From John Ohliger.com
Second Thoughts Vol. 5, No. 3, July 1983
VOL 5 NO. 3, JULY 1983
Second Thoughts
In this issue:
- Reva Provokes on Tape, Singing and Networking for Peace
- Is Nothing Sacred Publications ("Competency” Sucks? Bernhard Does it Again, etc.)
- More Publications (Whole Again Resource Guide, Nicaragua as a School, etc.)
- New Zealand Tour, The Mouse That Roared
- Ron Gross: A Shift in the Life of the Mind
- MCE Briefs (Delaware, Deaton, Neese, etc.)
- Participatory Researchers/Adult Educators Organize at Highlander, Jobs and Barter
- Conferences and Meetings (Adult Educators & Social Change, Emotional Literacy, Hare’s Midwest Hops)
- Two Sides, Same Coin? A Song of Meetings
- Ed Toward a World View, Conflicts in Western Culture
INFOGLUT: ILLICH, SHOR, MARIEN, PLUS
"Education I associate with some kind of swimming lesson in which pupils are trained to keep afloat in an ever rising tide of bits, a flood that has long ago lifted them off the ground of personal meanings. As the pupil is taught how to handle, ever more skillfully, the on rush of information, even his desire for grounding in a meaningful system is eroded."
So writes Ivan Illich in "Eco-Paedagogics and the Commons," the first time he's paid extensive attention to education in several years. (Send us a dollar and we'll mail you a copy of this ten page draft of a talk published by his long time associate, Valentina Borremans, in her Tecno-Politica. Send us another dollar and we'll include Valentina's ten page paper "Technique and Women's Toil," also available in revised form in Cross Currents, Vol. 32, No. 4, Winter 1982-83.)
The baleful way in which Ivan associates education and the "onrush of information" is just one of many comments we've seen or received on INFOGLUT since we covered it extensively in our December 1982 and March 1983 ST issues. Here are a few that came in after we excerpted some of the 35 responses to posing the issue in the Dec. ‘82 ST:
Elizabeth Olson, Washington, DC: "Anent INFOGLUT, it tickles me to realize how many friends & colleagues (I too, but I'm rethinking) are being sure to buy a letter-quality printer with their personal computers."
Ira Shor, author of Critical Teaching and Everyday Life; "The latest ST arrived - and it is Itself an answer to INFOGLUT – by being a modest, lively, efficient and network-oriented publication. It reduces the info-selection we have to make." (Ira also informs us that he's just won a Guggenheim fellowship for next year to work on a book, "a critique of the conservative restoration of the 70s, how school policy became vocational and basic skills oriented a counter-offensive to the libratory potential of the 60s.")
Joanne Blythe, TRANET (Transnational Network for Alternative/Appropriate Technologies, PO Box 567, Rangeley, ME 04970): "There is the other end of INFOGLUT for people in remote areas who have no resources to help them examine their options. Perhaps glutted Americans can redirect their glut toward their less fortunate brothers and sisters. (Joanne includes a two page TRANET press release on how a recent UNESCO grant has made it possible for them to ship their 45th Appropriate Technology Library to a Third World Village. Write her for the release and more info on how you can help here.)
Michael Marten, Editor, Future Survey: (It was Mike's coining of the term INFOGLUT that started us on this kick.) "Most interesting about the response to 'Age of INFOGLUT,' not only in ST, but U.S. News & World Report picked it up In their Golden Anniversary Issue (May 9, '83, p. All in supplement). Also I was interviewed by Grit and INFOGLUT appeared on page 3 of their August 1, '82 issue. They didn't handle it very well. Nor was I impressed by any of the responses in the March ST. I enclose the original article in which the term appeared:
'Non-Communication and the Future,' appearing in Communications and the Future, edited by Howard Didsbury, World Future Society, 4916 St. Eino, Washington, DC 20014. (Mike concludes this chapter with this tentative prescription:) We may begin to shape new policies aimed at managing information, building human capacity, reducing trivial information, and bringing people together. Self-restraint, or voluntary simplicity in communication may become a desirable cultural norm. Knowledge institutions may shift their reward systems away from quantity and towards the recognition of quality. To overcome our fragmentation, we may see a greater emphasis on integrative studies, and on information bridges and brokers. And perhaps new structures might be developed to promote serious dialogue. "
Furthcr to Marten's hope that "voluntary simplicity in communication may become a desirable cultural norm," Margaret Miles in her "The Recovery of Asceticism" (Commonweal, Jan. 28, '83, pp. 40-43) noted in the March ST, suggests temporary "fasting from the media. The disorientation and discomfort that result from stopping the constant barrage of newspapers, magazines, TV, and radio show us to what a large extent our consciousness is controlled and ordered by the media." In this regard take a look at Breaking the TV Habit by Joan Wilkins (NY: Scribners, '82). In this recent book Wilkins proposes "a 'four-week program to help you and your family gain control of your TV viewing."
Finally on INFOGLUT, Leon Levitt felt we "cut the heart out" of his comments when we excerpted them on page two of the March ST. He wants the following remarks from his original letter included: "I hold with Camus that the meaning of life is to be found in life itself; ergo, people want to do things they deem significant. The academic/print/computer culture has accepted that somehow contributing to the body of knowledge, however small that contribution, makes life meaningful. And, the natural system is to produce so much that eventually something
worthwhile will emerge; it is, if you will, merely an intellectual manifestation of natural selection. The analog that occurs to me is sperm and words—both generated in the millions; only a few are productive or reproductive; but all have the potential for significance, hence must be. That's the way the system works. Of course Dinnerstein is right: nature, and the human intellect, can use only so many, and so we select—as nature selects—not systematically or rationally but within the mechanisms each has, wasteful as it may seem to be."
BASIC CHOICES' DOINGS/BEINGS
At the start of 1983 we sent a personal letter to the 700 persons and groups on the Second Thoughts (ST) mailing list seeking increased financial support and subscription renewals. Since then we have received about 190 extra contributions, renewals, and new subs averaging $16 each. These amounts certainly make it possible for us to continue publishing ST for a while and pay our $100/month office expenses. We appreciate your essential support. It you haven't renewed, or if this is a sample copy, please see the coupon on page 11.
So far we have been unable to raise the larger funds we need to operate on a more permanent, stable basis including maintaining our Resource Center. For instance, the collection of documents by and on Ivan Illich (the largest in the world as far as we know) continues to flake away. The same is true for the Freire, mandatory continuing education (MCE), and alternate media collections. If you have any thoughts about where we can obtain funds for these and other aspects of our work please let us know.
We continue to operate on a volunteer basis with the help of our members. In addition Tim Turner and Faye Pietrokowsky have volunteered time in the office on a regular basis. Dieter Bussigel, a doctoral student in adult ed at Northern IL Univ. from West Germany, joined us as an intern for a couple weeks recently. Dieter translated several of the Illich and Freire documents from German into English. Marc Peterson has just made us a very attractive sign, carved by hand from redwood. With a small amount of the funds received since the first of January we hired Kristin Holland on a part-time temporary basis to help with typing and other office work. Meg Wise has joined us for a maximum of 20 hours to do a little work in the Resource Center.
Member Dave Lisman has just completed his doctorate in Educational Policy Studies at the University of WI. His dissertation topic: "Literature as Morally Educative." Dave continues to teach philosophy at Lakeland College, do freelance writing, and work at the Edgerton, WI post office.
Member John Ohilger will be teaching a one week course on "Informal & Voluntary Adult Ed" the last week of July at Penn State UNIV. INFO: Gordon Godbey, 301 Rackley Bldg, PA ST UNIV, UNIV PK, PA 16802, (814) 865-1487. Last fall John delivered a talk at several universities in Canada and western U.S. "Adult Ed in a World of Excessive Riches/Excessive Poverty" weaves together comments on contemporary issues with autobiography. A 20 page copy of the talk with an extensive bibliography is available from us for $2. Also an article by John, "Reconciling Education with Liberty," appears in the latest issue of the UNESCO quarterly review of education, Prospects, Vol. 13, and Mo. Send us another $2 and we'll mall you a reprint. Finally, John has recently made a belated personal discovery of the writings of the legendary ancient Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu. Since the brief work, Tao Te Ching, appeared about 2,500 years ago, it has been translated more times than any other book except The Bible. Its 81 short poem/statements have influenced many of the world's philosophies and religions. If you're interested in joining John in reading it aloud for a few hours to explore its meaning, please call or write him at Basic Choices or at home (608) 251-8894.
REVA PROVOKES ON TAPE TOO
When Reva Crawford, founder of the National Indian Adult Ed Association, wrote "Inverted Parachutes" for the May '82 ST, we received more comments than ever before. This Spring Reva visited us at Basic Choices. We held a rousing meeting and reception for her with the financial assistance of the UNIV of WI Continuing Adult Vocational Ed Dept. She's just as provocative in person as she is in print. While visiting, Reva also appeared on a local call-in radio program. We'll be happy to send you a cassette of the one-hour radio program for $5.00.
SINGING & NETWORKING FOR PEACE
August 6th will be the 38th anniversary of the day the USA dropped the first nuclear bomb. Myles Horton, Highlander's founder, urges you to join a "Sing-Out-For-Peace" at dawn on that day wherever you are. "Sing-Outs" are being organized in cities all over the world with the aid of People For Peace. INFO: Ruth Johnson, 4360 N. 133 St., Brookfield, WI 53005, (414) 257-0433/781-1825. Larry Olds (3322 15th Ave. South, Minneapolis, MN 55407) writes that he'll be glad to send you info on "The Adult Ed & Peace Network," a project of the International Council for Adult Ed. The group publishes a newsletter and now has 350 members "representing different sectors of adult ed in 60 countries."
IS NOTHING SACRED?
Mike Collins at the University of Saskatchewan has just sent us a clipping from the prestigious British medical journal The Lancet (May 22, 1982, pp. 1175-76), with the comment, "Continuing Professional Education in the John. Is nothing sacred?"
"Educational Graffiti: Better Use of the Lavatory Wall" is a serious report on how nursing students exposed to posters on cardio— pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) while sitting on a toilet showed "a significant increase in both knowledge and performance." Mike adds "The Brits would call it 'Bog House Pedagogy'." He should know!
PUBLICATIONS
"Competency" Sucks?
Mike Collins is too polite to come right out and say: Competency-based adult ed sucks! But he comes very close in his brand new article, "A Critical Analysis of Competency-Based Systems of Adult Education," Adult Education Quarterly,Vol. 33, No. 3, Spring 1983, pp. 174-183.
Mike does admit that he "has systematically challenged the designers' and administrators' view of reality, their prescriptive methodologies, and pre-packaged guidelines." If you know of anyone who still falls for the "competency-based" junk get a copy of this article and send it to him (certainly no "her" would buy into it). Mike says he'll be glad to mail a free copy for that or any other worthwhile or even dubious purpose (Professor Michael Collins, University of Saskatchewan, College of Education, Dept. of Continuing Education, Saskatoon, Canada S7N OWO).
Bernhard Does It Again
The intrepid Bernhard Suin de Boutemard has been publishing the invaluable International Free University Catalog since 1977. The fifth edition is just off the presses and is available for 16 German Marks from Suin Buch-Verlag GmbH, D-6145 Lindenfels 1, West Germany.
Though the bulk of the catalog is in German and focuses on West Germany, much of it is now in English and the following countries are included in the listings of many informal learning opportunities: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, East Germany, Finland, France, Great Britain, Greece, Haiti, Holland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States of America. There are over 500 listings.
Bernhard has been financing and publishing this handy guide on his own since the first one came out six years ago. How about some other folks out there helping out and maybe even providing for a complete translation into English and other languages? The last issue reached well over 5,000 people. The next one could include many more listings if you write him with the Information and maybe even offer some assistance. ‘Nuff said?
The Traveler Reports
Jack McDonell, Director of the Centre for Continuing Education at Monash University (Clayton, Victoria, Australia 3168) has sent us copies of five reports he made on his return recently from attending the Paris conference of the International Council for Adult Education
(ICAE) and then a course on adult education at the University of Southampton. They are well and crisply written. You might write him for them. Here are a few snippets:
"The ICAE derives its income (now about $800,000 per annum) from grants...The new challenge for continuing ed arising from the probability that full employment will not return for many years, if ever...The growth of women's ed as a field in its own right, challenging not only the differentials of access to education between men and women but also the very nature of knowledge, in many fields, as being a male -generated and hence ' male-oriented cultural system...."
Whole Again Resources Guide
Once more into the breach! Yet another resource guide. This one looks at a glance like a unique combination of New Age, Old & New Left listings with some Establishment stuff thrown in just to confuse the FBI. Over 1,500 alternative lifestyle publications and resources are documented in sprightly terms under such headings as Work, Human Rights, Mindwork, Peace & Social Justice, Yoga, and 30 others. It's The Whole Again Resource Guide. Just published at $12.95 from Source Net, Box 6767, Santa Barbara, CA 9311. Let us know what you think, and that includes you, Michael Marien!
Public Policy & The Medicine Wheel
"Can We Humanize Public Policy?" Is the title of a paper recently presented by Warren Ziegler. His answer: NO! "We can only humanize human beings." Warren believes with others that we are in an age of transformation in which our very humanness is changing so that we need to develop a new learning paradigm which focuses on imagining, feeling, listening, critical reasoning, and wisdom.
Warren has also done a paper on "The Medicine Wheel Circle of Learning" presented at the 1983 conference of the National Indian Adult Education Association. For info on obtaining both of these write him at Futures-Invention Associates, 2026 Hudson, Denver, CO 80207.
Professional Writers Network
The Professional Writers Network is a self activated referral service stressing individual initiative and responsibility. It connects writers with each other, with various writers' support services, and with markets for their professional talents. The Network also publishes a bimonthly newsletter, ProWriter News, For more info write Ken Freed, 916 Lafayette St., Denver, CO 80218- Or call (303) 863-9613.
Nicaragua As a School
"The problems of Nicaragua are Nicaraguan but they cease to be so if that country is deprived of all possibilities for normal survival." (Carlos Fuentes, Mexican novelist and statesman, in the commencement address. Harvard University, June 9, 1983)
In August, 1979 Joe Collins of the Institute for Food and Development Policy was invited to visit Nicaragua for the purpose of advising that government on its food and farming policies. So began a series of visits and the Institute's growing interest in the ways in which Nicaraguans are responding to problems of poverty and social reconstruction.
In February 1982, Collins and Frances Moore Lappe (co-founder of the Institute and author of Diet for a Small Planet), talked with a variety of Nicaraguans, addressing the questions: How is the revolution changing your life? What are your problems, your hopes and fears for the future? How did you come to be so involved? Additionally, they sought the views of Nicaraguans on such controversial questions as: What about a free press or the conflict with the Miskitos? What about Private vs. State ownership? Are unions and political parties free? Is conflict inevitable between Marxists and Christians? What is Nicaragua, democratic or totalitarian?
What they found is summarized in a brief (118 page), sympathetic but critical account, Now We Can Speak: A Journey Through the New Nicaragua. Published by the Institute, the book is illustrated with photographs of many of the people and projects encountered in their visit. These encounters occurred with a wide range of people: workers and officials on state as well as cooperative farms, vendors and managers in small and large markets, participants in Sandanista Defense Committees (CDSs), government officials in planning and agrarian reform, U.S. church people working in barrios and government agencies, volunteer coordinators of ADOU: education centers, as well as "ordinary" citizens - from cab drivers to peasants to students. As with the people, so with their viewpoints on post-revolutionary changes: the opinions reported appear open and frank running the gamut from pro to con.
The authors do a generally capable job of locating present situations in the historical context of the struggle to overthrow the Somoza dictatorship and reconstruct a new society, within the scope of a short, popular presentation. Of special interest to educators is the picture which emerges of a whole society engaged together in a dynamic, participatory process of learning.
This is apparent in the well-publicized mass adult literary crusade - at the time of the civil war illiteracy was 50% and the average level of schooling was the second grade five month literacy campaign reduced illiteracy to 12% and it is estimated that 40% of the entire population is involved in some form of organized education.) But even more significant, perhaps, are the post-literacy efforts in which people seek to acquire new skills as well as to share their knowledge. So, for example, the Ministry of Agriculture established a Center for Appropriate Technology - dubbed the "Peasant University." Participants learn by doing and sharing: they are building the Center's facilities out of locally available materials. The Center is rediscovering from the peasants previously lost technologies. And, relying on a multiplier effect, the Center teaches new skills to representatives selected by rural communities who, upon returning home, share their skills with others.
A second example: the CDSs function as places for political education as participants discuss issues of concern solving neighborhood problems, the role of the Church and political parties, for instance. Or again, the CDS discussions provide local feedback on proposals being considered at the national level – for example, revision of the paternity law, agrarian reform and the kind of education people want.
In these and many other ways the authors discovered why Nicaraguans say of their process - the pragmatic evolution of policies in the light of reflection on their experiences – that "Nicaragua is a school." Given the opportunity to survive, Nicaragua may also prove a "school" for us who as educators are concerned with such problems as: broad-based apathy and the lack of participation by adults in significant projects of action and learning, the dependence of learners on leaders and experts, and the substitution of bureaucratic and technical solutions for a democratic social and political process.
Readers who wish to learn more from the Nicaraguan experience will find a useful list of books, articles, periodicals, films, tapes and slide shows, as well as organizations, included. (Lappe and Collins also co-authored a companion volume. What Difference Could a Revolution Make? Food and Farming in the New Nicaragua, published by the Institute in 1982. For more information write the Institute for Food and Development Policy, 1885 Mission St., San Francisco, CA 94103-3584.) (Art Lloyd)
NEW ZEALAND TOUR
June 1984 is the time that has been set aside by the Center for Adult Development at Rutgers State University and the University of Waikata's Center for Continuing Education in New Zealand for a sixteen day study tour of New Zealand. Participants will look at adult education in rural and metropolitan areas. Graduate students may be able to enroll in this program for credit. INFO: N.Z. Trip, Center for Adult Development, Rutgers University, 31 Mine St., New Brunswick, NJ 08904.
THE MOUSE THAT ROARED
One clear December day last year a grey mouse, disguising a graduate student, donned her best clothes to defend a master's thesis in education. (This thesis was a content analysis of children's television cartoons, which include many mouse characters, to determine their consumption portrayals.) She stood in front of a mirror and carefully straightened out her bow tie, and took notice that the black tail was pinned on just right at the base of her spine.
The mouse (and the graduate student!) were excited. The thesis had been a long and strenuous undertaking. At long last, the finale was here. What a joyous occasion! What better way could be found to celebrate a thesis than to incorporate it into the defense after it had been such an integral part of life?
So off went the newly transformed mouse to stand trial in front of the academic committee. The enthusiasm was short lived. Looks of confusion, anger, and astonishment greeted the mouse, followed by a series of questions: "What are you doing?", "Where did you get that?", "Do you have anything on under there?", "Would you like a cup of coffee?"
Gears had to be shifted and quickly! The mouse removed her ears which were protruding from her head about a foot. She had some cheese and crackers in her back pack, to share with the committee, but decided against taking them out.
What a response?!! Why was there no joyous appreciation for her creativity and spontaneity? Isn't creativity one of those dearly valued
qualities that academia claims to espouse? Had the mouse disturbed their decorum?
This experience also begs the following question: What does this type of reaction say about the academic institution that encourages and promotes this type of uniformity of not only its faculty but also its graduate students? (Faye Pietrokowsky)
A SHIFT IN THE LIFE OF THE MIND
(EDITOR'S NOTE: Ron Gross, known to most readers of ST: as a long-time friend of Basic Choices, and for his advocacy of worthwhile values in adult education (The Lifelong Learner, Invitation to Lifelong Learning), has spent the past three years encouraging intellectual work
outside the university. The importance of his Independent Scholarship Project has been widely recognized. "If humanity is to pass safely
through its present crisis on earth," Buckminster Fuller has said, "it will be because a majority of individuals are now doing their own thinking. This Project has pioneered in improving the climate for such thinking in the U.S." The national organization of non-affiliated researchers, the Academy of Independent Scholars, calls- him "the unquestioned authority on, and prime mover in, today's serious ground-swell movement of serious creative work by unaffiliated scholars." We asked Ron to share the implications of his Project with ST readers, based on his book The Independent Scholar's Handbook (Addison-Wesley) and Independent Scholarship: Promise, Problems, and Prospects, just published by the College Board.)
As the lights dim on the campus, fresh stirrings of intellectual life are burgeoning throughout our society. A shift is occurring in the life of the mind—a healthy and necessary one, I think.
We are shifting towards more diverse, diffused - democratic forms. Changes are occurring in the Who, What, Where, When, How—and most important, the Why—of serious intellectual activity.
More and more people are realizing what ST readers take for granted—that you don't have to be a professor to use your mind to the utmost, and that you don't have to be in a university to find comrades and colleagues. They are self -organizing in do-it-yourself institutes, special interest groups and societies, think tanks, roundtables and a dozen other kinds of associations for mutual support and collective action.
The well-honed principles of self-help and mutual support are being applied to the life of the mind.
Basic Choices as an organization exemplifies this "movement." It was the creation of individuals of diverse backgrounds joining together to pursue shared intellectual and political goals. Its focus is broader and more activist than is the norm in academe. Its modes of inquiry—of which ST is a prime example—are different from those of the essentially isolated investigator in an academic department. Its leadership in the campaign within the field of adult education, against mandatory continuing education, is one of the half dozen most important contributions to that field made in the last decade. Interestingly, in the field of adult education most of the significant, innovative thinking and research of recent years has been done outside academe.
That's typical these days. Looking back, it's easy to see that the universities have failed to address the major social problems of each of the past several decades, until they were confronted with the findings of independent investigators. In the fifties it took Michael Harrington's The Other America to wake academe up to the existence of poverty in a supposedly "affluent society." In the sixties, Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique was needed to call attention to sexism as a subject for social science research. It was Rachel Carson who roused the nation to the problems of environmental pollution. And currently, the universities are only catching up to the major problem of our day—the nuclear peril—after its identification and exploration by independent minds and by masses of Americans.
Today, such pioneering by talented and dedicated individuals has taken organized form, Literally thousands of people throughout the country are joining forces for this kind of inquiry. John Ohliger's synthesis of New Age thinking, prepared for the recent Highlander Conference co-sponsored by Basic Choices and LEKN, reveals how much of the "edge thinking" of our time is going on outside the university. Kenneth Boulding, the distinguished social thinker and former president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, said after reviewing our findings: "We can no longer rely on the more conventional organizations, such as universities, and even research institutes, governments, and so on, corrupted as they are by the malignant growth of national defense organizations and by political cultures which distort the priorities of research. In this situation organizations of independent scholarship may have an impact on society far in excess of their size."
Our intellectual life is shifting healthily towards the pursuit of more relevant truths, pursued in a broader variety of modes, by- different sorts of people, in different organizations, for more humane ends. The life of the mind is taking new configurations, following the lead of non-academic intellectuals such as Ivan Illich, Hazel Henderson, William Irwin Thompson, Lewis Mumford, Frances Lappe, Frances FitzGerald, Arthur Koestler, Betty Friedan, Justin Kaplan, Herbert Kohl, E.F. Schumacher, and Richard Barnet.
Another non-academic intellectual who has monitored our work in this field over the past three years expressed better than I can, the significance of these developments. Alvin Toffler, author of Future Shock and The Third Wave, says: "Independent writers, thinkers, researchers, and scholars make striking, creative contributions to our understanding of the world around us. It is time to shatter the myth that the university has monopoly on the production of knowledge. Your work shows how each of us can play an exhilarating role in that process."
Kenneth Boulding: "We can no longer rely on the more conventional organizations, corrupted as they are by
the malignant growth of national defense organizations and by political cultures which distort the priorities of research.. .."
MCE BRIEFS
Delaware Teachers Nix MCE
The Delaware State Board of Education has just rescinded the requirement for six hours of Mandatory Continuing Education (MCE) courses for public school teacher recertification. According to an article in the May 1983 NEA Today sent us by Paul Rux, the Board made its decision "thanks largely to the opposition of the Delaware State Education Association (DSEA)." The article quotes the DSEA President: "We are very pleased. Obviously, the Board listened to what DSEA, teachers, and local school boards told them about the absurdity of the recertification requirements."
Anne Deaton & Lila Neese
Anne Deaton has been going around giving stimulating talks on MCE. One was such hot stuff recently that a member of the audience was so outraged that he wouldn't let Anne continue and insisted on challenging her right in the middle of her speech, which was fine with Anne since it led to a worthwhile discussion. INFO: 1400 Valley View Dr., Blacksburg, VA 24060 or contact her in the Adult Ed Program at VA Polytechnic & SEHNIV,208 H.C. OB, Blacksburg, VA 24061.
Lila Neese has just prepared "A Proposal for a Study on the Utilization of Knowledge from MCE Courses to the Clinical Practice of Registered Nurses in Dade County, FL." As part of; her graduate work at FL ST UNIV, Lila seeks comment on this 13 page proposal. It looks like another interesting attempt to show once again that there is scant empirical proof that MCE works. INFO: 9431 SW 64th Terrace, Miami, FL 33173, (305) 274-4656.
Verner's Day in Court Soon
Robert Verner (1553 Clinton St., Suite 100C, Aurora, CO 80010, (303) 341-5053) writes that his suit may come to trial this Sept. over his suspension as an attorney for refusing to meet MCE requirements. Good Luck, Bob! Meanwhile Bob has started a new firm. Professional Evaluators, Ltd., offering to help consumers find out which professionals are good or bad. Write or call him for info on how you can start such a firm in your community.
MCE for Drunk Drivers
John Dirks is a part-time instructor In a MCE program for drivers convicted of operating a vehicle while intoxicated. He is also a doctoral student in continuing ed at the UNIV of WI. John has just completed a carefully prepared five page paper, "Group Dynamics/Traffic Safety School: A Question of Value." After outlining the goals and character of the course. Dirks states that its compulsory nature is "a fundamental limitation to the success of the program." But he is not ready to concede that it is of little value, and quotes a participant who found something positive in the discovery "that I wasn't the only one in the boat." Dirks believes there are some values in the program that "remain unarticulated." INFO: John Dirks, 1730 Winchester St., Madison, WI 53704. (608) 244-8391.
Trends/Issues for Professionals
Kathleen Rockhill claims that MCE through indirect regulation such as professional association membership, employment requirements, and specialized certification along with informal social sanctions "are on the upsurge" in the United States. Her views appear in "MCE for Professionals: Trends and Issues," Adult Education. Vol. 33, No. 2, Winter 1983, pp. 106-116. Kathy's article performs a very useful service in calling attention to the way indirect and informal pressures increase MCE, but note that it may be out of date factually since it was written several years ago and even with some last minute updating contains no reference later than February 1981. (John Ohliger)
"America’s current social climate, moving so strangely toward 1984 and the millennium…"
Michael Rossman in his book NEW AGE BLUES.
PARTICIPATORY RESEARCHERS/ADULT EDUCATORS ORGANIZE AT HIGHLANDER
Spring was late coming: to the hills of Tennessee. Nevertheless new energy and vitality were evident as some 40 participatory researchers and adult educators gathered in late March at the Highlander Center to share experiences, listen to visiting Latin Americans and lay the ground work for future networking.
Initially, participatory researchers from Canada and the U.S. had planned a meeting to develop a Morth American network. When this coincided with the presence at Highlander of three Latin American "popular educators" the meeting was expanded to Include some of their counterparts in the U.S. - adult and community educators committed to social change and empowerment. Among the participants were university and college-based researchers and teachers, labor educators, organizers from grassroots community groups, culture workers and women's groups - but under-represented were Black and Hispanic groups (a concern which itself became part of the discussion agenda). They came from "all over" - from New Mexico to Maine, from Toronto to Alabama.
A major highlight of the 21/2 day gathering was the presentations of the Latin Americans – a Chilean, a Mexican and Ernesto Vallecillos, the Nicaraguan Vice Minister of Adult Education. These three addressed such issues as the theory and practice of what the Latins call educacion popular ("people's education" - a people-as-subject-oriented alternative to the schooling, of the dominant culture). Additionally they discussed the relations of participatory research to this educational movement - which owes much to the work and thought of Paulo Freire - and its relations to the process of empowerment of marginalized peoples in Latin American contexts. (A videotape and transcription of these presentations are available - write the Highlander Center, Rt 3, Box 370, New Market, TK 37820 for information and costs. Look also for an article on Latin American "popular education" in the next issue of ST.)
Following these presentations participants spent most of their time in two separate groups:
- the participatory researchers (PR) and adult educators (AE) - for sharing and planning. Outcomes from the PR process included: proposals to hold a series of meetings - from a "national" conference to be convened in Canada to regional workshops at Highlander and in the north central states; utilization of the PR Group Newsletter as a vehicle for semi-annual exchange of ideas, supplemented by periodic bulletins on time-dated information and news releases to 500 representatives of the alternative press. PRG Working Papers on specific themes and issues will also be circulated for criticism and possible broader publication. A proposal to share resources through a computerized data base is also being developed and funding sources for this and other projects are being explored. Responsibilities for the implementation of these proposals was divided up among a number of the participants. Overall North American coordination will be carried out by Lynda Yanz — for further information, including a summary of the PR network discussions, and to get on the mailing list for the PRG Newsletter, Lynda may be contacted at PRG/ICAE, 29 Prince Arthur Avenue, Toronto, Ontario M5R 1B2, Canada.
The AE group began with a less clear conception of where to go and what to call ourselves but came to several general agreements. The long-term vision is to build a network, not necessarily an organization, of "progressive" adult educators - although there was dissatisfaction with that designation no better name emerged. The purposes to be filled by such a network include: linking North Americans with the international network of social change/empowerment-oriented educators; sharing information, methods and ideas; promoting critical reflection on our work and enhancing advocacy as well as collaborative programming. A provisional task force of 8 people was formed to explore the possibilities of regional consultations – both to share experience and reflection but also to test the desirability of proceeding in the building of such an AE network.
Thanks to the facilitation of Candle Carawan and Jane Sapp of the Highlander staff, a marvelous, rich and memorable evening of song, stories, dance and personal remembrances - both from the region as well as from participants from elsewhere, drawing on mountain. Black, Hispanic and various movements - brought us altogether before we dispersed to our various destinations,
For an outline summary of the reports on the PR and AE planning sessions, contact Sue Thrasher or John Gaventa at Highlander. Also available through Highlander is a report (in English thanks to the translation of Blanca Facundo) of the remarks by Ernesto on the Nicaraguan political/military situation relative to the incursions of the U.S. supported counter revolutionary forces from Honduras. (Art Lloyd)
JOBS & BARTER
(EDITOR'S NOTE: Among those attending the March Highlander conference were Cheryl Wilkie and Don Comstock of Raymond, WA, organizers of a skills exchange project called Shoalwater J.O.B.S. (Job Opportunities and Bartering Skills). In a recent letter Cheryl outlines what's significant about the project. For further information write Shoalwater J.O.S.S., P.O. Box 466, Raymond, WA 98577)
Let me try to give you our perspective on the skills exchange that led us to conclude that It could be a progressive (not revolutionary) part of our organizing. Our context is important. We are working in a rural lumbering area with little or no experience of organization except for the unions, which have become relatively non-participatory except at vote time. The issues are unemployment and multinational corporate control of the local economy. These are big issues that most people, even though very aware of the political nature of them, feel powerless to address because they can't see any solutions within their grasp. The business community's solution is to bring more giant corporations in to repeat the same cycle. What we have tried to do is to bring unemployed people together to try to come up with their own solutions, ones that are within their abilities. Our idea has been that if people discover, through working on these projects, their capacity to potentially control their economy, they will be prepared and motivated to confront the issue of corporate domination. Until the organizational experience and solidarity is built around a sense of the possibility of achieving alternatives, no one here will lift one finger in a political fight that directly confronts the real power structure. Our situation is not unlike that described by John Gaventa in Power and Powerlessness: what appears to be apathy among the people is really a deep sense of the imbalance of power that the people face, and a lack of a sense of their own capacity to create alternatives.
So in our early brainstorming meetings, people came up with the ideas of starting worker cooperatives and organizing the skills exchange. Realizing that the coops would be difficult, risky, and long-term projects, we encouraged people to develop the skills exchange to both meet immediate needs and use skills that were lying idle, in order to build organizational skills around a relatively simple project and strengthen the sense of grass roots cooperation. The fact that this is a relatively stable working class community is important. The needs are much more pressing and there really isn't money available in most cases to meet them. And identity is very much built around manual skills. The neglect of both the needs and the skills has increased the demoralization, sense of powerlessness, and community disintegration. Many radicals have argued that helping people to ameliorate their immediate problems dampens the potential of galvanizing their material desperation into political action. But what I have seen is that people who are down-and-out are very hard to organize. They associate less with others, drink more, and beat their wives and children. If they're women, they become more isolated.
The main experience of alternative social relations that I think people can gain through the skills exchange are: cooperation (everyone can win who participates; mutual support) , unity among low-income people, equality (everyone's labor is equal; everyone works, everyone both gives and receives), self-respect (the project is owned by the participants, not social service bureaucrats; no charity degradation); focus on use value (debunks the money fetish, frees people in a small way from market relationships of exchange, connects needs directly), trust (it only works if you believe in people's good intentions; "hard bargaining" based on self interest alone and mutual suspicion are totally detrimental to a successful exchange), and community spirit (talents are manifested for all to see; the stigma of a rural "do nothing" backwater is countered).
Another problem of small rural towns is divisiveness due to cliques and longstanding superficial prejudice. The capacity for people differing in their oppression by only nuances to waste all of their time picking at each other is absolutely diabolical! By getting people together in new combinations around productive activities, the skills exchange helps them see each other in new lights. We also are managing "I/ link groups that are usually isolated from each other —like seniors and youth, both of whose abilities are generally untapped.
From an organizing perspective, the skills exchange allows me to get to know community people and the culture, and I hope to use this knowledge to stimulate the creation of popular cultural projects in the future, ones that become increasingly political in the kind of consciousness raising they do. Through the exchange we can develop a larger membership organization than the coop projects allow, that may be the base for tackling future issues.
I guess what we'd like to do is develop a multi-dimensional community development strategy that includes both economic and cultural aspects, and develops the skills and experience in community people to control their lives. We're working intensively here, rather than extensively, because we still don't understand ourselves the 'micro' processes that contribute to the creation of organizations that practice an enduring democracy. When we know better how to facilitate that, we'll try to link this community organization up with other communities in the region that have similar problems. If you have any insights or critiques of what we're about, and can suggest better ways, please send them our way!
CONFERENCES/MEETINGS
Adult Educators & Social Change Retreat
To retreat does not necessarily mean to run away or go back. The 50 people who gathered for "a retreat" at Highlander in the middle of May on the theme "Adult Educators & Social Change" certainly found that out. For two days they moved forward into the murky realm of questioning the very bases on which rest the various approaches to social change involving adult educators.
Co-sponsored by Basic Choices and The Learning Resources Network (LERN), the retreat attracted registrants from 19 states in all regions of the U.S. with backgrounds in Free U's, universities, ABE programs, Indian Adult Ed, and many other concerns. Participants informally explored what's behind such approaches as Highlander, Freirean, Participatory Research, Free U's, Community Organizing, and New Age/Transformational.
For the discussion on the New Age/Transformational approach John Ohliger of Basic Choices prepared a two page outline and reading list which we'll send you for a Self-Addressed Stamped Envelope or a quarter. It's called "The Tao of Adult Ed," (as in The Tap of Physics or The Tao of Pooh). A highlight of the weekend was the Saturday evening songfest with Highlander's resident folk singer and all-round good guy. Guy Carawan, joined by participants Anne Deaton, with a beautiful original composition; Regan Unsoeld, likewise plus the harmonica; and Pat Cabe, playing the banjo for the first time in public.
LERN's monthly publication The Learning Connection will be carrying a longer story on the retreat and there's talk of doing it again
next year maybe at the original home of Chautauqua or at Highlander. INFO on both: Bill Draves, LERN, 1221 Thurston, Manhattan, KS 66502, (913) 539-5376.
Emotional Literacy
On May 27-31, the 8th annual Midwest Radical Therapy Conference met in Williams Bay, WI to explore the theme of emotional literacy as a source of political power and collective action.
Diverse approaches to this theme in the workshops reflected the diversity of backgrounds and ideas of the 90 to 100 people present. Yet the spirit of cooperation, openness, creativity and nurturance I felt there was maintained, despite conflicts of ideas and approaches. This in itself is a powerful evidence of the progress people there have made toward emotional literacy: understanding their feelings, empathizing with others' feelings, understanding the social processes through which our feelings and desires, and those of other people are related.
If you would like to learn more about the emotional literacy concept, read a recent paperback by one of the conference participants, Claude Stelner - The Other Side of Power: How to Become Powerful Without Being Power-Hungry, (NY: Grove Press, 1981).
Workshops covered a wide range including: personal/social empowerment through music, art movement and spirituality; non-violent methods of communication, group problem-solving and mediation; union, anti-war and community organizing; unlearning racism; Reichian politics and therapy; visionary thinking and relevant Marxism; social therapy and internalized oppression. For a summary evaluation or further Information on this and future conferences, you may write the R.T. Publishing Collective at: Issues in Radical Therapy, Rural Route #1, Springfield, IL 62707, or read the next issue of their journal (subscriptions available from above address). (Mike Wyatt)
Hare's Midwest Hops
In mid-May Wes Hare of Twin Streams Educational Center took his "dog and pony show" on the road, with stops in Minneapolis, Madison and Chicago. Meeting with a variety of groups and people, Wes shared Twin Streams' experience as it seeks to promote worker-owned and managed businesses in North Carolina. Additionally Wes shared the experience he and Frank Adams had at the ICAE Conference In Paris last fall, where an international network was organized to connect educators with worker ownership/management interests. Wes also related their learnings from a visit to Mondragon, Spain, a world renowned center of coop enterprises.
In Madison, Wes met with a group that included not only workers in small worker-owned collectives - such as Bountiful Bean, Inc., a local manufacturer of tofu to representatives of economic development agencies and two state legislators. The latter, representing Industrial areas of Wisconsin with high unemployment, are interested in legislation to enhance cooperative ownership of larger enterprises, to create and protect jobs within communities. In our discussion questions ranged from political/legal (what policy changes and legislation are needed at the State level?) to financial (how can large coops be capitalized in a climate geared to traditional businesses?) to educational (how can workers develop the confidence and skills necessary to management?)
Wes's visits were coordinated by Larry Olds in Minneapolis, Art Lloyd in Madison and Tom Heaney in Chicago. For more on Twin Streams, Wes can be reached at 243 Flemington Road, Chapel Hill, NC 27514. (Art Lloyd)
TWO SIDES, SAME COIN?
New frontiers in higher education are opening up on different ends of the social spectrum. But if we read this merely in terms of expanding markets, have we missed the significance?
Consider on the one hand Hancock County in eastern Tennessee, with the 6th lowest per capita income of any county in the nation. While isolated from the mainstream of traditional higher education, a collective community effort has arranged to provide college courses without a campus, by bringing in qualified local instructors to teach accredited classes leading to an undergraduate degree in the liberal arts. Poor but employed, the people have been anxious to develop leadership skills in analyzing and speaking out on matters of economic, social and philosophical concern to their community.
On the other hand, in the mainstream of traditional higher education, Columbia Teachers College has instituted Adult Education Guided Independent Study (AEGIS) leading to the degree of Doctor of Education, the program is designed for "experienced, self-directed professionals" with graduate work beyond the MA and at least five years of experience in program development or administration of adult education or training. Participants complete an individual learning contract and write short papers which elicit narrative feedback but no competitive grading.
For further information on either program contact: Orban Horton, Hancock County Education Cooperative, Alder Drive, Sneedville,TN (615-733-2521). Jack Mezirow, Teachers College, Columbia University, Box 50, N.Y., N.Y. 10027.
"A SONG OF MEETINGS"
I sing a song of meetings,
Of explanations that start with creation,
And interruptions fueled by indignation,
Of agendas stretched and padded,
Confusions enjoyed and added,
And climactic declarations denouncing
those so weak as not to stick it out to the end.
I sing a song of meetings,
Declaring factions to end the blight of faction
And endless speeches on the need for action,
Abrupt insistence on calling the question,
Speakers begging for a two-minute extension,
And mortals made of common clay, fading flesh, who marvel at their own endurance.
(by Irving Howe, in his A Margin of Hope. NY: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1982)
ED TOWARD A WORLD VIEW
Cornell University in Ithaca, New York will be the site from July 25-29 of an international conference "Education Toward a World View." It's sponsored by the Lisle Fellowship, founded in 1936 to find ways to improve the quality of life and work towards world peace through understanding between peoples of different cultures. The purpose of this conference is to encourage participants to share their experiences, knowledge, concerns, and educational tools. Conference members will work together to identify concerns in the following areas: Peace Education and Peace-Making, Health and Mental Health Education, Human Rights Education and Social Action, and Education and Cross-Cultural Learning. Among those who will participate in the conference: Kenneth Boulding, author of The Social System of Planet Earth and Stable Peace and psychologist Carl Rogers who recently wrote A Way of Being. INFO: Martin Tillman, Director, Lisle Center for Intercultural Studies, Rockland Community College, 145 College Road, Suffern, MY 10901, (914) 356-4650, ext. 530 or 506.
CONFLICTS IN WESTERN CULTURE
From August 7th to 11th the Integrated Liberal Studies (ILS)/Meiklejohn Summer Institute here in Madison will explore "Conflicts in Western Culture: An Interdisciplinary Approach." ILS is an interdepartmental program at the UNIV of WI and an offshoot of Alexander Meiklejohn's Experimental College (see ST, Vol. 4, No. 3, May 1982, "Teacher of Freedom," p. 5).
ILS faculty and others will lecture and lead discussions on: "The Corporation & Liberal Democracy," "Scientific & Technical Backgrounds to the Arms Race," plus "The Arts Under Fire," and "Conflicts Between the Generations." INFO: Michael Hinden, Chairperson, ILS, -UMIV of WI, 228 N. Charter St., Madison, WI 53706, (608) 262-2190 or 262-6210.
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