Re: Service to Mc World

bob asked if I thought this message was appropriate for the list.  As
usual, he moves the dialogues forward in helpful ways.--D

>
>
>Glad to see your response to the McWorld dialogue.  For the academic based
>service-Learning gang that is so dominant now claims that its purpose is to
>"serve" the students and their learning agendas.    Whatever happened to the
>residents in communities who are struggling to overcome some difficult
>barrier or dreaming of some new focus and their agendas being the Service we
>are to be engaged in as Service-Learners?
>
>If we use a four legged stool - students, faculty & univ, agency rep and org
>of community, and the residents of a community as equal partners in a
>Service-learning venture, then each partner is indeed potentially a learner
>and teacher, a contributor and beneficiary within the context of working on
>some public good.
>
>So a design issue is being raised by the McDonalds story.   When the focus is
>on student learning and the sense of public service or shared common ground
>that elevates us all is ignored or downplayed, then the academically based
>designs play right into the McDonalds senario.   Student learning is possible
>in McDonalds as a worker, as a customer, as an agent of their marketing, et.
>al.......But the question in a four legged stool framework becomes "what is
>the public service agenda of McDonalds, of the faculty,of the students, of
>the community residents?"   For me, the issue clearly states the need for
>serious review of what is meant by the service word in the academically based
>service-learning design.   That is a design flaw, in my view.   But after 30
>years trying to make this point to the academic world, I am still puzzled as
>to why the Service part of Service-Learning has been so little understood.
>
>I do not know how to get this to the larger list serve.  If you would think
>it merits getting out there, could you do it?
>
>Best wishes, Bob Sigmon
>


David Droge, Associate Professor

Communication and Theatre Arts
University of Puget Sound
1500 N Warner St.
Tacoma, WA 98416
(253)879-3333 (office)
(253)879-3500 (fax)


"Teach in order to learn."  Baba Hari Dass