Passion for Justice
Eyes on the prize
Skin Deep
School of Assassins
Ending Welfare as we Know It
Jesuits in El Salvador
Not in Our Town
Weapons of the Spirit

Public Life in America: The Service Learning Writing Project

tdomf_26a6d — Thu, 01 Feb 2001 00:00:00 +0000

Course Description

ATL 135
Debate and deliberation are essential ingredients of democracy. For democracy to work, ordinary citizens must take part in the process of identifying social problems and finding solutions together. Unfortunately, too many citizens are not engaged in the ongoing work of democracy. Their lack of engagement is not a sign of satisfaction with the status quo, but too often an expression of cynicism, apathy, or a sense of powerlessness.

Why have we withdrawn from public associations? Why does our democratic system-the envy of the rest of the world-seem to be failing us? Why have so many of us lost faith in our common life? This special section of ATL 135-"Writing: Public Life in America"-will examine these difficult questions.

ATL 135 is a writing intensive course that engages students in public discourse on social issues that affect local and national communities. Students will analyze, evaluate, and present arguments on topics of current concern to different audiences. Students will also learn to moderate differing points of view on an issue and to find strategies that build toward consensus. An important goal of ATL 135 is to encourage student participation in the public sphere through active participation in open public forums as well as through classroom reading and writing. A significant portion of sections 002 and 003 of ATL 135 will be organized around three National Issues Forums (NIF) held in our community and around a smaller version of these forums (Study Circles) that students will be responsible for conducting in class at the end of the semester. We will use the NIF model of deliberation and consensus building to explore several critical issues in contemporary American public life. In addition, ATL students will collaborate with Lansing Community College students in preparing for, helping to organize, and actively participating in the local NIF forums. For more information on the NIF please visit their Web site at: .

Our goals throughout the course will be to deepen our awareness of important public issues and concerns, to build our problem-solving capabilities, and to strengthen and improve public life in our community.

ATL -150:"Apathy is dead," declared President Clinton in a recent policy address on National Service. Most American citizens today, it would seem, yearn to play active roles in public and community life. According to a 1992 Kettering Foundation survey, however, there are two roadblocks to effective citizen participation: (1) lack of knowledge and training that could help connect people with each other and to the powers that shape their lives, and (2) a dimmed belief that they can make a difference. While it is true, then, that the public's desire to get involved in democratic decision-making has never been greater, actual public participation in democratic government-local, municipal, national-is in serious decline.

ATL 150-"Writing: Public Life in America"-will examine reasons for that decline and explore ways to reverse it. Readings, writing assignments, discussions, and actual public service placements will confront us with basic questions about the struggle for a revitalized public sphere. What does it mean, for example, to be a member of the communities in which we live and work– school and classroom, place of worship and workplace, neighborhood or nation? What does it mean to be a citizen in a democracy? How well do traditions of American citizenship serve the complex demands and increased diversity of civic life in America? What is the relationship between civil rights and civic responsibilities? What are the major challenges to democratic citizenship today? How well are the media- magazines, newspapers, TV-delivering information vital to effective citizenship? What does "service" mean and what does it have to do with democratic citizenship?

We will discuss, debate, evaluate, and write about such questions with the help of diverse readings. In addition, students in this special section of ATL 150 sponsored by the SLWP will benefit from hands-on experiences in various Lansing-area public and community service agencies. Options for students' placements this semester include (1) working individually or with a team of students on a writing project for a non-profit agency, or (2) writing an essay based on volunteer work with a local public service organization. Students' service experiences are carefully monitored by ATL faculty and the staff of the Service-Learning Center.

Course Format, Aims, and Objectives

ATL 150 follows a seminar and workshop model emphasizing the development of independent thinking as well as collaborative learning processes. Assignments for class preparation and daily discussion, analysis, evaluation, and critique of readings stress constant refinement and routine practice of varied writing activities, including outlining, paragraphing, peer-editing, essay and report writing and revision, leading class discussion, drafting discussion questions, developing group proposals and conducting group research, etc. Our overall objective is to strengthen the following critical competencies:

?Critical Reading: identifying central ideas, issues, problems of a text, synthesizing and reconstructing an argument, and determining relevant information.

Critical Thinking: evaluating hypotheses or conclusions, distinguishing between fact and opinion, formulating appropriate questions, and incorporating others' opinions and perspectives.

Development of Critical Writing: Skills defining audience, generating and organizing ideas, drafting, revising, and editing for standard usage, using and documenting sources, researching library materials.

Performance Evaluation

Students are required to attend all classes, participate in class activities, and complete all assigned work. Work submitted for evaluation is graded on a four-point scale in accordance with common standards adopted by the faculty of American Thought and Language consistent with the policies of Michigan State University. Each assignment has an evaluation ranking – I, II, or III – determined by the amount of time and work it takes to complete the assignment and its relative importance to other assignments. Final grades are calculated by averaging assignments at each rank and weighting them as follows:

Level I Assignments = 60% of Final Grade
Level II Assignments = 30% of Final Grade
Level III Assignments = 10% of Final Grade

Work submitted by study groups – subject to the same ranking system – receive common evaluations. Each member of a study group receives the same grade for an assignment submitted for evaluation on behalf of the study group.

Students are also required to attend the three public NIF forums held on the following dates: Feb. 10th from 6:30 to 8:30 pm; Feb. 24th from 6 to 8 pm; and March 28th from 6:30 to 8:30 pm. Two of these forums will be held off campus, one at Lansing Community College and one at a Lansing-area school. We will arrange transportation as a class to these events.

Required Books

Robert Bellah, et al., Habits of the Heart (Harper and Row, 1986) in Barber and Richard M. Battistoni (eds.).

Benjam Barber and Richard M. Battistoni (eds), Education for Democracy.(Kendall/Hunt, 1993)

"Rethinking Democracy: Citizenship in the Media Age." Media & Values, Number 58, Spring 1992.

Ann Watters and Marjorie Ford (eds.), Writing for Change: A Community Reader (McGraw-Hill, 1995).

The Service-Learning Writing Project: Resource Packet." Course packet.

For reference: Diana Hacker, A Writer's Reference

American Thought and Language at Michigan State University
Spring, 2000

The American Thought and Language Department prepares students for effective writing in various contexts, including academic, professional, personal, and public. The department recognizes that writing is an essential component of a student's intellectual endeavor linked to other aspects of communication such as reading, evaluating, reasoning, and speaking about specific subject matters. The American Thought and Language Department therefore emphasizes development of students' discourse skills in courses with American heritage content, stressing interdisciplinary and culturally diverse themes and readings as well as introducing students to literary, historical, social, political, and moral perspectives that seek to establish a coherent overview of American society and its place in the global community.

The Individual and Community in Democratic America

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Course Listing: CHST 1805, Sec. 1, Seq. 9: Approaches to History
Spring 1995: Tuesday, Friday: 10:30 AM; Wednesday: 4:05 PM.
Class meets in Room 411 EL
Instructor: John Saltmarsh

"I believe once more that history is of educative value in so far as it presents phases of social life and growth. It must be controlled by reference to social life. When taken simply as history it is thrown into the distant past and becomes dead and inert. Taken as the record of man's social life and progress it becomes full of meaning."

John Dewey, "My Pedagogic Creed" (1897)

Course Description: This course will explore the historical meanings of individualism and community in American culture, focusing on the relationship of the self to the larger community of others and institutions, examining the historical dimensions of the tensions between the individual and society in light of the consequences for a democratic political culture.

In analyzing various approaches to historical study, the course has three components:

1) analysis of primary and secondary source material to explore the traditions that define the tensions between individual aspirations and community values and assess how these have changed over time and in different cultural settings;

2) analysis of readings to focus discussion on questions of method, theory, and evidence and the interpretation/analysis/writing of history in the exploration of the theme of the course; and

3) service activity and reflection that will focus our discussion on approaching the contemporary context of our historical understanding, making connections between ideas and experience to integrate others' observations and interpretations with our own, to bring a certain immediacy to the readings.

Teaching Methodology: Seminar. Discussion/dialogue will 1) focus on common readings to explore the traditions surrounding the theme of the course and to provide the social context for the students' community service activity, and 2) consist of reflection on experience of involvement in the community and the relationship between their experience and the readings/ideas of the course.

Service Experience: A requirement of this course is that students will engage in community service activity for at least two hours each week (20 hours over the course of the quarter). Service assignments can be arranged by the instructor in collaboration with 1) the Tobin School in the Mission Hill Neighborhood next to Northeastern University or 2) with the John Shelburne Community Center in Roxbury. The Tobin School in situated in one of Boston's poorest neighborhoods and is part of the Boston Public School System. It is the only kindergarten through eighth grade school in the Boston Public School System and serves a predominantly Latino and African American student body. The Shelburne Community Center is the only community center in Roxbury and for twenty-five years has focused its services to the ethnic and economic diversity of the residents of the area neighborhoods who utilize the Shelburne as a safe haven for their children.

Required Readings:
Jane Addams, Twenty Years at Hull House (19 10)
Robert Bellah, et al, Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life (1985)
Thomas Bender, Community and Social Change in America (1978)
Christopher Lasch, The Culture of Narcissism (1978)
Robert and Helen Lynd, Middletown: A Study of Contemporary American Culture (1929)
David Reisman, The Lonely Crowd (1961)
Tocqueville, Democracy in America (1835/1840)
Also: Classpack at Gnomon Copy

Course Schedule:
Week 1: April 5, 7 and Week 2: April 11, 12, 14: Traditions and Definitions, Approaches to History: Method, Theory, and Evidence.
Bellah and Bender

Christianity and Republicanism
Bellah and Bender

Week 4: April 25, 26, 28:
Democracy and America in the early 19th Century
Tocqueville

Week 5: May 2, 3, 5:
Industrial Capitalism: Challenges to Individualism and Democracy
Addams

Week 6: May 9,10,12:
The Self and Community in a Consumer Culture
Lynds

Week 7: May 16, 17, 19:
Post- War America: The Quest for Individuality in a Mass Society
Reisman

Week 8: May 23, 25, 26: The Personal and the Political: Community Lost and Found: Approaching the Past and the Future
Lasch

Week 9: May 30, 3 1, June 2:
(last week for Seniors)
Presentations of Final Papers

Week 10: June 6, 7, 9:
Presentations of Final papers

Week 11: June 12-16: Exam Week

"Democracy must begin at home, and its home is the neighborly community. " (1927)

"Regarded as an idea, democracy is not an alternative to other principles of associated life. It is the ideal of the community itself." (1927)

"Individuality cannot be opposed to association. It is through association that man has acquired his individuality and it is through association that he exercises it. [Individuality means] performance of a special service without which the social whole is defective" (1891)

"Information is an undigested burden unless it is understood. It is knowledge only as its material is comprehended. And understanding, comprehension, means that the various parts of the information acquired are grasped in their relation to one another – a result that is attained only when acquisition is accompanied by constant reflection upon the meaning of what is studied." (1933)
- John Dewey

Classpack
Table of Contents
The Individual and Society in Democratic America
CHST 1805

Robert Coles, Community Service Work
Robert Coles, Putting Head and Heart on the Line
C. Blake and C. Phelps, History as Social Criticism: Conversations with Christopher Lasch
John Dewey, The Democratic Conception in Education
John Dewey, The Search for the Great Community
Ralph Waldo Emerson, The American Scholar
Bell hooks, Keeping Close to Home: Class and Education
Bell Hooks, Representing the Poor
Michael Ignatieff, The Needs of Strangers
William James, The Moral Equivalent of War
Martin Luther King, Jr., Letterfrom Birmingham Jail
Jonathan Kozol, Savage Inequalities
Staughton Lynd, The Historian as Participant
Students for a Democratic Society, The Port Huron Statement
Henry David Thoreau, On the Duty of Civil Disobedience
Henry David Thoreau, Journal
John Winthrop, A Model of Christian Charity
Ellen Goodman, "Mentoring Kids in Crisis"

Required written work and presentations:

1) A Reflective Journal: The journal will focus on the community service activity and reflections on the experience and the connections between that experience and the literature of the course. You will be asked to keep a journal during the quarter. The journals are a reflection tool that will be shared periodically. There is the minimum expectation of weekly entries. Journals will be turned in for review the last day of class (and will be returned).

2) A review of Habits of the Heart. The review/analysis should focus on the approach the authors took to creating historical understanding. What methodology(ies) do they employ? What theory guides their interpretation? What evidence do they turn to? Who are the authors (provide a cultural profile of the authors)? Be sure to incorporate at least two published reviews of the book in your essay and cite them properly. 3-5 pages minimum, typed, double-spaced. Due May 2.

3) A small group presentation and short paper of one of the assigned books in the class. The small group will present together and may collaborate on the written work, but each student will turn in a paper. The presentation and the paper will focus on

the way in which the author(s) addressed the issues of individualism, community, and democracy in the particular book
the author(s) approach (methods, theory, evidence) to the subject

3-5 pages, typed, double-spaced. Papers are due two weeks after presentation. Presentation: ( %) Paper: ( %)

4) A final paper due at the end of the course will consist of an analysis of the service experience in the community, placing that analysis in a larger context drawn from the readings from the course and seminar discussions, integrating the students' own interpretations with those from the literature of the course. Your paper should integrate your experience in the community with the readings from the class to answer the question, "what is the relationship between my approach to the present and my approach to the past." 8-12 pages, typed, double-spaced. Papers are due for presentation during the last two weeks of the course, to be turned in on the last day of class. Presentation: ( %) Paper: ( %)

5) Class Participation.

6) Class Attendance.

7) Community Service

Education and Social Change

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The practicum will be in one of the learning circles at Neighborhood House, on Monday or Wednesday, 6-9 PM, or Tuesday, 7-9 PM.
An email "listserv" will be established for this class.
Liberal Education Theme Requirements. This course counts toward two liberal education theme requirements: Cultural Diversity and Citizenship and Public Ethics.

Course goals and means
This course falls in the area of philosophy of education, but it also draws heavily on ideas from political philosophy, the philosophy of language and the theory of knowledge. It focuses on a family of approaches to education which has shown promise in moving societies in several parts of the world toward greater justice.

This family of approaches is known by various names, including "popular education," "democratic education," and "participatory education." In the course we will use the name "democratic education."

The purpose of the course is to provide students a theory-rich apprenticeship in democratic education, an apprenticeship which weaves together first-hand field participation at a democratic education site with the study of theories about and case studies of democratic education. I hope that students will emerge from the course with a good basic capacity to function as democratic educators, to design and facilitate democratic education settings, and to do this in a way that is informed by theory and by appreciation of contexts in which this approach to education has been used in other times and in other parts of the world.

Some of the guiding questions of the course are: What is democratic education? In what ways, and in what circumstances, can it contribute to constructive social change?

Exploring these questions leads, in turn, to classical philosophical questions: How should we live? What is a good life? What is a good society?

Students will be challenged to keep these large questions constantly in mind as they investigate the purposes that democratic education has in theory and the effects which it has in practice–the effects they will see at first hand in their practicum work and also in the case studies which they will read together.

The heart of a student's experience in the course is the practicurn. Every student in the course will be doing a practicurn for at least four hours per week at a particular site, the Jane Addams School for Democracy in St. Paul's West Side neighborhood. The Jane Addams School for Democracy is an initiative in democratic education and community development created by residents of St.Paul's West Side neighborhood, staff of Neighborhood House, and students and faculty from the College of St. Catherine and the University of Minnesota. The School does not have a set curriculum, but creates learning exchange circles in response to interests and challenges identified by residents of the West Side community. The circles bring neighborhood residents together with college students and faculty. Though it is one site, it is a site where a number of related activities are going on, including (1) language learning exchange circles for adults which integrate language learning, preparation for the U. S.

Citizenship Test, sharing of cultures, and practice for in democratic deliberation and decision-making linking Hmong, Cambodian, Spanish, and English and (2) the Children's Learning Circle. Students in the course will choose their practicurn work from these learning circles. There is an appendix to the syllabus which gives background about learning circles.

Reading for the course
The reading that students do for this course may be of two kinds. In the first place there will be common readings, which all students in the course do and which will form a common ground of reference for our discussions in the class. This is required.

The other kind of reading that students will do in connection with the course is individual readings. There may be something you have read before that you would like to re-read and reflect on in connection with this course. Or there may be something that you have not yet read, but that you know that you want to read and you think would reward reading in connection with the course. This is optional.

Common readings

Kathryn Church, Forbidden Narratives: Critical Autobiography as Social Science (Amsterdam, Gordon and Breach, 1995). Paperback.

Septima Poinsette Clark, Ready from Within: Septima Clark and the Civil Rights Movement (Trenton, Africa World Press, 1986). Paperback.

Danling Fu , "My Trouble Is My English:" Asian Students and the American Dream (Portsmouth, NH, Boynton/Cook Publishers, 1995). Paperback.

Myles Horton and Paulo Freire. We Make the Road by Walking: Conversations on Education and Social Change (Philadelphia, Temple University Press, 1990). Paperback.

Marlene Morrison Pedigo, New Church in the City: The Work of the Chicago Fellowship of Friends (Richmond, Indiana, Friends United Press, 1988). Paperback.

Letters to the Norwegian Nobel Committee from Pete Seeger, Maxine Greene and Septima Clark nominating the Highlander Center for the Nobel Peace Prize, 1983.

Setsuko Tsuji Fujimoto, "Bernice Robinson's Story." This is Part Two of Fujimoto's Masters Thesis, Antioch University, 1994.

Carl Tjerandsen, Chapter 4: "Learning to Secure and Use Civic Rights: Through Changing the Individual," Education for Citizenship: A Foundation's Experience (Santa Cruz, California, Emil Schwarzhaupt Foundation, Inc., 1980).

Possible individual readings
I am placing in an appendix to the syllabus a list of readings on popular and democratic education that some students might like to pursue on their own.

Required Work for the Course

Participation in meetings
On-time attendance of every student at virtually every class session is essential. This is because the learning circle approach being used in the course makes discussion that occurs in class a basic resource both for learning and for understanding subsequent discussions. If you find that you cannot come to class on time or that you have to miss more than two class sessions, we will want to have a talk.

Learning pairs
An approach to learning that has evolved and proved to be very powerful at the Jane Addams School is learning in pairs. I want to explore adapting and developing this approach in the course. Early in the course we will create student pairs which will remain together and work together throughout the course. Some responsibilities the pairs will have or may have are:

Each pair will lead the class discussion of the readings for the week one time.

A pair may decide to meet sometimes, perhaps regularly, outside of class time to discuss their experiences at the Jane Addams Schools and their ideas about the readings and class discussions.

A pair may decide to do journal writing in a cooperative way, say in the form of a dialogue.

A pair may find a way of exploring and developing further the passions and interests that brought them to this course in the first place.

Papers
A. Four reflection papers, two to four double-spaced pages in length,will be handed in, one roughly every two weeks during the quarter.These papers will have something of the character of a journal and willbe a chance to reflect on experiences at the Jane Addams School, on thereadings, and on the class discussions. These journals can be a placefor the student and I to have a dialogue about the passions and intereststhat brought the student to the course.

B. A term paper which draws together all the learning you have donein the course.

C. Learning pair write-up of their work for the course; this will includean account of the pair's experience in leading the class discussion, aswell as other elements depending on how the pair has chosen to worktogether.

Grading Procedure
Weekly participation of all students at the Jane Addams School and in the class is an assumed baseline for successful completion of the course. If for some reason a student has to miss a quarter or more of either of these components, he or she will not be able to receive a passing grade in the course and, as soon as the lack of participation becomes evident, will be counseled to withdraw from the course. The components of students' work will have the following weights:

Participation in the class and in the Jane Addams School 250 points
Reflection papers 250 points
Pair report 250 points
Term paper 250 points

The basic guideline will be that a total number of points in the range 950-1,000 will be an A; 900-950 will be an A-; 867-900 will be a B+; 833-867 will be a B; 800-833 will be a B-; 767-800 will be a C+; 733-767 will be a C; 700-733 will be a C-; 667-700 will be a D+; 600-667 will be a D; and below 600 will be an F. On the S/N system, 700 or more points will be an S.

Schedule of readings and papers

Wednesday, March 31 Warm-up: introductions; background on the Jane Addams School; and discussion of "what is a good society?"

Wednesday, April 7 Continuation of good society discussion; read Horton and Freire for their personal stories and their visions of a good society.

Wedmesday April 14 Horton and Freire, for their ideas about education and social change, and for their perspectives on the citizenship schools. First reflection paper due.

Wednesday, April 21 Septima Clark, Ready from Within; letters to the Norwegian Nobel Committee from Pete Seeger, Maxine Greene and Septima Clark; Setsuko Tsuji Fujimoto, "Bernice Robinson's Story."

Wednesday, April 28 Carl Tjerandsen, Chapter 4: "Learning to Secure and Use Civic Rights: Through Changing the Individual." Second reflection paper due.

Wednesday, May5 Danling Fu , "My Trouble Is My English:" Asian Students and the American Dream

Wednesday, May 12 Marlene Morrison Pedigo, New Church in the City: The Work of the Chicago Fellowship of Friends. Third reflection paper due.

Wednesday, May 19 Kathryn Church, Forbidden Narratives: Critical Autobiography as Social Science (Amsterdam, Gordon and Breach, 1995).

Wednesday, May 26 To be determined. Fourth reflection paper due.

June 2 Wrap-up. Term papers and pair reports are due during finals week.

Appendix I

Resource pool for individual readings. These are some readings that we may useful to individual students as they pursue their work in the course. This list makes no pretense of being complete. Readings will need to be found in response to specific needs and interests which students develop.

Rodolfo, Acuha, Occupied America (New York, Harper and Row, 1980).

Jane Addams, On Education (New Brunswick, Transaction Publishers, 1994).

Deborah Barndt. To change this house: popular education under the Sandinistas (Toronto, Between the Lines, 1991).

Kathryn Church, Forbidden Narratives: Critical Autobiography as Social Science (Australia and United States, Gordon and Breach, 1995).

Jane Hamilton-Merritt, Tragic Mountains: The Hmong, the Americans, and the Secret Wars for Laos, 1942-1992 (Indianapolis, Indiana University Press, 1993).

Joseph K. Hart. Light from the North: The Danish Folk High Schools–Their Meanings for America (New York, Henry Holt and Company, 1927). Background on the Danish folk high schools by an American scholar who was a colleague of Jane Addams and part of the American progressive movement.

Mary Ann Hinsdale, Helen M. Lewis and S. Maxine Waller, It Comes from the People: Community Development and Local Theology (Philadelphia, Temple University Press, 1995).

Anne Hope and Sally Timmel. Training for Transformation: A Handbook for Community Workers, Three Volumes, Revised Edition (Gweru, Zimbabwe, Mambo Press, 1995).

Myles Horton, with Judith Kohl and Herbert Kohl, The Long Haul (New York, Teachers College Press, 1997).

Keith Quincy. Hmong: History of a People (Eastern Washington Press, 1988).

Nelly P. Stromquist, ed. Women and Education in Latin America: Knowledge, Power, and Change (Boulder and London, Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1992).

Nelly P. Stromquist, Literacy for Citizenship: Gender and Grassroots Dynamics in Brazil (Albany, State University of New York Press, 1997). An illuminating case study of popular education programs in Sao Paulo under a progressive government in the late 1980's, informed by a command of popular education historically and around the world. The first chapter, "Development, Literacy, and Women," gives an excellent overview.

Nina Wallerstein, Language and Culture in Conflict: Problem-posing in the FSL Classroom (Reading, Mass., Addison-Wesley Publishing Co., 1983).

Roger Warner. Shooting at the Moon: The Story of America's Clandestine War in Laos (South Royalton, Vermont, Steerforth Press, 1996).

David Werner and Bill Bower, Helping Health Workers Learn: A Book of Methods, Aids, and Ideas for Instructors at the Village Level (Palo Alto, The Hesperian Foundation, 1982).

Eliot Wigginton, ed. Refuse to Stand Silently By: An Oral History of Grass Roots Social Activism in America, 1921-1964 (New York, Doubleday, 1992). Selected chapters from this book containing interviews with Rosa Parks, Bernice Robinson, and Septima Clark.

Videos
These are videos relevant to democratic education, which may be used by individual students and excerpts from some of which may be used for common viewing by the whole class.

Myles Horton, with Bill Moyers. "The Adventures of a Radical Hillbilly." Bill Moyers'Journal. Originally broadcast on WNET, New York, June 5, 1981.

Lucy Massie Phenix. "You Got to Move: Stories of Change in the South." New York: Icarus Films, 1985. A documentary film about the Highlander Folk School produced and directed by Lucy Massie Phenix. Phenix also made the documentary film "Rosie the Riveter" about women in the workforce in World War 11.

"Paulo Freire and Myles Horton at Highlander." A depiction of a Highlander workshop plus an extended conversation between Freire and Horton (with Freire doing most of the talking) at the time in the late 1980's when they "talked" their book We Make the Road by Walking.

"From the Mountains to the Maquiladora." About a current Highlander project which forms solidarity among Appalachian women who have lost their jobs because of factories moving to Mexico and the Mexican who are working in the new factories.

"The House that Jane Built." About Hull House.

"The Women of Summer." About the Bryn Mawr Summer School for working women in the 1920's.

"The Women of Hull House." About Hull House and the careers of the remarkable women who started it.

"Voices of Experience: Five Tales of Community Economic Development in Toronto." This video depicts economic development projects which involve psychiatric consumers/survivors in the movement that Kathryn Church writes about.

Appendix 11

Learning Circles
Nelda Pearson and John Wallace
December 8, 1998

Learning circles assume that all members of a group are both learners and teachers, that all bring valuable knowledge and perspectives to the learning setting, and that learning is collaborative, transformative, and implies social action. The circle unfolds from initial questions framed by the facilitators based on the topic of concern to the circle. The questions usually address this main concern by exploring where participants are now, what participants are seeking, and what they would consider to be the ideal situation with regard to the concern and its resolution. This exploration is a process of hearing from every member of the group, scribing their responses, and noting threads of commonality and diversity. The initial questioning process generates the subsequent questions, concerns and issues that the group addresses. As the group goes through layers of questions, discussion spirals through the ideal vision or situation to the reality, to the barriers and resources to get from the reality to the ideal, and finally to the course of action this discussion implies.

The best size for a learning circle is 15 to 20 people. As the name implies, the physical shape of the conversation is everyone sitting in a circle. This arrangement not only symbolizes the participants' basic equality as learners and teachers but also helps make it physically real. In the circle, everyone can see everyone else when they are speaking or listening. Everyone is down on the playing field participating in the process of inquiring and learning; no one is a spectator observing from the stands. Sometimes the big circle will break out into small groups of three or four people, for discussions in which each participant can have more air time than in the big circle. After these "break out" discussions, everyone comes back into the big circle so that each small group can share with everyone the ideas or insights or questions from its discussion. In this way, the whole class in the big circle remains the "home space" and the basic community of learners.

Learning circles as a tool for learning and social action grow out of a great tradition of people's education, democratic education, and community development. Some of the well-known leaders in this tradition are Myles Horton, Septima Clark, and Paulo Freire. The basic practices of relating as whole persons in respectful conversation about matters of deep concern, however, are rooted in the wisdom and caring of countless community leaders whose names we do not know.

American Government

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Service Coordinators: Ms. Kim Carroll and Ms. Jennifer Outlaw

"I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts."
- Abraham Lincoln

"Service, combined with learning, adds value to each and transforms both."
- Honnet and Poulsen, 1989

"O I see flashing that this America is only you and me,
Its power, weapons, testimony, are you and me,
Its crimes, lies, thefts, defections, are you and me,
Its Congress is you and me, the officers, capitols, armies,
ships, are you and me . . .
Freedom, language, poems, employments are you and me,
Past, present, future, are you and me.

I dare not shirk any part of myself,
Not any part of America good or bad . . ."
-Walt Whitman (as cited in Barber, 1998)

Course Objectives: The purpose of this course is to provide you with an introduction to the United States' political system and the operation and purpose of its key institutions and players. An important goal of the course will be to develop a greater understanding of the role of power in our political system. In particular, we will focus on the delicate balancing act between the various power holders in our democracy — including the Presidency, Congress, the Judiciary, the states, the media and ordinary citizens. We will focus on the questions: How did the Founding Fathers envision the distribution of power in our political system? What does the Constitution say about the structure of power in our democracy? How has the struggle for civil rights and civil liberties throughout our history redefined this power distribution? How powerful is the modern media in our political system and how powerful should it be? How do the various branches of government share power and how does this contribute to (or prohibit) effective policy-making?

Perhaps most importantly, we will focus on the question: What power lies in the hands of ordinary citizens like you to shape and determine the direction of our political system? In many ways, an effective and legitimate democracy depends on the active participation of informed and involved citizens. The goal of this course is to begin to provide you with the information and skills to become a true participatory member of our democracy. This course will provide you with the opportunity to explore the purpose and meaning of good citizenship through participation in a service learning activity. In particular, a requirement of this course is regular service work (see Course Requirements section of this syllabus for specifics) at the Greenville Literacy Association. The purpose of this service work is to enhance your own political learning and skills while at the same time contributing to your community. In class, we will discuss the relationship between what we are reading about politics and citizenship and what you are learning through your service in the 'real world'. Through critical reflection, we will consider such issues as: What is the meaning of good citizenship in a democracy? What is your role and obligation as a citizen? What skills are needed by citizens in order that they may be participants in the political world? What are some of the causes and consequences of illiteracy in the United States? How does illiteracy affect the balance of power in our political system? What is the role of government in a democracy in terms of solving social problems?

This course will not be a passive learning experience. In addition to your active participation in the service-learning project, you will be required to participate actively in class discussions and in-class projects. In this class, you will learn how to be an informed, involved and participatory citizen. You will learn how to engage in rational and informed deliberations about issues confronting our political system. And, in the process, hopefully you will learn about the benefits (and costs) associated with living in a democracy.

Because different students have different learning styles, this class will include a mix of teaching mediums including traditional lectures, class discussions, films and musical presentations, cooperative learning projects, and individual writing assignments.

Required Readings: The following books are required and available for purchase in the bookstore.

Rimmerman, Craig A. 1997. The New Citizenship: Unconventional Politics, Activism, and Service. Boulder: Westview Press.

Waldman, Steven. 1995. The Bill: How Legislation Really Becomes Law – A Case Study of the National Service Bill. New York: Penguin Books.

Wayne, Stephen J., Mackenzie, G. Calvin, O'Brien, David M. and Richard L. Cole. 1999 (Third edition). The Politics of American Government. New York: St. Martin's Press.
– henceforth, referred to as PAG in this syllabus

A reading packet with some additional required readings will be put on reserve in the library. Students are expected to read The New York Times daily and to keep up with current political events. Subscriptions to The New York Times are offered to students at a reduced rate and subscription applications will be handed out in class. In addition, NewsHour with Jim Lehrer on PBS (Channel 8, 6pm weeknights) and National Public Radio's Morning Edition and All Things Considered on WNCW, Channel 90.1 are good sources of in-depth coverage of political news.

Course Expectations: You are expected to do all of the required reading and to come to every class session. In addition, you are expected to participate actively in the class discussions. Your attendance and participation in class discussions will constitute 10% of your grade. You will not do well in this class without consistent attendance, participation and the lecture information. Students will be responsible for material covered in class. Therefore, if you must miss a class, it is very important that you get the notes from another student in the class (not from me). Students are also responsible for any changes in the syllabus announced in class.

There are three major assignments for this course. You are expected to complete each assignment on time. Assignments are due at the beginning of class on the day indicated in the syllabus. Late assignments will be graded down one letter grade increment (from a B+ to a B, for example) for each day they are late. Any paper handed in after class on the scheduled date will be considered one day late. Exceptions will be made only in the case of illness or other University-excused absence. Students who must miss class for a University-scheduled event must make arrangements to turn in the assignment ahead of time or have another student turn in the assignment at the scheduled time.

1) Service-Learning Project: Students are expected to devote two hours per week to service work for the Greenville Literacy Association. You will sign up for your service work in class on Friday, September 17. You will be given a variety of options of service work at a variety of times and locations. Students are expected to honor their commitment to GLA and show up each week on time. The project coordinators will keep track of your volunteer hours and will evaluate your performance and commitment as a volunteer. Their evaluation will constitute 10% of your grade in this class. Because it becomes a logistical nightmare for the project coordinators, students may not change their schedules once they have been set. However, given that unforeseen circumstances may arise, students will be allowed to change their volunteer time one time during the course of the semester. It is your responsibility to find another student in the class to switch days with you for that one week.

2) Service Learning Journal: Each week you are expected to make at least one entry into your journal reflecting on your experiences with the service-learning project. Each journal entry should include three sections denoted by three different colors of ink. In black ink, you should describe what you actually did that week at GLA – what were your tasks? How did you complete these tasks? With whom did you work? Etc. In blue ink, you should write your more affective or subjective reactions to what happened during the week – how did you feel about your experience this week? Why? Finally, in red ink, you should reflect thoughtfully on the relationship between the things that happen 'out there' and what we are reading about or discussing in class that week – what connections can be made to the reading, to the class discussion? How do your experiences at GLA help you to understand the political world better? How do they help you to understand the balance of power in our political system? The role of the citizen? Etc. Your grade on the journal will reflect the degree to which your entries are thoughtful and complete. All entries should include all three parts, however, the most emphasis in terms of your grade will be placed on the portion written in red ink as this will reflect critical thinking about the project and the issues of democracy, citizenship, and power. On occasion, I will give you a focus topic for one of your journal entries for that week. The journal will constitute 15% of your grade in this class.

3) Current Events Week-in-Review: We will spend one day approximately every other week reviewing and discussing some of the major events in American politics from the previous two weeks. The class will break up into small discussion groups and one student will be assigned to lead the discussion for each group. The student discussion leader will have an assigned topic to guide the discussion; however, if the events of the day supersede this topic the student leaders may, with the permission of the instructor, stray from these guidelines. Students will be expected to summarize briefly the relevant articles from The New York Times and then engage students with interesting discussion questions relevant to the focus topic. The student leaders for that week will be expected to turn in their discussion questions and a 3-4 page paper discussing the assigned topic two days prior to the date they lead the discussion group. Your performance as a leader of the current events discussion will constitute 5% of your grade in this course. Your paper will constitute 10% of your grade.

Examinations: There will be two exams in this class. The exams will be a combination of short answer identifications and essay questions drawing from the assigned readings as well as the lecture notes. The exams will be closed-book and closed-notes, in-class exams. You will be given a study guide a week before each of the exams. Questions on the exam will be chosen from this study guide, thus, there will be no surprises. In the spirit of cooperative learning, you are encouraged to study with your student colleagues. The midterm exam will constitute 15% of your grade in this class. The midterm exam will be during class on Thursday, October 14th. The final exam will constitute 25% of your grade. The final exam will be at its university-scheduled time on Wednesday, December 15th from 9 a.m.-11:30 a.m.. The final exam will be cumulative. The dates for the exams are not negotiable. Please make your travel arrangements accordingly. Absences due to illness or a death in the family must be excused by the dean's office or a doctor. Students who must miss an exam due to a University scheduled event must make arrangements to take the exam ahead of time.

Quizzes: There will be two quizzes in this course which will consist of short answer identifications. The quizzes will constitute 10% of your grade in the class. The first quiz will be on Monday, October 4th and the second quiz will be on Monday, November 8th. The quizzes will cover only a limited portion of the material.

ACADEMIC DISHONESTY: ACADEMIC DISHONESTY WILL NOT BE TOLERATED. A STUDENT FOUND TO BE INVOLVED IN AN ACADEMIC IRREGULARITY, INCLUDING CHEATING ON AN EXAM, FAILURE TO USE PROPER CITATIONS IN HIS/HER WRITTEN WORK OR COPYING ANOTHER'S WORK, WILL BE SUBJECT TO THE APPROPRIATE DISCIPLINARY MEASURES AS DETERMINED BY THE PROFESSOR INCLUDING RECEIVING AN F FOR THE ASSIGNMENT AND/OR FOR THE COURSE. IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS CONCERNING WHAT CONSTITUTES CHEATING AND/OR PLAGIARISM, PLEASE CONSULT WITH ME PRIOR TO THE DEADLINE FOR THE ASSIGNMENT.

Grades: Grades will be calculated on the following basis:
Service Learning Journal 15%
Service Learning Participation 10%
(assessment based on Ms. Carroll's and your project coordinator's reports of your involvement)
Current Events Week-in-Review Discussion 5%
Current Events Paper 10%
Quizzes 15%
Midterm Examination 15%
Final Examination 20%
Participation 10%

Total 100%

93-100 = A 77-79 = C+ 60-62 = D-
90-92 = A- 73-76 = C Below 60 = F
87-89 = B+ 70-72 = C-
83-86 = B 67-69 = D+
80-82 = B- 63-66 = D

Students with disabilities who need academic accommodations should contact Dr. Sarah Fletcher, Coordinator of Disability Services, (2998), in Plyler Hall 1 (basement) in the beginning of the term. After meeting with her, please come see me during my office hours to discuss any necessary accommodations.

Assignment Outline:

September 14: Introduction
September 15-16: Introduction to the Greenville Literacy Association and service learning: What is GLA? Who are the students at GLA? What will your responsibilities be?
Read: Reading Packet #1
Consider: What are my goals for the service learning project? What can I learn by participating in this project?
September 17: Politics and the American Political Culture
Read: PAG — Chapter 1
Consider: What does it mean to be an American? What is unique about American political culture?
September 20: Deliberative Dialogue – Learning to talk and think about the issues
Read: Tannen, Chapters 1 and 4, Reading Packet #2
(On reserve in the library and available outside my office)
Consider: What is the argument culture? What effect does it have on our political system and ordinary citizens?
September 21: The Foundations of the American Government – The Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation
Read: AG – pp. 30-42; Appendix A The Declaration of Independence
Consider: What is a government based on consent of the governed? What were the problems under the Articles of Confederation?
September 22-23: The Origins of the American Constitution – The Constitutional Convention
Read for September 22: PAG, pp. 42-58
Read for September 23: The Constitution in PAG Appendix B
Consider: What role did the Founding Fathers envision for ordinary citizens in the United States? How did the Constitution formally distribute power among groups, institutions, and individuals in American society?
September 24: The Ratification Process – Winning Support for the Constitution
Read: The Federalist Papers 10 and 51 in PAG Appendix C
Consider: What did James Madison mean when he was talking about the violence of factions? How effective would you say the Constitution has been in controlling factions in today's political system?
September 27: The Price of Federalism – Class Discussion
Read: PAG, Chapter 3
Consider: How have opinions about the distribution of power in a federalist system changed over time? Whose interests have been served by these visions of the distribution of power? What recent events and policies illustrate the conflicts inherent in our federalist system (e.g., the issue of state-recognition of same-sex marriages)?
September 28: The Judiciary
Read: PAG, Chapter 16, pp. 584-596
Consider: What is judicial activism and judicial restraint? Does the Supreme Court violate its Constitutional role when it takes an activist role?
September 29: The Supreme Court Simulation
Read: AG, Chapter 16, pp. 596-622
Consider: What factors do/should influence the judicial decision-making process?
September 30: The Supreme Court Simulation
October 1: Civil Rights and Liberties
Read: PAG, Chapter 5
Consider: Does the concept of the rights of the accused give an unfair advantage to criminals? How public should our trials be?
October 4: Quiz #1
October 5: Service Learning Project – Initial Debriefing with Ms. Carroll and Ms. Outlaw
Read: Reading Packet
Due: Service Learning Goals and Contract
October 6: Guest Speaker, Wyndi Anderson, South Carolina Advocates for Pregnant Women
October 7: Civil Rights and Liberties (cont.)
Read: PAG, Chapter 6
Consider: What do we mean by equality in the American political system? What institutions(including social and political) promote or interfere with equality?
October 8: Individual Liberties v. The Public Good: Class discussion of Film "Skokie: Rights or Wrong"
Consider: To what extent should our government be allowed to regulate hate speech? To what extent should a public or private university be able to regulate hate speech? Should individuals, for example, be allowed to take out a racist ad in the school paper? What about outside of the college campus? What has the Supreme Court said about this issue? What are the important elements of the controversy?
October 11: Current Events Week-in-Review Topic 1
October 12-13: Political Socialization
Read: PAG, Chap. 7; Rimmerman, pp. 3-10
Consider: What are your first political memories? How did/do you learn about the political world? What kind of influence would you say your parents, teachers, friends have had on your political thinking?
October 14: Midterm Exam
October 15: No class
October 18: Political Participation
Read: Rimmerman, Chapters 2 and 3
Consider: What is the role of a good citizen in the United States? Why? What is civil society? Do you see it as something that needs 'reviving'?
October 19: Political Participation: Rates of Participation and the Implications for Democracy
Read: Rimmerman, Chapter 4
Consider: What is the connection between the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s and unconventional politics in the 1980s and 1990s? Do organizations such as ACT UP, Earth First!, the militias, and Operation Rescue potentially undermine civility and overall system stability?
October 20: Political Participation (Cont.)
Read: Rimmerman, Chapter 5
Consider: What is the New Citizenship? What role can student organizations play in overcoming voter apathy and citizens' political cynicism?
October 21: Service Learning and Citizenship: Guest Speaker
Read: Rimmerman, Chapter 6 and Reading Packet #3
Consider: What is the critique of service-learning? How might proponents of service- based learning respond to this critique?
October 22: Current Events Week-in-Review Topic 2
October 25-26: Public Opinion
Read: PAG, Chap. 8
Consider: To what extent should public opinion shape public policy? How should politicians assess public opinion (polls, town meetings, mailings)?
October 27-28: Interest Groups: Theoretical Perspectives and Their Role in the Political System
Read: PAG, Chap. 9
Do: Find a web site for at least two interest groups concerned with the issue of illiteracy. What role do interest groups played in the struggle against illiteracy? How do literacy interest groups attempt to influence the politics and the policy making process? Do these interest groups help or hinder the democratic process?
October 29-November 1: Fall Break
November 2-3: Political Parties: The Purpose and Structure of Political Parties
Read: PAG, Chap. 10
Consider: What are the policy positions of the two major parties in the American political system on two issues of primary concern to you? What about on the issue of illiteracy? How does the two-party system shape the balance of power in our political system?
November 4: GLA guest speakers: Facts about Illiteracy and the Greenville Community
Read: Reading Packet #4
November 5: Current Events Week-In-Review Topic #3
November 8: Quiz #2
November 9: Campaigns and Elections
Read: PAG, Chapter 11
Consider: What role should money play in elections? What are the arguments in favor of campaign finance reform? What are the arguments against campaign finance reform? What are the political obstacles to reform? Who are the supporters and opponents of campaign finance reform and why? What should be done?
November 10: Campaigns and Elections (cont.)
Read: Waldman, pp. 1-50
Consider: What factors influenced Clinton's position on the issue of national service during his 1992 campaign for the Presidency? How did his position change over the course of the campaign?
November 11: Guest Speaker: The Video Gambling Campaign in South Carolina
Consider: What do you think should be done, if anything, about video gambling in S.C.? How do you feel about the results of the recent vote?
November 12-15: The Media and Politics (Film)
Read: PAG, Chapter 12
Consider: How should private news organizations balance the need to make money against their civic duties to provide information to the public? What role does/should the media play in setting the agenda for the nation?
November 16: The Media and Politics: The National Service Bill
Read: Waldman, pp. 51-74
Consider: What role did the media play when it came to a discussion of Clinton's proposal for a national service bill? What is the media's responsibility in terms of informing the public on an issue such as this?
November 17: The Presidency: Presidential Authority and Leadership
Read: PAG, Chapter 14
Consider: What powers and authority does/should the President of the U.S. exercise? What are the responsibilities and requirements of a President in his personal and public life?
November 18: The Presidency: The Executive Office and the Personalized Presidency
Read: Waldman, pp.74-140
Consider: What was the role of the executive office in shaping the service bill proposal?
November 19: GLA Guest Speakers: Reflections
Read: Reading Packet #5
November 22-26: Thanksgiving Break
November 29: Current Events Week-in-Review Topic #4 and Congress – The Structure and Function
Read: PAG, Chapter 13 (Introductory film)
Consider: Discuss the issue of the complex role of the representative. Should the representative be a trustee or a delegate or something in between? How is the policy-making process affected by more access and democratization? Would term-limits serve to make Congress more or less effective? What about reforming the Senate filibuster?
November 30: Congress (cont.)
Read: Waldman, pp. 141-170
Consider: How does the legislative history of the National Service Bill differ from the traditional 'how a bill becomes a law' scenario? How did the proposal change from its original inception?
December 1: Congress (cont.)
Read: Waldman, pp. 170-217
Consider: Visit the AmeriCorps web site and get updated information on the AmeriCorps*Vista program. What is going on with the program?
December 2: Congress
Read: Waldman, pp. 217-257
Consider: Do some research in the library: How was the National and Community Service Trust Act of 1993 actually implemented? Has it been successful?
December 3: Current Events Week-in-Review Topic #5
December 6: Catch-Up and Review
December 7: Service Learning Project – Final Debriefing with GLA
December 8: Exam Questions and Course Evaluation

December 15: Final Exam – 9:00 a.m.-11:30 a.m.

Citizen Education

tdomf_26a6d — Mon, 29 Jan 2001 00:00:00 +0000

Course Description:
This course engages some ongoing political debates about public life, citizenship, and education in a democracy like ours. The debates over these features of democratic life are of crucial importance to us as students and citizens since questions of who we are, what we should learn, and how we should act are at stake. The debates are also important — and troubling –because many recent commentators have said that we are undergoing a crisis in these features of democratic life. They say: the public has retreated into private pursuits, citizens are more and more passive, and youth are learning less and less about everything, including politics. This course asks, in effect: are these commentators right? What should we think and do about citizenship, education, and public life?

Besides (or amidst) these important debates, the course also investigates certain key concepts of democratic politics. Besides citizenship, education, and the public, these concepts include public work, power, interest, freedom, duty, cooperation, and service. These concepts are crucial components of any theory of politics; and they animate the practice of politics, as well. Indeed, theory and practice go together. We may say that any particular theory of politics — especially democratic politics –can and should be evaluated in terms of what it says theoretically about citizen education and by what it does practically to educate citizens.

In order to address these debates and concepts in a theoretical way, our course will consider some important books and articles. The books include John Dewey's The Public and its Problems, as well as his collection On Education. They also include Myles Horton and Paolo Freire's We Make the Road by Walking and Eric Gorham's National Service, Citizenship, and Political Education. Some articles — about political education, service-learning, and citizenship schools –complement these books at various points. In their different ways, these books and articles help us to think what we are doing when we act as citizens, educators, and servicelearners.

In order to engage the practical dimensions of the debates and concepts, our course also has a practicum attached to it. (See fuller description in the handout for Pol 3090). Students will put their citizenship, education and public life into practice by serving as Public Achievement "Coaches" for middle and high school students (at St. Bernard's School in St. Paul) who will be researching, debating, and working on issues and problems regarding democracy and community life in and around their school.

The fundamental premise of the course is that we learn theoretically about citizenship and education in large part by being engaged practically as citizens and educators. Or to put it differently: to learn what must be learned about democratic education just is to be engaged in the practice of educating democrats.

Given the mix and the demands of the various theoretical and practical activities that make up the seminar, an additional 2 credit practicum, course in the political science department (Pol 3090) has been attached to supplement Pol 5610 (of 4 credits, bringing the total to 6 credits). The practicum, course will continue through Winter quarter 1999 (for another additional 2 credits). It is hoped that students will continue with the practicum. through winter, in order for us collectively to live up to our obligations to St. Bernard's School.

The required practicum. component will be satisfied by coaching at St. Bernard's during class time on Thursdays, to be followed by an hour-long debriefing and problem-solving session. The model of coaching that we will follow has been developed by Public Achievement (sponsored by the Center for Democracy and
Citizenship at the University). Some of the students at St. Bernard's have previously been involved in Public Achievement with previous coaches. Thus our course will build upon that experience.

There will be 4 additional activities that will bring us together with other coaches, teachers, parents, and community activists from other schools and youth sites. These are [a] a Public Achievement Kickoff [b] a Public Workshop [c] another
Public Workshop [d] a Public Achievement Celebration.

In terms of writing, students will keep an ongoing notebook that records reflections on course readings, coaching experiences, and more generally on the relationship between citizenship, education, and public life. The notebook will be submitted for
commentary and evaluation at midterm and during final exam week.

As a final entry in the notebook, students will evaluate the coaching practicum. in terms of what you thought worked (or did not work) , and what could be done to improve our practical experiment in citizen education.

Finally, there will be a take-home final examination (of about 8 typed pages). The exam will principally cover the course readings. Like the notebook, however, the final examination will allow and call for integration of the theoretical literature on
citizen education and the practical educational experiences involved in the course.

Grades:
Letter grades for the course will be assigned on the basis of the final examination (50%), the notebook (30%), and seminar discussion and participation (20%).

Required Books:
The following books are available for purchase at the Smith Bookstore on the West Bank.

John Dewey The Public and its Problems
John Dewey On Education
Myles Horton and Paolo Freire We Make the Road by Walking
Eric Gorham National Service, Citizenship, and Political Education

Also for purchase:
Center for Democracy and Citizenship Building Worlds, Transforming Lives,.
Making History: A Guide to Public Achievement

The Civic Community: Theory and Practice

tdomf_26a6d — Mon, 29 Jan 2001 00:00:00 +0000

Course Description and Requirements
This course is part of a pilot program, now in its third year, which seeks to bring together an academic, classroom-based curriculum and community service to create a holistic learning experience for the student. Although this class has been taught before, we are still trying out concepts, reading materials, and methods, and the course will still be somewhat experimental. We appreciate your willingness to be “pioneers” in this exciting exploration of a new frontier in civic learning. I will be describing more fully the content and aims of this course in class during our orientation, but a beginning statement of our ends is in order. This course will focus on what “community” means in contemporary democratic culture and will explore the role of each individual, both as individual and “citizen” in the democratic culture of the United States. We will look honestly and critically at both the promises and challenges of civic life in the U.S. context. In particular, we will examine questions of diversity and inequality in American life, especially those based on race, gender, class, religion, and sexual orientation, and the challenges these pose to contemporary understandings of democratic community.

Seminar Format
The class will be conducted as a seminar, even though our numbers will make this difficult. Therefore, it is imperative that students come to class prepared to discuss class themes and reading assignments. I will provide some context-setting and may present additional material in some instances, but for the most part the class will be an opportunity for us to reflect upon and analyze together critical questions about citizenship, democracy and community. Students will be encouraged to bring into class discussions their community service experiences as they relate to topic themes. To facilitate this discussion and your structured journal entries, you will be provided with regular handouts setting the context of particular authors/readings and asking a series of questions for reflection and for writing about it in your journals.

Readings
We will be spanning a wide range of reading materials, all meant to serve as resources to you as you think about what it means to be a democratic citizen and a member of the communities in which you find yourself. I have chosen the selections to give you as broad a range of ideas, topics, and disci-plinary perspectives as possible. You may not find all of the readings inspiring, and you may not agree with the perspective of some of the authors. But I hope they will provoke thought and discussion of the relevant matters of the course. Your responsibility is to read each work by the time it is listed in the course outline, as well as respond to journal questions about the reading in question.

Civic Community

Community Service
Because democracy is not a spectator sport, and because democratic citizens are active participants in their communities, in addition to the regular class meetings you and other students in the class will participate in approximately 4-5 hours of community service a week. Community service allows you the unique opportunity to apply theories and concepts discussed in class to your own practical experiences in serving others in the community. The additional hour of academic credit you signed up for under Political Science 399 takes account of this service work. You will have a choice among possible community service projects, and will be able to schedule your service around your other classes, work, or extracurricular activities. These projects will include (among others): Tutoring, coaching, and working with children in one of three after-school programs in New Brunswick elementary schools; Working as coaches/resources to high school students as they mentor younger New Brunswick children in a project designed to curb violence and victimization; Serving as a Literacy Tutor, ESL Instructor, or Teaching Assistant in the Adult Learning Center in New Brunswick; Working as a child care of social work assistant at Amandla Crossing, a transitional housing program for homeless families. All placement possibilities will be described and arranged in the first week of the semester.

Structured “Experiential Journal”
You will document your thoughts and experiences working in the community, reflecting critically on the assigned readings and class discussions, and responding to specific questions presented for writing. You should aim for a minimum of five pages per week of freely written material; the writing will not be scrutinized for “quality” along typical academic lines -it can be loose, informal, associative, and in alternative forms to straight prose. I will provide questions to guide you in your weekly journal writing, but there will be ample opportunity for you to write freely of your various experiences. Entries will be evaluated in light of the overall quantity of entries and the general quality of your intellectual explorations, responses to specific questions, musings, speculations, and the like. I’ll be responding to the journals along the way so that all will get feedback. Journals will count for 40% of your final grade in the three-hour portion of the class.

Group projects
We will talk much more about these in class, but they should concern issues that are related to your community service experience. You will be broken up into groups based on your choice of community service, and will have as a resource and “team leader” an advanced undergraduate student whom you can consult as you work on your project. You will work on your projects collaboratively throughout the semester, culminating in some form of written (probably) and oral presentation of your group’s findings. Group projects will be worth 30% of the final grade.

It is imperative that you do the readings, come prepared to discuss their relevance and implications each class, and faithfully participate in community service as per your agreement with your particular community service agency. Active attendance and participation in class sessions will make up the rest of your grade, so if you miss classes or don’t contribute to our seminar sessions, your grade will suffer relative to the severity of the problem.

Over the course of the semester, we hope that students and faculty will form a democratic community as we discuss and reflect upon the nature of democratic community. Please feel free to raise concerns, questions, criticisms, and suggestions as we go along, either publicly or in private consultation with me, or if you are more comfortable, with one of the student team leaders. The course outline is tentative, and should be seen as a general guide, not a box.

Course Outline

Date Topic Under Discussion
Reading Assignment

Jan. 20 Orientation; Introduction to Class; None; begin reading for next time
Community Service Placements

Jan. 25, 27 Democracy and Community

Feb. 1, 3, 8 Civic Values: The Morals,
Psychology, and Problems
of Belonging to Communities

Feb. 10, 15, The Meaning of Democratic
17 Citizenship: Historical and
Contemporary

Feb. 22, 24 The Responsibilities of
Mar. 1, 3 Citizenship: Philanthropy,
Service, “Civic Duty”

Civic Community

Katherine Mansfield, The Garden Party; John
Dewey, “The Search for the Great Community,”
The Public and Its Problems (1927)

Robert Bellah, et al., Habits of the Heart (1985), selections; Scott Peck, “‘Me True Meaning of Community,” from A Different Drum: Community Making and Peace; Simone Weil, The Need for Roots (1949), selections; Shirley Jackson, The Lottery; Ursula Le Guin, “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”

Thomas Jefferson, Selected Writings; Benjamin
Barber, “Neither Leaders Nor Followers”
(1985); Harry Boyte, “Practical Politics,” The
Atlantic (1993)

Martin Luther King, “On Being a Good Neighbor,” from Strength to Love (1963) 16-24; Mother Teresa, Words to Love By, selected quotations; George Santayana, “The Philanthropist,” Dialogues in Limbo (1925); Allan Luks & Peggy Payne, The Healing Power of Doing Good, selections; Edward Bloustein, “Community Service: A New Requirement for the Educated Person” (1988)

Challenges to Democratic Community: Inequality & Diversity in American Life

Mar. 8, 10 Class and Poverty

Mar. 22, 24, Race and Democratic Community
29

Jonathon Kozol, Savage Inequalities
(1991), selections

Ralph Ellison, The Invisible Man, prologue
(1947); Shelby Steele, The Content of Our
Character (1990), selections; Gloria Anzaldua,
Borderlands: La Frontera, selections

Civic Community

Date Topic Under Discussion
Reading Assignment

Mar. 3 1, Gender and Democratic

Apr. 5 Community

Apr. 7 Religion, Sexual Orientation,
and the Nature of Prejudice

Apr. 12′ Suburbanization and the
Decline of Democratic Community

Apr. 14 The Challenge of “Multiculturalisin”

Levels of Citizenship: School, Neighborhood, Nation

Apr. 19 The University as a Civic Community

Apr. 21 The Local Community & Public Space

Apr. 26 Nationalism & Democratic Community

Apr. 28, Group Project Presentations
May 1

S. Okin, “Justice and Gender”; E. Fox-Genovese, “Women and Community,” from Feminism Without Illusions (1991)

“Minersville School District v. Gobitis,’ in The Courage of Their Convictions; “T’he Gay Cadet,” The Village Voice (1990)

Kenneth Jackson, “The Loss of Community in Metropolitan America” (1986)

Catharine Stimpson, “Meno’s Boy: Hearing His Story – & His Sister’s”; Michael Morris, “Educating Citizens for a Multicultural Society” (1990); Dinesh D’Souza, “Illiberal Education” (1991)

Michael Moffatt, “What College is Really Like,” from Coming of Age in New Jersey (1989),25-53,71-73; Benjamin Barber, “The Civic Mission of the University” (1989)

Evans & Boyte, “‘The People Shall Rule,” from Free Spaces (1992); Alexis de Tocqueville, “The Local Spirit of Liberty,” from Democracy in America

John Schaar, “The Case for Patriotism,” Legitimacy in the Modern State (198 1)

Note: Dr. Rick Battistoni is currently the Director of the Feinstein Institute for Public Service at Providence College in Providence, Rhode Island.

Becoming a Public Citizen: Connecting Community Service and Public Leadership

tdomf_26a6d — Mon, 29 Jan 2001 00:00:00 +0000

Course Description
In this seminar, we will explore the links between community service and public leadership, which we define as making a difference in one's community, state, and nation through government and public policymaking. Historically, community service has been the means by which women left the private realm and entered the public world. We will ask whether that connection still exists and how it can be strengthened. Students will participate in a service experience in the community and explore public policymaking and women's leadership in the classroom. Through a research paper and the development of a public advocacy campaign, students will apply academic skills and community experience to the world of public policymaking.

We will begin the course by looking at notions of participatory democracy. What does it mean to be a citizen in the American Polity? What are the expectations of democracy? How have these concepts been challenged by marginalized populations? We will then look at service as a technique for educating young people for citizenship. What are the pedagogical expectations of service? What are the challenges to the concept of service?

Our focus will then shift to the role that service and voluntarism has played in women's history. Denied formal access to the public sphere, how did women exercise authority and power? How did women's service work prompt women's access to public life and how does that reflect in contemporary politics?

We will then turn to ways that students can use their service experience to engage in mainstream political activity by examining the skills necessary for political participation. Finally, we will consider political interest and motivation among the "twenty-something" generation. Studies show that young people have less interest in politics then ever before. Why? How can young people be motivated and galvanized to make a difference?

This course has five objectives:

1)to make a connection between academic and extra-curricular interests and the public arena;
2)to understand the theoretical expectations of democratic citizenship and challenge those concepts;
3)to carefully consider the dynamics of service learning and its consequences;
4)to discover the ways that service has moved women into the public arena;
5)to explore the various roles one can play in the political process and to expand
opportunities for connecting to that process.

Course Requirements
This will be an intense and highly participatory class that will require everyone's involvement. Students will be expected to read each week's selections completely and critically and to be active participants in class discussions.

Community Service
This course has a community service requirement. You will volunteer 4 hours per week for 10 weeks in a community service placement in an issue area of interest to you. The placements will be organized by the CASE program. You will receive one additional credit, but you must register for both this class (790:440:03) and for the community service placement (790:400) and attend all scheduled trainings conducted by the CASE program.

Community service credit will be graded separately from classroom activities. You will be expected to keep a simple log of your activities during your volunteer hours and submit the log to the instructors on December 2nd. Community service hours must be completed by November 25.

Paper
One major paper is required for this class. Students will select a public policy question of concern to them and related to their community service placement. Each student will identify and interview at least two leaders who share an interest in the policy question. One of the leaders must hold a formal leadership position and one must be a community advocate.

The paper should describe the policy question and identify the key advocacy organizations, elected officials, bureaucracies, and boards or commissions which address the issue. The paper should present the varying approaches to addressing the issue. However, in the end the author should take a stand on the issue and advocate for a preferred approach to solving the problem, whether that be through improved implementation of current policies, support for proposed legislation, or a different policy approach. The author's proposed solution will then be the basis of her/his action plan.

To facilitate the writing and research process, the papers will be graded in a 'rolling fashion,' with bibliographies, interview questions, and a rough draft due during the semester. By October 7th, students will submit in writing their paper topics and arrange a meeting with Ms. Walker to discuss the topic and their preliminary ideas. No later than October 21 at, students will submit a bibliography. No later than October 28th, students will submit the names of the two people they wish to interview and a list of interview questions; these must be approved before interviewing can proceed. A rough draft of the paper is due November 18th.

To provide students with more feedback on their papers, as well as provide experience in constructive feedback, students will participate in a group review process. Students will be assigned to groups of three and rough drafts will be exchanged among group members. Reviewers have one week to read the paper and make comments. Reviewers will be provided with a series of questions which will guide their feedback. One copy of the review will be given to the paper writer and a copy should be submitted to the instructors.

All component parts must be submitted on time; lateness will affect the grade. The papers are due December 9th. There are no exceptions to this deadline, for every day the paper is late, the grade will be reduced by one letter.

Action Plan
In order to explore how to relate academic study and research with political practice, students will also develop an action plan for an advocacy campaign around the issue each has researched. Each student will present her/his action plan in class during the last two weeks of class. We will discuss these action plans in more detail later in the semester.

Readings
Readings are available for purchase from Joanne on the second floor of the Sagletan Institute of Politics.

Instructors' Expectations
1 . Utilize the assigned readings, lectures, and discussions for the research papers, action plans, and community service experiences.
2. Bring the community service experiences into the classroom as a basis for questions and discussion.
3. Submit all written assignments on time, typed, and proofread. The instructors will expect students' writing to conform to the rules of grammar, punctuation, and spelling of standard written English.

Breakdown of Seminar Grade
15% Attendance and Participation
15% Bibliography, Interview Questions, & Rough Draft
5% Reviews
40% Paper
25% Action Plan

Dates to Remember
September 9: Course overview, discussion of community service placements, and
Introduction of basic concepts
September 14: CASE Orientation (mandatory)
October 7: Paper Topic Due
October 2l: Bibliography Due October 28
November 18: Interview Names and Questions Due
November 25: Rough Draft Due (3 copies)
November 25: Reviews Due
December 2: Community Service Hours Completed
December 9: Placement Logs Due. Paper Due/Action Plan Presentations
December 18: Action Plan Presentations

Class Schedule
September 15: A Basis for Discussion

Harry C. Boyle and Kathryn Stoff Hogg, Doing Politics: An Owners Manual for Public L&, Minnesota: Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, 1992.

Sara M. Evans, "Women's History and Political Theory: Toward a Feminist Approach to Public Life," in Nancy A. Hewitt and Suzanne Lebsock (ads.). Visible Women, Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1993. pp. 119-140.

Oliver Sacks, 'The Revolution of the Deaf,' in Benjamin R. Barber and Richard M. Battistoni (ads.). Education for Democracy, Iowa: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company, 1993.

September 23: Citizens, Community, Democracy

John Dewey, 'Search for the Great Community,' excerpted in Benjamin R. Barber and Richard M. Battlstoni (ads.), Education tbr Democracy, Iowa: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company, 1993.

Thomas Jefferson, 'Letter to Samuel Kerchoval," in Benjamin R. Barber and Richard M. Battistoni (ads.). Education for Democracy. Iowa: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company, 1993.

Alexis do Tocqueville,"That the Americans Combat the Effacts of Individualism by Free institutions," and "Of the Use which the Americans Make of Public Associations in Civil Life," In Richard D. Heffner (ad.) Democracy in America, New York: Penguin Group, 1956.

September 30: Citizens, Community, Democracy

Martin Luther King, Jr.. 'Give Us the Ballot We Will Transform the South,' in James M. Washington (ed-) A Testament Of Hope, San Francisco: Harper, 1986.

Carol Pateman, "Ferninism and Democracy,- in Benjamin, R Barber and Richard M. Battistoni (oda.), Education for Democracy, '- Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company. 1993.

Richard Reeves, 'Canandaigua,' American Journey, New York Simon and Schuster, 1982.

Roger M. Smith, "Beyond Tooqueville, Myrdal and Hartz: The Multiple Traditions in America,- in American Political Science Review. vol. 87, no. 3, September 1993, pp. 549-566.

Camel West, "Introduction," Race Matters, New York – New York; Vintage Books, 1994, Pp. 3-13.

October 7: Community Service: Educating Future Citizens Paper Topics Due

Bryan Barnett and Grace Losso. 'For Self and Others: Some Reflections on the Value of Community Service" Getting the Most from Community, New Jersey: The Civic Education and Community Service Program, 1991, Pp. 19-24.

Brad Belbas, Kathi Gorak. and Rob Shumer, 'Commonly Used Definitions of Service Learning: A Discussion Piece," October. 1993.

William James, "The Moral Equivalent of War," in John J. McDermott (ed.),. New York: Random House, 1967. 660-671.

Matthew Moseley, 'The Youth Service Movement America's Trump Card In Revitalizing Democracy," National Civic Review, Summer/Fall, 1995.

October 14: Library Session Meet In Douglass Library

October 21: Critiques of Service and "Charity" Bibliography Due

Theresa Funiciello, "Filling the Gap: A Charitable Deduction." and "City Silos and the Pop-Tart Connection, "Tyranny of Kindness, Now York– The Atlantic Monthly Press, 1993.

Eric B. Gorham. 'National Service, Political Socialization, and Citizenship," National Service, Citizenship, and Political Education. Albany: State University of Now York Press, 1992, pp. 5-30.

Paul Rogat Loeb, "Tangible Fruits: The Community Service Movement," in Generation at the Crossroads: Apathy and Action on the American Campus. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1994, pp. 231-247.

Carrie Spector, "Empty the Shelters: Anatomy of a Struggle," WhoCares, Winter, 1995, pp. 40-43.

October 28: Woman's Voluntarism and Moral Authority lnterview Names and Questions Due

Catharine Beecher. 'The Peculiar Responsibilities of American Women,' in Nancy F. Cott (ad.) Roots of Bitterness, New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., 1972.
Karen J. Blair, 'Sorois and the New England Woman's Club" The Clubwoman as a Feminist, New York: Holmes & Meier Publishers. Inc., 1980.

Paula Giddings. "TO Be a Woman, Sublime: The Ideas of to National Black Women's Club Movement (to 1917)." When and Where I Enter. The Impact of Black Women on Race and Sex in America. New York: William Marrow and Company, 1984, pp. 95-118.

Barbara Welter, "The Cult of True Womanhood, 1820-186O." American Quarterly 18:151-74.

November 4: From Service to Reform: Women Entering the Public Sphere

Paula Baker, 'The Domestication of Politics Women and American Political Society, 1780-1920," American Historical Review 89 (1984) p. 820-647.

Mary Pardo, "Mexican American Women Grassroots Community Activists: 'Mothers of East Los Angeles," Frontiers, vol. xi, no. 1, 1990, pp. 1-7.

Ann Firor Scott. 'Women's Voluntary Associations: From Charity to Reform " in Kathleen D. McCarthy (ad.) Lady Bountiful Revisited, Now Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1990.

November 11: Women In Contemporary Politics

Susan J. Carroll, 'Me Politics of Difference: Woman Public Officials as Agents of Change," Stanford Law& Policy Review, 5 (Spring. 1994), pp. 11 -20.

Tamara Jones, 'A Candidate's Uneasy Station in Life,' The Washington Post.

Celinda C. Lake and Vincent J. Bregilo, "Different Voices, Different Views: The Politics of Gender," The American Woman 1992-1993, Now York: W.W. Norton, 1992, pp. 178-201.

Joseph P. Shapiro, 'The Mothers of Invention," U.S. News, January 10, 1994.

November I8: Political Advocacy

Rough Drafts Due
Guest Speaker Christy Davis, state director, U.S. Senator Frank Lautenberg
Nancy Amidei. So You Want to Make a Difference: Advocacy is the Key, Washington DC: OMB Watch, no date.
Kim Bobo, Jackie Kendall, Steve Max, "Direct Action Organizing," in Organizing for Social Change, Washington: Seven Locks Press, 1991, pp. 2-48.

November 25: A Life in Politics
Reviews Due
Community Service Hours Completed
Madeleine Kunin, Living a Political Life, Now York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1994, Chapters 2, 3. 4, 7, and 11
December 2: Apathy and Activism in the 20-Something Generation Placement Logs Due
Susan B. Glasser, "Do 20somethings Hate Politics?" WhoCares, Fall, 1994, pp. 20-28.
Harwood Group. College Students Talk Politics, Ohio: Kettering Foundation, pp. 1-30.
Paul Rogat Loeb," The World of Activists: Communities of Concern" in Generation at the Crossroads: Apathy and Action on the American Campus, New Brunswick: Rutger's University Press, 1994, pp, 207-230.
December 9: Oral Presentation Of Action Plans Papers Due
December 18: Final Exam period/ Oral presentation of Action Plans
class meets 8:00 am to 11:00 am.

Community Service in American Culture

tdomf_26a6d — Mon, 29 Jan 2001 00:00:00 +0000

Public and Community Service Studies at Providence College

Furthering the mission of Providence College, Public and Community Service Studies involves a systematic and rigorous study of the major conceptual themes of community, service, compassion, public ethics, social justice and social change, and leadership. The goals of the major include providing students with the civic skills of critical thinking, public deliberation and communication, public problem solving, collective action and community building.

The Course

Within the context of the public and community service studies curriculum, this course provides the historical context for understanding community service in American culture. Contemporary understandings of community and service along with current experience in community and with service provision have been socially constructed in the United States over the past two hundred years. Meanings assigned to community and service have also been highly contested, in large part because they are concepts that embody values, beliefs, attitudes, and ideas that are central to definitions of democracy, social justice, civic resiliency and public life.

This is an interdisciplinary, experientially based course designed to provide community and classroom-based opportunities to examine this historical context. The method of study relies upon your service experience, allowing you to apply and examine concepts addressed in class to your own practical experience in service others.

Community Site:
Amos House
415 Friendship Street
Adrienne Marchetti (Assistant Director) 272-0220 and Maggie Meany (Volunteer Coordinator) 831-9866
Community Assistant: Sarah Long: slong02 {at} providence(.)edu

Amos House is a comprehensive social service organization that provides support to homeless and transitional men and woman in South Providence. Amos House operates a men's and women's shelter as well as a meal site which provides free breakfast and lunch Monday-Saturday. Founded and developed in the Catholic Worker tradition, Amos House has since undergone major changes as it has become one of the largest social service organizations/shelters in the state. Last year, an on-site medical clinic was established.

Goals and Objectives
The goals and objectives of this course are:

Goal : Draw upon your introduction to community service and service learning from PSP 101.

Objective: Demonstrate an understanding of the history of participatory democracy in the United States.

Goal: Deepen your thinking and practice of community partnerships and relationships in community.

Objective: Demonstrate an understanding of the history of community organizing and its relevance to service provision.
Objective: Describe a historical framework with which to analyze structures of service provision.

Objective: Describe a context for examining the organization of knowledge and institutions of higher education in relation to community-based public problem solving.

Goal: Provide a framework and grounding for community service that makes connections between service and political engagement.

Objective: Demonstrate an ability to analyze and critique the dominant charity model of service and its institutional context.

This third goal reflects a particular critique of the dominant "charity" model of community service and service learning that encourages students to think that individual actions are a substitute for focusing on larger structural issues. The approach to social problems as individual concerns positions service as distinct from political activity, which involves working with others to influence (or alter) societal institutions. Part of our readings and community-based activity will be focused on exploring alternatives to the charity model.

Readings:

Assorted handouts, including: