From John Ohliger.com
Second Thoughts Vol. 5, No. 1, December 1982
VOL. 5, NO. 1, DECEMBER 1982
Second Thoughts
In this issue:
-- Infoglut
-- Along the Network (John Fahning)
-- Adult Ed by Example
-- Radical Teacher
--Them that has gets
-- Gender
-- Underdevelopment and Education
-- Conferences: Independent Scholarship, Manikiki in the Rain, Freire Workshop; Whatever Happened to Gerry Hanberry?
INFOGLUT: WHO SAID INDIANS DON'T HAVE A SENSE OF HUMOR?
"Keeping au courant is not my style: newspapers and magazines, and especially TV, are phenomena of which a very little goes a very long way with me; the same is true for meetings, conferences, and workshops.... I believe in reading unsystematically and taking notes erratically. Any effort to form a rational policy about what to take in, out of the inhuman flood of printed human utterance that pours over us daily, feels to me like a self-deluded exercise in pseudomastery." So wrote Dorothy Dinnerstein in the preface to her important work The Mermaid and the Minotaur (Harper & Row, 1976). Dinnerstein's provocative views strike home! We spend a lot of time planning or attending conferences, meetings, and other gatherings as well as preparing or reading many publications. We don't intend to abandon all of these activities or to recommend that you do likewise. But we agree with Michael Marien in the Sept. 1st Journal of Humanistic Psychology: "The pervasive condition that must be faced is the fact that we live in an age of infoglut. Another book, journal, conference, or newsletter ...will not necessarily help people, and might simply add to the pervasive problem of information overload and fragmentation."
It's high time we asked you to join us in questioning the value of all these gatherings and publications, in examining the dynamics behind their proliferation, and in seeking some criteria for their appropriateness.
For many people, reading or meeting are ways to avoid personal or collective action, not to prepare for it. We are all familiar with conference addicts and print junkies -- people
whose whole lives revolve around one, or the other, or both. Such folks get their main kicks from the short range intense and instant intimacy at conferences held in hotels or centers, the more remote, intriguing, or fancy, the better. And they delight in quoting the latest fact or idea gleaned from the currently most faddish book or article. They play into the hands of what sometimes seem to be the principle beneficiaries of our concerns: the hotels, airlines, conference planners, publishers, and photocopy machine makers.
Let's face it, they are all big businesses. As with other big businesses, concern with expanding markets and profits outweighs concern for the quality of the product or outcome — or the raising of the fundamental question: Who needs this product or outcome? What purposes do they serve?
How can we avoid supporting these industries and still do worthwhile work? How can we benefit from the obvious advantages of some conferences and publications — preparation for worthwhile action, exchange of views, personal contacts, stimulation of preparing them, etc.— without contributing to the infoglut? Even among alternate adult educators, conferences and publications are proliferating rapidly these days. Is there any way we can limit the number of meetings we hold or attend without condemning ourselves to isolation? Can we reduce the number of publications we prepare or read without getting enmeshed in inappropriate arguments about "censorship" or "the free market of ideas"? Are there ways of encouraging genuine interchange and interaction, real and responsive communication, without increasing gatherings and printed matter?
We ask you to join us in seeking answers to these questions. What, in fact, are the questions that you feel should be raised about these issues? We promise you that we won't convene a conference on conferences or put out a publication on publications, but we would like to get the benefit of your thinking on these problems and print them in ST.
•Recently Reva Crawford, founder of the National Indian Adult Education Association, sent us some quotations by Will Rogers on conferences including: "You can't hope to gain ground at a conference. You only try to remedy the damage done at the last one. I have always said that a conference is held for one reason only, to give everybody a chance to get sore at everybody else." But Rogers also said: "It is certainly gratifying to read about one conference that got somewhere. The Navajo Indians held a conference and decided they could get along without the services of about 25 white office holders who had been appointed to help look after them. The Indians said they were doing it to save the white man money. Who said the Indians don't have a sense of humor?"
Can we avoid conferences and publications that deserve Will Rogers' first comment and plan ones that merit the praise of his second? And with a sense of humor to boot? LET US HEAR FROM YOU:
Is ST Contributing To Infoglut?
If you think that, by the very act of publishing this newsletter in which we often report positively on conferences and publications, we are contributing to the infoglut we decry above, you may well be right. That's just one more reason why we need the benefit of your comments on these issues.
LOVE IT OR LEAVE IT?
When people ask you why you stay in the field of adult ed when you're so critical of what goes on, you might find a hint of how to reply in this statement by the half-Indian Shakespearian actor, Ben Kingsley, who has the title role in the new film Gandhi:
"I'm not interested in acting, I'm only interested in being. Tom Smith, my great makeup man, say's he's in makeup because he hates makeup. I'm an actor because I hate artifice, because I hate untruths, although my whole career is an act of artifice." (Newsweek, Dec. 13, 1982, p. 63)
LINKAGES/NETWORKS
Are you looking for ways to connect with people with similar interests and concerns? Here are three good places to start: Write to Robert Theobald, Box 2240, Wickenburg, AZ 85358. Bob has for years maintained a linkage system by which people with interest in bringing about transformation in different ways exchange one-page info sheets on each other. Bob has now added other services and publications as well. You might also ask him about his latest book, Avoiding 1984.
Write The Open Network, PO Box 18666, Denver, CO 80218. If you send them $4 and some information about yourself they will send you a sample information packet with entries from their computer system. This is a personalized service and the operators state "we like to remind people we are a human network that uses computers as one of our tools." Barbara Conroy sent this.
Purchase Networking: The First Report and Directory just published in a large-format 400 page paperback by Doubleday/Dolphin at S15.95. Jessica Lipnack and Jeffrey Stamps have put this directory of 1500 key organizations together and claim it is the most complete ever assembled. Besides Education, the directory covers organizations dealing with Health, Cooperatives, Ecology, Politics, Economics, Communications, Personal and Spiritual Growth, Global and Futures Concerns.
HORNS & PLUGS
We are not so modest at Basic Choices that we can't blow our own horn and plug a magazine at the same time. The Learning Connection has just published its 1983 Adult Learning Review of Books that includes a cogent retrospective of Ivan Illich's work since Deschooling Society by our own venerable John Ohliger and Filip van Moen who recently spent some time in our Illich archives on a grant from the Belgian government.
There's another review by Basic Choicer Tappey Turner of Michael Wyatt's book, New Age Socialism (cf. August ST, p. 2). Readers are encouraged to subscribe to the magazine for a further taste of our enlightened views, not to mention those of other slightly off-center adult education types. At S5/year, a sub represents a bargain in these inflationary times. Write: The Learning Connection, 1221 Thurston, Manhattan, KS 66502 and see for yourselves.
ADULT EDUCATION BY EXAMPLE
As far as I know, no textbook deals with adult education by example, no grad course covers it. But it is potentially one of the most important forms we have. Exemplary personal and group action as a learning stimulus for others offers some of the rare hope for a good future. But it also opens up the hazardous domain of saints, martyrs, heroes, and heroines. Blindly following them is dangerous and foolish, however virtuous they may be. Courageous good action can be a worthwhile form of human questioning on the part of otherwise ordinary people. Their example can be an occasion for learning by others — for pondering the meaning of their action for our own lives and then acting ourselves.
Excellent biographies of two such exemplary figures, A.J. Muste and Dorothy Day, have recently appeared: Abraham Went Out by Jo Ann Ooiman Robinson (Temple University Press), and Dorothy Day by William D. Miller (Harper & Row).
Though both are generally known for their heroic action for peace and justice, both could be called adult educators in the conventional sense — Muste for his pioneering work in labor education, Day for her educational efforts with the poor and homeless. Muste (1885-1967) will probably be remembered more for his behind the scenes efforts in the civil rights movement. Martin Luther King claimed that without Muste "the American Negro might never have caught the meaning of non-violence." Day (1897-1980) co-founded the Catholic Worker Movement. The New York Times said she "played a seminal role in developing the social and economic thinking of a generation of American Catholics."
But for me Muste and Day stand out for their leadership in the peace movement. Muste was still climbing missile base fences and getting arrested in his 70s to encourage others to protest the war machine. Day joined others in refusing to enter civil defense shelters in the 1950s when the government was jailing folks for calling attention to such useless insanity.
Both were often labeled "saints," but they rejected the compliment since they knew it gave people an excuse to say that worthwhile action of the type they engaged in was available only to the superhuman few. What is valuable about these biographies is that their warts-and-all approach reveals Muste and Day were not in fact "saints" and that much of their lives was spent in the humdrum unsaintly toil of administration and fund raising.
Both biographies are also helpful in showing some of their common spiritual roots that gave form to their inspiring lives. The example that stands out the most for me is the part the poem "Hound of Heaven" by Francis Thompson played in their lives. Dorothy Day used to get the playwright Eugene O'Neill to recite it for her and said it brought "an intensification of the religious spirit that was in me." A.J. Muste recalled it as he reflected on a "transforming experience" that helped him recover his religious faith. He said he read it again "with exceeding great joy."
"Great joy" was exactly the experience I had at times when I read these two biographies and I heartily recommend them to you. They provide an exciting foundation for the concept of adult education by example and should be especially helpful in these days when peace education/action is so urgent. (John Ohliger)
RADICAL TEACHER
We exchange publications with 25 magazines, newsletters, and journals and would be glad to do the same with yours if you write us. One of the very good ones is the thrice yearly Radical Teacher "an independent socialist and feminist magazine that focuses on: the politics of teaching; the political economy of education; feminist, Marxist and 3rd world perspectives in literature, history, biology, sociology and other disciplines." Subs are $8 or $4 for Part Time/Unemployed/Retired (PO Box 102, Cambridge, MA 02142).
Radical Teacher often runs articles on adult education and seeks those which advocate education as nurturing, through democratic means, individual potential and collective power, and advocates education as contributing to a better society, as a means of changing society, and as combating inequality. They want articles which: "are written in language that everyone can understand; advance broadly left causes without sectarian formulations; if they include theory, end in practice; if they describe victimization, suggest ways of resistance."
If you have an idea for an article send a one-page proposal to Susan O'Malley (150 Lafayette Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11238) who will also be glad to send you a style sheet.
HOW-TO & WHY
Educators who want to keep up on the latest research and get practical tips on how to improve learning are advised to check into two newsletters edited by Marilyn Ferguson, author of The Aquarian Conspiracy. Most issues of her Brain/Mind Bulletin and Leading Edge Bulletin contain articles on such interesting themes as "Wrong Answers Key to Learning," "How-To Instructions Inhibit Optimum Performance," and "New Theory: Feelings Code, Organize Thinking." For subscription information and possibly sample copies write Interface Press, Box 42247, 4717 N. Figueroa St., Los Angeles, CA 90042.
THEM THAT HAS GETS
More writers today are pointing out that adult ed is essentially for the well-off and those who are already well-schooled. At the same time the liberal belief in pouring money on educational problems is being recognized as contributing to a welfare program for the professional caste. And the conservative belief that people are uneducated because they don't try hard enough or are by nature dumber than the rest of us is daily revealed as the elitist and fanciful one it is. We may be coming closer to understanding that the dilemma is basically a structural one with its foundation in cruel values.
"Adult Education: Breeder of Inequality?" is the title of an article in the August 22 New York Times Education Section by L. Steven Zwerling, Acting Dean of the New York University School of Continuing Education: "The evidence is overwhelming that the critical determinant in continuing one's education is the amount of education one has already attained. ...Compared with the distributional effects of continuing education, other forms of education are quite egalitarian.... Continuing education, therefore, is potentially the most unequal segment of organized educational activity."
The Executive Director of the Canadian Association for Adult Education says in the August 9 Maclean's that the race to create educational opportunities has been directed largely at middle-class consumers who already have "high incomes and higher education." And the CAAE has just issued a report with statistics showing "adult ed in Canada (is) working to increase rather than decrease gaps in Canadian society."
"Slurping Lessons"
The fact that adult ed is primarily for those with "high incomes and higher education" may have been hidden because so much of it has appeared under different labels. The novelist Kurt Vonnegut labeled some of this "Slurping Lessons" in his God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater (Dell, 1965). Eliot Rosewater, the heir to the 14th largest fortune in America, talks about this generally unrecognized but major form of adult education: "Our family was born on the banks of the Money River, where the wealth of the nation flows. We can slurp from that mighty river to our heart's content. And we even take slurping lessons, so we can slurp more efficiently. Slurping lessons from lawyers! From tax consultants! From customers’ men!...And our teachers in turn become rich, and their children become buyers of lessons in slurping."
A similar form of adult ed that's becoming popular these days might be labeled "Pseudo- Slurping Lessons" for those who want to get close to the Money River but still live some distance away. Ed Beers of Madison Campus Ministry has sent us a copy of an Associated Press dispatch by Lee Mitgang with the heads "Upwardly Mobile Get Tips: Psst! Wanna Be a Jet-Setter?" Ed says "It gives me Third Thoughts about continuing education." The article in the Oct 5 Madison, WI Capital Times begins: "Just a few limousine lengths from the glitter of Fifth Avenue, 23 people sipped champagne as they spent an evening learning how to move up in life.... The two-hour class was sponsored by Network for Learning, a three year old company that sells adult ed courses in New York and Houston." And Marcia Millman in "Hope for the Greedy?" (Ms. Magazine, Oct.) describes some newly popular Prosperity Training Workshops where not only can the tuition reach $300 for a three-day program but some of the participants are required to "tithe" 10 % of their incomes to the instructor "in order to break out of their poverty mentality."
Perhaps those who take these "Pseudo-Slurping Lessons" could save their hard-earned tuition by adopting George Bernard Shaw's teaching technique: "My method of education is to teach people how to laugh at themselves." (New York Times, April 13, 1924)
TRANSACTION
Some people only cry when they're sad, I cry (or water leaks out of my eyes) when I'm emotionally and intellectually engaged with someone - when we are discussing matters of great interest to me in a friendly and open way. That almost always happened when I sat down to talk with Bob Monaghan, a professor at Ohio State University, even though we were miles apart politically much of the time.
For years Bob has been putting out a two-page newsletter called Transaction, which exemplifies the breadth and depth of his concerns and interests. The Nov. 4th issue focuses on a book by Earl Kelley (Education for What Is Real, 1947) which lays out some "assumptions regarding education which Kelley observed as being commonly held by many professional educators" including: "The student comes to the university to acquire knowledge, and that knowledge is handed down on authority; Content taken on authority is equivalent to education; Working on tasks devoid of purpose or interest is good discipline; (and) It is more important to measure what has been learned than it is to learn."
Bob notes that "Kelley says civilization must mean more than this. 'For education it must mean a new set of patterns, built from the cooperative, rather than the punitive and competitive, point of view.'"
Bob ends: "How far have we come in our assumptions since 1947?" For info on getting this issue or on the mailing list write Bob at Dept. of Communication, OK ST UNIV, Columbus, OH 43210. (John Ohliger)
GENDER
Ivan Illich's new book Gender (New York: Pantheon, $11.95) should be available by now. We've reported on its preparation in the Oct. '81, Jan. & Aug. '82 STs, and have seen the page proofs. It begins: "The break with the past, which has been described by others as the transition to a capitalist mode of production, I describe here as the transition from the aegis of gender to the regime of sex." One important feature is the 125 Titled Footnotes which occupy a major portion of the text. They are "meant as a tangent to the text, 'as a doorway to further research" and cover topics ranging from "Animal Sociology" to "Yin and Yang." If you see any reviews of the book or have any comments yourself on it after you've read it, we'd be interested in getting them for our Resource Center and for ST.
Susan Hunt-Hubeny (Rt 3, Box 650, Dexter, ME 04930) has prepared a two-volume Reader to Gender with selections from 76 of the items mentioned in the Titled Footnotes. It may still be available from her at $30. Also inquire from her about the proceedings of a "Women & Development Conference" which went on in conjunction with Illich's seminar on gender at the University of California this fall. Susan writes that Ivan will be at the University of North Dakota in April. Rustum Roy (528 S. Pugh St., State College, PA 16801) notes that as a result of Ivan's participation in the Science, Technology & Society Program at Penn State University last May "a collection of essays and discussion by faculty providing reactions to the central themes of Illich's work is being printed."
UNDERDEVELOPMENT & ED
A comprehensive annotated bibliography with over 1300 references, has recently been published by the Division of Extension and Community Relations of the University of Saskatchewan. Entitled Underdevelopment and Education, the 280-page work describes books and A-V resources such as films and slide-tape presentations dealing with a variety of aspects of underdevelopment but concentrating attention on Canada. Chapters list and describe resources on the Indian people, women's issues, rural people, workers' struggles and uranium development. (Also included are works on the "Metis"- Canada's "forgotten people" - which a Canadian friend informs us refers to the French-Indian half-breeds.)
The bibliography is expected to be of particular use to school teachers, university and community college instructors, and persons concerned with underdevelopment issues. The editors are Robert Regnier of the College of Education, University of Saskatchewan, Michael Murphy of Oxfam, Canada, and Jeremy Hull of the Institute of Urban Studies, University of Winnipeg.
According to Professor Regnier, the bibliography seeks to promote fair and informed discussion of underdevelopment issues. The book is available from U-Learn, Box 22, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan S7N OWO.
EDUCATIONAL RIP-OFFS
The U.S. Office of Consumer Affairs has just published a 90-page Consumer's Resource Handbook which has an extensive list of government agencies and private associations you can contact if you have complaints about educational rip-offs. Free copies are available by writing to Handbook, Consumer Information Center, Pueblo, CO 81009. For some strange reason it doesn't list that one person agency Jessica Mitford who blew the whistle on that notorious scam The Famous Writers School in her book Poison Penmanship: The Gentle Art of Muckraking. But luckily it's available in a Random House paperback.
If you've just landed on Earth from Outer Space and so need proof that much of adult ed is a big notorious, reactionary, but, of course, well-intentioned scam read the new book by the Dean of Over-Extension University. Gerald Sussman, a graduate of the Famous Dean's School, has just compiled the Over-Extension University Bulletin for its School of Continual Education and Self-Enlargement. No one will ever be able to read a course catalog with a straight face again after looking at the class descriptions for "How To Borrow Food," "Speed Listening," and 135 others. It's $3.95 from M.Evans & Co., 216 E. 49th St., New York, NY 10017. That Sussman is also Editor of National Lampoon is beside the point.
ADULTS WON'T FILL UP COLLEGES?
"Economist David Breneman disputes the widely held notion that the decline in 18- to 22-year old college-age population will be offset by the entry of women, minorities, and older students into higher education. He predicts a 15% drop by the 1990s, with some schools being hit with enrollment declines as large as 25%. Liberal arts colleges, regional state universities, and private two-year colleges will be those hardest hit." (From The Circle put out by the Lutheran Council in the USA. The latest issue also contains this item:)
"The 'open door' is beginning to close at some community colleges. Some two-year institutions are establishing admission standards for the first time." (For information on how to get on the mailing list for this newsletter write Campus Ministry Communications, Suite 1847, 35 E. Wacker Dr., Chicago, IL 60601.)
MCE BRIEFS A Solution in Search of a Problem
Robert Verner (2000 W. 32nd Ave., Denver, CO 80211), an attorney fighting MCE for his profession thru the courts, has just sent us an article by the Director of the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies, Wellington Webb (Rocky Mountain News, Dec. 3). In "Unending School: A Needless Burden," Hebb states that his department "is now seriously considering a major legislative initiative in January to urge the abolition of state MCE requirements for licensed professions and occupations." He quotes Ben Shimberg of the Educational Testing Service that MCE is "a solution in search of a problem," and adds:
"Our regulation has forced a market for MCE courses and as demand has been artificially increased we have seen the quality of these courses drop while the prices of the courses escalate. Invariably, these costs are passed on to consumers. We have also sadly seen a proliferation of courses aimed solely at improving the billing systems, finances, and tax advantages of practitioners."
Verner also sent us a copy of a letter he wrote Webb after reading the article. You can too. Webb's address is: State Services Bldg., Denver, CO 80202. Verner tells Webb: "I am a victim of the methods you describe, but abhor" and notes "a recent Bar Association article indicates a large number of young attorneys (1500 out of maybe 3500-4000) have not complied with the MCE program in the past three years."
Medical MCE & Program Planning
"Three ways mandatory continuing medical education (MCME) may have improved...quality:
enhancing the value of informal educational activities, accrediting providers of formally organized MCME programs, and encouraging a systematic planning process....Ironically, these same factors can also exert negative influences on...quality," writes Don Campbell in the September issue of New Directions for Continuing Education (Jossey-Bass).
Campbell believes that the formal programs are increasing, are perceived as more prestigious and legitimate; that the accrediting process encourages co-sponsorship which strains limited resources, may restrict access, and is time-consuming and expensive;
and that the most frequently used Tyler planning process has serious limitations which "places too much emphasis on the empirical determination of needs" and may be used "in a superficial or distorted way." Campbell's article is based on his work as a director of such programs at the University of Illinois School of Clinical Medicine.
Debate on "Brush-Ups"
See the Education Section of the August 22nd New York Times for Christopher Wellisz' article "Professionals Debate Value of Brush-Ups." There are quotes from eight authorities on MCE for professionals with only one favoring it. A New York legislator says, "You can lead a professional to class, but you can't make him stay awake." In California, according to its Director of Consumer Affairs, MCE for the pros has spawned a "$130- to $140-million-a-year industry. That's a big cost burden. The people who pay for it are consumers of the services of the licensees."
The article features the latest chart on MCE for 16 professions by Louis Phillips. It's drawn from his chapter in the new book Power & Conflict in Continuing Professional Education (Wadsworth). Phillips says there is increasing doubt as to the value of MCE. But Milton Stern, the editor of the book says in the article that MCE "does help to produce a whole field that is more competent."
There is considerable disagreement in the ten chapters of the book itself. Rex Cruse, an accountant, supports MCE. But Dean Griffith with Mobil Oil says that MCE for engineers is a "great fraud." Medical Examiner Robert Derbyshire claims there are "many convincing studies" proving MCE improves competence, while Benjamin Shimberg of the Educational Testing Service believes evidence is lacking that MCE ensures competence.
MCE Remains a Farce
"Until legislatures and licensing boards are truly interested in maintaining and/or improving the level of occupational competence, MCE will remain a farce," says the Fall issue of The Growing Edge, the newsletter of the Council for Non-collegiate Continuing Education.
Richard Bickford at St. Petersburg Junior College has this tongue-in-cheek solution to the problem of legislative interest in MCE:
"Request all the legislators who blindly legislate the morality of continuing learning to require of themselves a continuing ed program in order to be eligible for re-election."
"Why Doctors Go Back to School"
That's the headline for this item in the December issue of The Progressive: "Physicians attending the annual meeting of the American Society of Internal Medicine in Chicago were offered a chance to earn three hours of continuing medical education credit for taking a course called 'The Medical Marketplace: Coping with Competition,' taught by a 'consultant on analysis of buyer behavior and development of marketing strategies.'" It's in the "No Comment" section.
A Husband in Boarding School
That's the title of a humorous novel we've just run across about a young carpenter who is forced to go back to school to become "worthy" of staying married to his rich wife. It's by Giovanni Guareschi, best known for his many tales about the hate/love relationship between Don Camillo, a Catholic priest, and the Communist mayor of a small Italian village. As the wife comments: "Who would consider a man sane who goes back to boarding school at the age of 25? The easiest thing would be to move him direct from the school to the lunatic asylum." With all the talk these days about the need for MCE to maintain "competence," that may be a very appropriate comment, since "incompetent" is a term often applied to those who are considered insane, senile, or hopelessly ill.
Values in MCE/Economics
Two headlines dominated the front page of a daily newspaper in New Mexico, The Albu- querque Tribune, on October 6th. Their juxtaposition neatly illustrates some of the problems a society has when its values and priorities are all screwed up. The two were:
"WOMAN SENTENCED TO COLLEGE, NOT PRISON" and "FOOD AID CUTS PROPOSED FOR ELDERLY, CHILDREN." The first story notes that a New Mexico woman "convicted of shooting her husband has been sentenced to college by a district judge who says it's cheaper to send a person to school than to prison." The second says that the Reagan administration is considering budget cuts that would reduce food stamp benefits for persons 60 to 64 years old and eliminate meal subsidies for orphanages, homes for mentally retarded children and other residential child care institutions.
MCE in Europe
In case you think that MCE is confined to the U.S. see the recent World Health Organization report (ED 155 368 in ERIC): "In all Eastern European countries, continuing education is obligatory for health workers." In West Germany all doctors must submit to MCE. In Norway general practitioners who complete an approved program are entitled to charge higher fees. This report came out in 1976. Does anyone know of a more recent document?
MCE in Parks & Recreation
Jean Lesher has sent us an article from the July issue of Parks & Recreation by Bertha Cato at Indiana University. Cato notes that MCE is now necessary to maintain "certification status" for all professionals in this field and reports on the results of a survey she conducted among 400 practitioners. She concludes: "The involved practitioners perceived continuing education as a valuable and essential commodity; however, they were reluctant to a mandatory requirement." Viewing continuing education as a "commodity" may well be the nub of the problem.
UPCOMING EVENTS "Adult Ed & Social Change"
Basic Choices and LERN (Learning Resources Network) are co-sponsoring a three-day conference on Adult Education & Social Change to be held at historic Highlander near Knoxville, TN from Friday evening, May 13th through Sunday noon, May 15th 1983.
This is the third annual Issues in Lifelong Learning Conference that LERN, the former Free University Network, has put on. We're glad to join Bill Draves and his colleagues in working on this one which will focus on the issues that unite and divide us as we attempt to engage adult ed in the vital process of changing the world, hopefully for the better. Registration is open to anyone interested but the number is limited to 35 to permit full discussion. Total cost is $125 which includes meals, lodging, and a copy of Frank Adams' classic Unearthing Seeds of Fire: The Idea of Highlander.
To register write LERN, 1221 Thurston, Manhattan. KS 66502. Further information is available from LERN or from us. You can also register by phone by calling Karen Stevenson at LERN, (913) 539-5376. Hope to see you at Highlander in May!
"Producing Knowledge for Action"
A workshop on participatory research - with an initial residential weekend on its theory and practice - is scheduled to begin Jan. 21. Bi-weekly sessions thereafter, to provide a forum for collaboration and dialogue on local projects, will be held in downtown Chicago.
This approach to participatory research includes three interrelated components: 1) a process of investigation into social problems/ issues with the full and active participation of the community in the entire process; 2) an educational process, in which the community develops an awareness not only of concrete problems but of structural causes of the problems - economic, political, cultural; and 3) a process of taking action that leads towards long-term as well as short-term solutions.
The workshop is limited to 20 participants. For further information, contact Tom Heaney, workshop facilitator, at NIU (815/753-1646) or home (312/935-2477).
CONFERENCES
Remember the Alamo? Mixed Feelings/Reviews
No one from Basic Choices attended the Founding Conference of the American Association for Adult & Continuing Education in San Antonio this November, but we did obtain comments on it from six people who were there, including two from our Advisory Council:
Dave Williams from Kansas State University said: "It was awful. You didn't miss a thing. The merger between the Adult Education Association and the National Association for Public Continuing & Adult Education was a stillbirth. The new organization has more titled officers than it has members. The only good parts were the hospitality suites. It seemed to be the most poorly attended adult ed conference in years."
A member of our Advisory Council, Phyllis Cunningham at Northern Illinois University, was more positive. Phyllis noted that there was "a lot more on technology, five or six different sessions on Freire (including one by Don Thompson, 216 E. 5th St., San Dimas, CA 91773), and a big interest in international questions."
Gerald Normie with the British Open University: "The San Antonio conference was personally good for me, but only for meeting people. Otherwise, you probably didn't miss too much. But then I only saw a few presentations. I did meet with Dave Williams, who is very good indeed."
Gordon Godbey from Penn State University characterized it as "a relatively bland love feast that was consummated."
Roy Ingham from Florida State University:
"We need something other than National Conferences -- local bands of involved people. Too much energy expended for the product. Maybe we need a big closed circuit two-way satellite communication system."
Another member of our Advisory Council, Jerold Apps at the University of Wisconsin: "People were trying various ways of pronouncing the acronym AAACE. 'Ace' and 'Triple A-C-E' were commonly heard. Some people complained the conference spent too much time on matters of reorganization and not enough on program. Others argued that the reorganization was important and the time was well spent.
"What to do about the new technology, particularly computers and robots, was a theme one of the Conference speakers, Dwight W. Allen, Old Dominion University, discussed. What should be our reaction to educators who say that they may be replaced by a machine? Answer: Educators who believe they can be replaced by a machine should be. Something to ponder?
"Allen suggested we look at the 'new physics' — it's not so new anymore, but we in adult ed are just hearing about it. We might read, suggests Allen, Gary Zukav's The Dancing Wu Li Masters: An Overview of the New Physics (New York: Bantam New Age Books, 1980), as a start. I have and I agree with Allen. The 'new physics' gives us much to think about in adult ed, about relationships, about knowledge, about humanness."
In the following summary of some of Allen's remarks by Jerry, the comments in parentheses are by Apps. "Allen suggested we: (1) Teach people how to anticipate before a crisis. (Is it possible? We are a crisis-oriented society. Unless we face a crisis we tend to be complacent.) (2) Realize our interdependence. Everything we do relates to something else. (Right out of the 'new physics' and an old point we tend to overlook in our striving often for individualism out of context.) (3) Make a friend of uncertainty. (An excellent point — but it seems we have increasing numbers of people who are searching for answers that are clear and unambiguous and fear uncertainty and ambiguity.) (4) Trust. Without trust nothing else matters. The most important building block of relationships. We are all in this life together, without trusting nothing else works. (But our society, it seems to me, is a collection of increasing numbers of cynics, non-trusting individuals who've learned how to compete and win. Can we ever return to a society of people who trust — if we ever had such a society? I was impressed that Allen and others at the Conference were concerned about the human element in education. Why it should be a concern and focused upon is a symbol of the trouble of our time.)"
We are curious whether there was any connection between the picture of The Alamo so prominently displayed on all the Conference brochures and what went on at the Conference itself. We'd be interested in hearing from you about this question and any other matter relating to the Conference.
Independent Scholarship
At the National Invitational Conference on Independent Scholarship in early November, I started out feeling uncomfortable because of the plush surroundings in the former home of the founder of Look magazine near Minneapolis. Though none of us washed any dishes, by the second day I swallowed my guilt and enjoyed the company of some stimulating people devoted to scholarship outside the academy. We agreed on some recommendations for supporting the work which you can obtain from Ron Gross, 17 Myrtle Dr., Great Neck, NY 11021.
To the extent the activity can avoid becoming enmeshed in nurturing out-of-work or re- tired academics who still look to the university for respect and status. The Independent Scholarship Project under the able and sensitive leadership of people like Bea & Ron Gross should perform some very worthwhile functions. For a more detailed report of the Project and this three-day Conference write to Ron and/or see "'Independent' Scholars Backed at Conference," Chronicle of Higher Education, Nov. 17th, by Malcolm Scully, one of the 40 Conference participants and Senior Editor of the Chronicle. (John Ohliger)
Manikiki in the Rain
As announced in our last issue, the Manikiki "Critical Education for Adults" Conference took place on a rainy weekend early in October. Although the contents differed from those suggested there.
18 people, primarily from Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Illinois, along with some from Michigan and one from California convened in a secluded summer camp southwest of St. Paul, MN to consider five questions:
(1) How do we ensure racial and class diversity in both leadership and planning of our own organizations' activities? (2) Discuss personal experiences both in and outside of such institutions as social services, religion, and education — What are the opportunities and threats there in the 80s? (3) How best to deal with the issues of burnout and nurturance? (4) What kinds of links can we make with community-based institutions, including those with a faith-perspective such as churches and synagogues? (5) In our work on critical issues, how can we make connections between them? How do these issues change according to constituency? How can we identify commonality of oppression? What alliances do we wish to form locally and nationally?
Few new answers were forthcoming, but in both formal and informal conversations around a table, standing at the kitchen sink washing dishes, or out walking in the woods, participants shared past political experiences and present hopes.
A "soft" consensus emerged that we were all interested in community-oriented work, the importance of creating mutual support systems to avoid burnout and keep the faith, and the importance of authentic dialogue between equal participants who can come to terms with different kinds of language in the often difficult tasks of defining need and determining corresponding action.
The conference concluded with thanks to Larry Olds and his associates for their preparatory work and with tentative agreement to reconvene at roughly the same time next year in either Milwaukee or Madison, Wisconsin.
(Tim Turner)
Freire Workshop
Piggybacking on the Manikiki meeting (above) a day-long workshop on "education for empowerment," introducing the pedagogy of Paulo Freire, was held at Sabathani Community Center in Minneapolis on Oct. 11. Some 25 area community organizers and educators, both "Anglo" and "Latino", came together to share experiences and examine central aspects of Freire's thought. The workshop was organized by Larry Olds of the College of Working Adults and led by Tom Heaney (Basic Choices/Chicago and Northern Illinois Univ.) and John McFadden (Univ. of Cal., Sacramento, and formerly with the Nicaraguan Literacy Campaign).
Besides sharing local experiences and clarifying key Freirean concepts, in small groups participants raised a number of questions which provided a focus for much of the discussion. These included: Where does the "curriculum" come from - what's the relation between the leaders' agenda and that of participants - in Freire groups? How can participants take initiative in planning? How can leaders help members become critical, i.e. raise fundamental questions? How are connections made between immediate situations and needs and the larger socio-political context? What are the relations between education and action? How can Freire be applied in the U.S.? Perhaps the key insight emerging out of the workshop was the necessary link to a political apparatus or organization, with a real potential for action, if education is to be liberatory.
Persons wishing more information on the workshop may contact Tom Heaney, 3838 N. Greenview, Chicago, IL 60613, or Larry Olds, Minneapolis Community College, 1501 Hennepin Ave., Minneapolis, MN 55403. Art Lloyd of Basic Choices/Madison also has a cassette tape of some of the workshop discussions. Copies are available at cost. (Art Lloyd)
Whatever Happened to Gerry Hanberry?
For many of us in adult education Gerry Hanberry was responsible for giving us our first "hands-on" experience in exploring the futures approach to our field. Gerry organized the National Think Tank on the Future of Adult Education back in 1974 with a grant from the U.S. Office of Education. The regional and national conferences he set up were exciting and fruitful experiences for many of us.
After the 1974 conferences Gerry faded somewhat from the national scene. Recently he's been managing a Conference Center in New Mexico.
The Orwellian Year 1984 approaches and it will then be ten years since the Futures Think Tanks met. It seems to me it would be a very good time to get some of the hundreds of adult educators together who were participants in these conferences to re-examine what we thought might or should happen back then. Along with some new participants we might then ask what 1984 is really like and where we might go from there. If enough people write Gerry (SunRise Springs, RR# 2, Box 203, Santa Fe-La Cienega, NM 87501) and endorse this idea with offers of assistance, maybe it will happen. I hope so! (John Ohliger)
Mandatory Continuing ED (MCE) a Sin?
"In case you aren't acquainted with Lutheran ways, confirmation is MCE for Lutherans. In the Medieval Church it was one of seven sacraments. Luther, being somewhat of a reductionist who would be a Second Thoughts subscriber were he alive today, got the system boiled down to two." So begins a letter from John Fahning, Assistant to the President, The American Lutheran Church, Southeastern Minnesota District (105 H. Univ., St. Paul, MN).
Fahning continues: "The only degree necessary to function as a Lutheran is Baptism. Educators would call that an 'internal' degree. Confirmation is an 'external' degree, but
there is unbelievable pressure on adolescents to conform. This early training makes Lutherans sitting ducks for MCE in later life. Baptism is so utterly simple that most Lutherans think that it is somehow incomplete. This creates anxiety which in turn causes sin.
"The same anxiety which propels MCE in the world also works in the church. The most profound theological thinker on the American scene in this century was probably Reinhold Neibuhr. Neibuhr said that we humans know that we are finite and that this makes us anxious. (He would have loved Woody Alien.) To know that we are finite and to be anxious about it is not a sin. It is what we do with our anxiety which leads us toward or away from sin.
"Lutheran anxiety about the utter simplicity, beauty, and gracefulness of Baptism leads us to try to shore it up, bolster it, give it booster shots, and worst of all, leads us to try to control people. Niebuhr pointed out that this is the way anxiety, run amuck in sinfulness, always goes — toward the attempt to control. MCE is a classic example of anxiety leading to the attempt to control and manipulate rather than to confess our finiteness and then try to invent ways to liberate one another.
"In the past year I have talked at least three pastors out of pursuing advanced degrees after learning what they were really interested in. That takes a bit of time, especially when they tell me they want to enter a degree program but don't know what they want to study. Everyone is interested in something. But with very anxious people it is sometimes very difficult to get at what that something is. Once you get the question stated though, you know which direction to go. But it is an awful struggle to hold the anxiety of finiteness at bay long enough to begin to frame the question. With MCE yapping at our heels the anxiety is increased and we run off along whatever predetermined racetrack some peddler has determined for us. This has ruined some good thinkers who, had they been given just a little more time, could actually have entertained an idea. Your news- letter gives us a little more time and space."
Earn CEUs the Easy Way
Catherine Ulmer, a nurse and adult ed student at University of Saskatchewan, has sent us this enclosure in the magazine NursingLife:
"NursingLife makes it easy for you to earn continuing education units (CEUs). Each issue contains a home-study course. If you want to earn CEUs, simply answer the questions at the end of the course and mail it back to NursingLife along with the small fee specified in the tests. We will then grade your test, report a pass-or-fail result to you, and store your record on a centralized computer for permanent evidence of your accomplishment."
She wrote this at the top of the slip: "Catherine Evelyn Ulmer announces she is no longer available for credits, neither in part, nor in her entirety."
Illich & Freire Too Flat-Earthish?
Sol Kort with the University of British Columbia Centre for Continuing Education has been a subscriber/member of our ST network since our third issue in early 1979. Sol writes:
"I still read with interest your ST. However, I'm beginning to find such thinkers as Illich and Freire too flat-earthish for my tastes. My needs for inspiration and insight are better met these days by Manas and such writers as Rene Dubos, Lewis Mumford, Joseph Campbell, Ted Roszak, William Irwin Thompson, and Jean Houston. I mustn't forget Huston Smith and Jacob Needleman. And to balance the feminine and the social/familial against the dominant male and spiritual/personal bias of my list: Elise Boulding as well as Marilyn Ferguson (even though Marilyn is an anathema to most academics)."
"The Real Antagonist of Education"
Hank Rosenthal, Director, Social Science Programs, Centre for Continuing Education, University of British Columbia, writes: "I have appreciated your efforts to provide elbow space for some alternatives in the otherwise bleak education scene. It seems to me that the only useful initiatives and changes in the fossilized education system have to come from below. There has to be enough pressure from below to overcome all the vested interests entrenched in positions of authority.
"Unfortunately, not even the status quo can be maintained. It seems to me that the whole system is going rapidly downhill without many voices raised in protest. The problem seems to be that the real antagonist of education today is the Pentagon and its inflated military spending. There are still too many people who believe that our society is so unique that it can afford to have both guns and butter. In fact, this is a dangerous myth. If we want to maintain the positive values of education that we believe in, we had better be prepared to attack this whole question of armaments."
Hands of Peace across the Sea
Kurt Sommer, a student in "social pedagogy" from Wendlingen, West Germany, interned with us at Basic Choices/Madison, for four months in the fall of 1981. One of his concerns while here was to interpret the German peace movement to his American friends and to help build solidarity between peace advocates in the two countries. To demonstrate to his German friends that there is "another America" other than "Reagan country," Kurt secured the signatures of many Madisonians - in churches and other groups - to a letter of support for the German peace efforts. We have just received word that the letter was printed both in Kurt's hometown newspaper and also in the newsletter of a peace organization of which Kurt is a member. Kurt notes that at about the same time that several hundred thousand people were gathering in NYC in June to demonstrate for the nuclear freeze and disarmament, 450,000 people gathered in Bonn to protest U.S. missiles on European soil. He concludes "...we have to search for a new capitol, because it's too small for 'our meetings'" ', As Ike once said, one day governments will have to get out of the way and let the people have the peace they demand.
What's Up Down Under
Three of our subscribers in Australia have recently written to let us know what is happening there.
From Bob Prater (University of New England, Box J 200, Coffs Harbour Jetty, NSW 2451); "Government Depts. are contracting their operations into 'Mainstream' activities. A secondary consequence is the stifling of innovation. This is all happening in a climate of increasing demand with rapid population growth, further complicated by high populations of aged, retired, and jobless people living in areas which have lost their sense of community because of the growth."
From Helen Modra at Monash University, (Box 626, Wagga Wagga, NSK 2650) : "The idea of 'conscientizacao' so grips me that it has become an underpinning of all my thought. We are in the 4th year of a drought here in New South Wales and the image of Australia as the 'wide brown land' is very apt at the moment. I really enjoy reading ST and find that each issue inspires or provokes or both."
From Jack McDonell, the Director of Continuing Ed at Monash University (Clayton, Victoria 3168): "What's happening down here? Not a great deal that I see as exciting or innovatory. The whole of adult/further/continuing/ community education seems to be preoccupied with structures and funding in a period of recession and budgetary cuts. Nevertheless there is a considerable, if slow, growth in community-based services of all kinds. I must say that ST is still one of the few things which I read as soon as it hits my desk. The pile of other things which I ought to read and haven't, you wouldn't believe!"
Quandaries & Quests
If you're in a quandary about what policies are appropriate or possible for adult education, a helpful source of ideas is Policy Issues and Process edited by Gene C. Whaples and Bill Rivera. Bill's introductory essay sees three directions for the field, one of which is the vexing "publicly sponsored, policy mandated education for adults." Especially well done is the last of the four essays, by Warren Ziegler: "The Quest for a Fully Human Policy for the Education of Adults." One policy Warren suggests: "The removal of educational credentials from all lists of criteria used by any part of the social structure to do anything at all to any person, actively or passively. The federal government could begin by removing educational credentials (or certified levels of attainment) from its civil service entrance examinations." Order at $3 from University of Maryland, Dept. of Ag & Ext. Ed, College Park, MD 20742.
Warren Ziegler has also prepared a series of ten "Mindbooks" on tough issues that are worth looking at. Among the topics: "Imaging a World Without Weapons," "Imaging the Future of Poor People in American Society," and "Creative Conflict." Inquire at Future-Invention Associates, 2026 Hudson, Denver, CO 80207.
Ross Kidd on 3 Arts Newsletters
The first issue of the Third World Popular Theater Newsletter (Jan., 1982) has come our way from Ross Kidd, one of its editors. It seeks to serve an informal "network-in-the- making" of popular theater workers and people engaged in popular education and movements who use theater as an educational and organizing tool. By "popular theatre" (sic) the editors mean a "committed" theater which works in support of the interests and struggles of oppressed groups and classes. "At best it is more than theatre for the people; it is theatre by the people enabling them, through the process of making theatre, to express their concerns, define their situation and strategize for action."
This issue includes articles on such theater in Nicaragua, Nigeria, the Philippines, Guatemala, Tanzania, and Malawi. Of special interest to us is the deliberate decision to decentralize both editing and production of the newsletter. For further info contact Ross Kidd, Participatory Research Group, 29 Prince Arthur Ave., Toronto, Canada M5R 1B2.
Ross also writes about two related newsletters: "Theaterwork (406 S. 3rd St., St. Peter, MN 56082) is providing the leadership and coordination for an emerging network of popular theater workers across North America, many of them working in community education and with various social movements. In 1981 Theaterwork organized what is now viewed as the best counter-culture event since Woodstock!
"Cultural Democracy is the newsletter of another amazing team, Arlene Goldband & Don Adams, who single-handedly provide an amazing number of services (including some very articulate lobbying) for members of the Neighborhood Arts Program National Organizing Committee (NAPNOC). They've done some very effective organizing and networking. Address: PO Box 11440, Baltimore, MD 21239."
BOUNTIFUL BEAN/BOUNTIFUL PEOPLE
We'd like to thank the Bountiful Bean Soybean Collective in Madison for displaying Second Thoughts and other Basic Choices materials for one month in their store along with an invitation to their customers to contribute. Their check was very helpful. It occurs to us that other readers might belong to groups that would also be interested in setting up such a display. Just let us know and we'll be glad to provide the materials.
Another way to help Basic Choices is to send or bring clothing, non-electrical household items, gift items, crafts, etc. to the GA Outlet, 706 Regent St., Madison, WI 53715 [(608) 256-6484]. "GA" stands for "Guardian Angel," and social worker Linda Cohen (also on the Board of Bayview Foundation) will take your items on consignment for sale. Half of the proceeds from the sale will go to Basic Choices if you specify Account #B2. Linda can also arrange for a tax-credit for you as a charitable contribution. The GA Outlet specializes in "gently used items" for sale at very low prices to people with low incomes.
CRITIQUE OF FREIRE
Our attention has been called to a book-length critique of Paulo Freire's work in Brazil in the 1960's by a Brazilian, Vanilda Paira. It is available in Portuguese and Spanish under the titles, respectively, of:
Paulo Freire eo Nacionalismo-Desenvolvimentista; Rio de Janeiro: Edibra Civilizacao Brasileira (1980) and Paulo Freire y El Nacionalismo Desarrolista; Editorial Extemporaneos Poniente 126-A, No. 400 Apdo. Postal 78-048, 07750 Mexico D.F.(1981).
Second Thoughts is a newsletter designed to raise fundamental questions about the meaning of education. How can education: Enhance human freedom and participation? Expand the frontiers of individual and collective research and action on matters of substance? Contribute to a more just and democratic society?
Second Thoughts serves a network of persons raising basic questions about mandatory continuing education (MCE), professionalization, and other issues related to social control.
It is published by Basic Choices, Inc., a Midwest Center for Clarifying Political and Social Options, 1121 University Avenue, Madison, WI 53715,
(608) 256-1946. It is also a project in values-clarification of Madison Campus Ministry. Members of the group are John Hill, Vincent Kavaloski, David Lisman, Art & Sue Lloyd, Mark McFadden, John Ohliger, Vern Visick, and Chris Wagner.
This issue is mainly due to the efforts of Beth Horning (Newsletter Press), Art Lloyd, John Ohliger, & Tim Turner. Thanks for last minute help on the August issue to Mike Franz, Tom Heaney, Jim Pfeiffer, & Moses Zinnah.
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