Bob Trudeau writes:
> David Droge is absolutely correct, in my opinion, about the
>relevance of Putnam and service learning for the "recovery" of American
>universities -- but boy is it hard to get even a quite progressive
>department of colleagues to consider having service-learning become the
>centerpiece of a curriculum or major, even when these arguments are raised.
>It turns out that some of my "radical" friends, somewhat hostile to the
>traditional canon etc etc, are stilled mired in the view of academic life
>as more valid if it's ivory tower-ish; they seem to say that it's that
>distance, the objectivity, that validates us, not real community connecting.
>What to do?
I don't know if this will help or not, but there's a new book out called
ESCAPE FROM THE IVORY TOWER: STUDENT ADVENTURES IN DEMOCRATIC EXPERIENTIAL
EDUCATION, by David H. Lempert (Jossey-Bass). I haven't read it yet (I've
got it on order), but the advertising blurb suggests that it might be a
response to Bob's question: "A passionate, insightful, sometimes angry,
always provocative challenge to American higher education's traditional
model of lecture, library, and laboratory learning. Read this book with
your academic seatbelt buckled; it is a high-speed critique of the mission,
curriculum, pedagogy, student services, and financing of the academy at the
end of the 20th century. David Lempert proposes a student-initiated and
community- oriented course/curriculum which is problem-centered,
cooperative, interdisciplinary, experiential, and rooted in the principles
of participatory democracy." [David Warren, president, National Association
of Independent Colleges and Universities]
I suspect that this book will be of general interest to all of us engaged
in service learning. Has anyone out there read it? Any comments?
Tom Huckin
Univ. of Utah