All About Mentoring Spring 2011 - SUNY Empire State College

More documents

Recommendations

Info

52 students are used to action, and the more contemplative aspects of academic life can be frustrating. They want answers – yesterday. We have noticed, too, that military students often bite off more than they can chew. Sometimes, like many of our other students, military students just disappear, not finishing their work, not responding to emails and offers of help. Were they redeployed Did they get too overwhelmed by academic demands To consciously support veteran students demonstrates that colleges welcome diversity in ways that are rarely talked about. Besides being dedicated to identifying and eliminating classist, racist, ageist or sexist attitudes, it shows that diversity of experience is welcomed, and that colleges strive to foster an inclusionary environment that is dedicated to erasing veteran’s social alienation by inviting them into a community of discourse that contends with real world dilemmas. The lived realities of experience in our complicated world desperately need the rigorous critical inquiry and communication skills that can be honed in the academic environment. And higher education needs to learn from people whose lived experiences are the stuff of literature, philosophy, history and politics. Ultimately, we believe that what matters most is that we give students – and ourselves – the opportunity to think about and explore all the complicated aspects of war. As the writer James Salter says, we need to know about war, because it is about us. Note Quotes from students in this essay were collected from study group assignments and discussions during the 2009 and 2010 terms. References As expected, the literature on war is immense. We recognize that we only touch on a small sliver of that work. Included below are references to some of the key texts mentioned in our essay. If anyone is interested in receiving a fuller bibliography of the materials we have collected, we would be happy to share them with you. Kingston, M. H. (2006). Veterans of war, veterans of peace. Kihei, HI: Koa Books. Lewis, J. E. (Ed.). (1995). War: A classic collection of 56 great war stories of our time. New York, NY: Galahad Books. Smithson, R. (2009). Ghosts of war: The true story of a 19-year-old GI. New York, NY: Collins. Tick, E. (2005). War and the soul: Healing our nation’s veterans from posttraumatic stress disorder. Wheaton, IL: Quest Books. Willis, C. (Ed.). (2003). Semper Fi: Stories of the United States Marines from boot camp to battle. New York, NY: Thunder’s Mouth Press. War Stories Project Claudia Hough and Elaine Handley have joined with Cindy Bates to work on a project that evolved out of the War Stories study. They have collected stories about war from the Empire State College community that they will craft into a performance piece. It will be presented at the new Arts Residency on Thursday, Nov. 3, at Proctors Theater in Schenectady, N.Y. suny empire state college • all about mentoring • issue 39 • spring 2011
53 Education and Individualism: Some Notes, Some Questions Carla R. Payne, Professor Emerita of Graduate Studies, Union Institute and University, and Adjunct Faculty, Community College of Vermont 1. I have the privilege of teaching philosophy, which gives me a glimpse into what students are thinking. Over the years, I have noticed that the ethical relativism that is endemic among undergraduates is beginning to have an analogy in their attitude toward ontology. Not only do many of my students insist that what is good and right is relative to the individual, but also that what is real is real only in relation to the individual person. This goes beyond even Jamesian pluralism to what amounts to an insistence on the democracy of existence itself. Whatever the logical merits of such a position, it does not seem to result from reflection on the nature of things, but rather from a sense that any other position would not be fair, i.e., that a monolithic reality would infringe on individual rights. This may be the ultimate ought-is argument: x should not be the case, and therefore x is not the case. But I am concerned here less with the soundness of this train of thought than with the way it mirrors the assumptions in our present political environment. 2. Some examples to consider: • Headline: Rift in Arizona as Latino Class is Found Illegal. A high school class in Latino literature is found to be in violation of Arizona legislation (HB 2281, May 10, 2010), which stipulates that “A school district or charter school in this state shall not include in its program of instruction any courses or classes that include any of the following: … Advocate ethnic solidarity instead of the treatment of pupils as individuals” (Lacey, 2011). • After the shootings in Tucson, Sarah Palin is quoted as saying that “. . . acts like the shootings in Arizona ‘begin and end with the criminals who commit them, not collectively with all the citizens of a state.’” “Ms. Palin quoted former President Ronald Reagan as saying that society should not be blamed for the acts of an individual. She said, ‘It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions’” (Shear, 2011). The political implications and motivations of the Arizona legislation and of pronouncements similar to Palin’s have been widely canvassed, but the extent to which they reflect a major theme in American culture, rooted perhaps even more deeply than chauvinism, is not being given equal attention. Individualism is the mantra, and the virtues of individualism are proclaimed and assumed, but rarely examined for their implications. Are we, after all, biological atoms, each thrown into the world to compete with every other, owing nothing of ourselves to any others and therefore without essential ties beyond ourselves Aristotle asserted that we can’t even be human outside human society, and there are centuries of research demonstrating the importance of the social environment on our physical, physiological and psychological development. But radical individualism occurs and recurs as a leading motif, and indeed as an article of faith, throughout American history. Our most recent versions of libertarianism trumpet it: because any government that is democratic is necessarily a collective enterprise of the governed, even such a government must infringe on the absolute autonomy of the individual person. The contemporary insistence on the virtues of choice and on the total responsibility of each person for his/her own fate, which we see shaping policy from health care to financial regulation, is another variation on this same theme. 3. An educational system is bound to reflect the underlying assumptions of the society that it serves. But we must recognize that to the extent that education is implemented through social organization, there is a fatal inconsistency in insisting that certain values can be inculcated and at the same time that what we experience doesn’t count in making us who we are. Does it make sense to argue that family values (or any values) need to be cherished and perpetuated, and simultaneously that we are all radically and solely responsible for who we are and what we do Or does this argument apply only to criminals, while those of us who turn out to be “good citizens” owe our virtue to parental teaching, proper schooling, religious indoctrination or divine grace 4. It is interesting to realize that in 1930, at the beginning of the Great Depression, John Dewey drew a distinction between an older individualism and a newer one, regarding individualism as a “mental and moral structure,” itself dynamic, evolving and changing “with every great change in social constitution” (Dewey, 1962). The older individualism he saw as rooted in feudalism, and as later transformed by the industrial revolution. It was defined by economic self-interest, at a time when such an understanding of individualism represented resistance to prevailing legal and political repression. But “emergent individualism,” according to Dewey, consonant with the forces of the present time, is impeded by our “opposing the socially corporate to the individual” (1962). Of course the terms of that opposition are now themselves transformed by the passage from the machine-dominated industry of his era to the digital technology of ours, but Dewey’s rejection of personal or individual gain as the sole and permanent driver of progress is still highly relevant, as is his repudiation of the idea that the ties that bind us together in community “are merely external, and do not react into mentality and character, producing the framework of personal disposition” (Dewey, 1962). It is the contradiction of this very insight suny empire state college • all about mentoring • issue 39 • spring 2011
Page 1 and 2:
MENTORING ALL ABOUT A PUBLICATION O
Page 3 and 4: 1 Table of Contents Editorial - The
Page 5 and 6: 3 Imagination and Art: Children Cop
Page 7 and 8: 5 Drawing 3: Darfur, 2005. “All o
Page 9 and 10: 7 The child artist’s title for he
Page 11 and 12: 9 support, caregivers being in actu
Page 13 and 14: 11 Mentoring: A Poet’s View Susan
Page 15 and 16: 13 Educating the Digital Citizen in
Page 17 and 18: 15 their learning activities. In th
Page 19 and 20: 17 While I find this useful in the
Page 21 and 22: 19 Shirky, C. (2011, January/Februa
Page 23 and 24: 21 Changing Ways of Knowing for Tra
Page 25 and 26: 23 intrinsic effort to self-protect
Page 27 and 28: 25 The evidence of education’s in
Page 29 and 30: 27 were present could participate e
Page 31 and 32: 29 her feelings about the treatment
Page 33 and 34: 31 Blended Learning Online: New Per
Page 35 and 36: 33 Students also will take self-gui
Page 37 and 38: 35 making certain she had forgotten
Page 39 and 40: 37 “At that restaurant” “We d
Page 41 and 42: 39 reports. Walking again to Jenna
Page 43 and 44: 41 Mentoring: A Social Relationship
Page 45 and 46: Interiors Installations by Carol Wa
Page 47 and 48: “River View,” 2010 (detail). Th
Page 49 and 50: 47 Lessons of War Elaine Handley an
Page 51 and 52: 49 win. Students read two Tim O’B
Page 53: 51 War veteran and author of Semper
Page 57 and 58: 55 My Lost Stories Steve Lewis, Hud
Page 59 and 60: 57 Reflections on a Journey of Lear
Page 61 and 62: 59 A Teacher Reflects: Learning Abo
Page 63 and 64: 61 a devoted reader of the left-lea
Page 65 and 66: 63 total absence of any smell excep
Page 67 and 68: 65 Found Things: Empire State Colle
Page 69 and 70: 67 because the College will have an
Page 71 and 72: 69 “Goin’ Mobile”: Designing
Page 73 and 74: 71 of iPods in particular allowed t
Page 75 and 76: 73 “Music never stops; it is we w
Page 77 and 78: 75 Adult Education and Politics Ric
Page 79 and 80: 77 democratic learning did not simp
Page 81 and 82: 79 could never serve the market tha
Page 83 and 84: 81 Here are a few preliminary thoug
Page 85 and 86: 83 Honoring George Drury (1917-2010
Page 87 and 88: 85 came to my mind, and also on top
Page 89 and 90: 87 Submissions to All About Mentori
Page 91: 2 Union Ave. Saratoga Springs, NY 1
show all

All About Mentoring Spring 2011 - SUNY Empire State College

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?