Tom Huckin from the University of Utah asked for comments on David Lempert's
new book "Escape from the Ivory Tower." I have read about two thirds of it
and would guess, from the discussion that I've been reading about Putnam, that
it does address the issue of how we can begin to engage students in regaining
some of the community connections that we seem to be losing as a society.
Lempert writes about the successes he and others have had at Stanford,
Berkeley, and other places engaging students in learning by tying study of
literature and theory with active community involvement and personal
reflection. The book includes several detailed class syllabi as well as
anecdotal evidence from students and facilitators. Lempert writes of
strong possibilities for preparing students to escape from the status quo
of corporate, industrial, and political society while building consensus
within communities.
There is a lot here that supports the concept of service learning and its
benefits for both students and communities. My fear and complaint is
that Lempert was far too one sided in his opinions regarding higher
education as it currently exists. Not that higher education could not
use some tinkering. Clearly, it could be better in many ways. However,
his complete deconstruction of the present academy failed to see any of
its positive aspects and will surely alienate many of the faculty members
that we need as allies in getting service learning more integrated
into our curricula.
Scott Hummel
University of New Hampshire
swh@christa.unh.edu