Framing Questions for November 15, 2010 Class
from Joy

Pitzer College Visit –

1. Discuss your reactions to last week’s visit to Pitzer College. How does the Pitzer classroom compare to the Johnston classroom?

Course Readings –

(Students to facilitate discussions on their assigned readings – additional questions welcome.)

1. Parker Palmer writes: The question is not “What made your mentor great,” but “What was it about you that allowed great mentoring to happen?” Tell the story of your mentor. Who was he or she? Was he or she a gifted teacher? What was it about you that allowed great mentoring to happen.
   
   
2. Palmer emphasizes the importance of the inner life of the teacher – how critical is it that as teachers, we embrace our fears and anxieties, our perceived faults? How do we do this and how does this enable us to become better teachers?
   
   
3. Yash Owada refers to learning as a reciprocal relationship between the professor and learner. To what extent is the process of teaching and learning (“learning how to learn”) as important as the content of what we teach?
   
   
4. In reflecting upon their classroom experiences at Evergreen and Antioch, the students in John McCann’s chapter speak of interdisciplinary programs as being “a natural way to learn.” How do interdisciplinary, connected pedagogical approaches provide for more authentic learning?
   
   
5. John McCann and William H. Newell both emphasize the importance of interdisciplinary education in their chapters. How do McCann and Newell’s approaches and perspectives differ (consider style, voice).
   
   
6. Please add your framing questions on Finkel's book, Teaching with Your Mouth Shut.

Discussion Questions for Journal of Humanistic Psychology Articles

Here are some questions for our discussion of the Journal of Humanistic Psychology articles.

Joy

1. Many of the authors discuss emotions, the affective dimension, as a critical component of learning. John Watt, for example, speaks of education of “the heart and the mind.” Glenn Whitlock asserts that feelings precede knowledge. What is the role of emotions in the teaching and learning experience at innovative colleges?

2. Over the years, innovative colleges have come up against various stereotypes and image problems (e.g., perceptions of the campuses as weird, far-out, hippie places) – how have stereotypes impacted innovative higher education? How do we deal with this?

3. Frank Blume describes students as “Gooeys” and “Pricklies” – what do you think of these characterizations and the methodology that he employs? To what extent are the students’ changes during college attributable Johnston’s personal growth groups vs. the students’ own characteristics or maturation?

4. Tom Greening addresses issues of power and coercion – what do you see as the benefits of these dynamics in higher education. How does Greening’s discussion fit in with the rest of the articles that we read?

5. What was your overall impression of the articles? Would you say that these voices are an accurate reflection of Johnston College circa 1981 – what should be added/removed? What is missing from the discussion?

Framing Questions for Journal of Humanistic Psych (Johnston issue)

A few questions from Patricia(Joy may put a few up as well):

Having read the obituaries of Johnston College, what continuities to you see in the resurrection of the Johnston Center?

So much of the early struggles were concerned with living arrangements and cultural battles that are now taken for granted in almost every institution of higher learning in America. What lessons from those early, traumatic battles still obtain in innovative colleges such as Johnston?

Journal on Johnston's origins

This is the reading for next week; framing questions to be up shortly

Journal of Humanistic Psychology Spring 1981 Vol. 21 No 2

pp. 3-63; 97-118

Special issue on Johnston College and Humanistic Higher Education—

Articles by:

Tom Greening, Ed Williams, Lyle Thompson, John Watt, Frank Blume,

Tom Greening, Glenn Whitlock

Also available on Microfilm BF1.J645 in Armacost

Framing Questions for first paper: Due October 25

Framing Questions for first cumulative paper (~5 pages, due Oct. 25 by email)

Please choose one or more of these questions or one of your own and write approximately 5 pages, due by class on Oct. 25. Please identify which question(s) you are addressing.
As you will see, several of the questions emerge from posts in our class blog.

I. In the campuses and programs we have examined thus far, how have innovative practices or pedagogical approaches been conserved? For schools that have endured over time (e.g., St. Johns, Berea College, Deep Springs), are innovative practices established at the founding of the colleges still innovative? For those that have folded, such as Black Mountain, Hutchins or the Experimental College, how did their innovations endure in other ways? How did the participants in the early educational innovations make meaning from their experiences? How does their history and identity inform the present?

II. Pick two institutions or programs that we have examined thus far and consider how each addresses the relationship between the classroom and the community.

III. “We are not impressed with current tendencies to allow or encourage each student to pursue his own ‘interests’ or to encourage students collectively to participate in curriculum determination. Students will have the rest of their lives to plan their own learning programs; in college, such planning is still the responsibility of the faculty.” (Experiment at Berkeley, 1969, p. 112)

This statement, by Alexander Meicklejohn’s student, Joseph Tussman, founder of the Experimental College at UC Berkeley, reflects the reality that schools with widely different pedagogies such as St. Johns and Black Mountain share the appellation “experimental” or “innovative”. What are the virtues or drawbacks of a fixed neo-classical curriculum vs. a progressive student-initiated curriculum. Where do experimenters such as Hutchins and Dewey agree? Where do they diverge? Why?

IV. What is the role of student labor such as is found at Berea, Antioch or Deep Springs and/or experiential learning as a component of the learning experience? Should education be preparation for a career? How might the desire to prepare for a livelihood inhibit or enhance educational innovation?

V. Discuss the role of leadership and vision in educational innovation. How essential is a strong leader? What is the responsibility of the community or leadership emerging from the grass roots? How has consensus played a role in educational innovation? Discuss, as well, the importance of an elaborated and thought-out educational plan or philosophy vs. a more organic, experiential one in the creation of innovative or experimenting campuses.

VII. In The Perpetual Dream, Grant and Reisman contend, “Perhaps both groups [of educational reformers] do share one common failing, again characteristically American: namely, to overestimate what education itself can do. Their hope was either to change the general culture….or, a bit more modestly, to produce a new generation of self-motivated, deeply interested students, not only in the selective colleges but also in the exploding institutions of near-universal higher education….” ( p. 7).

In response to this quote, do you think that the notion of education as a force for social change misguided or essential and why? How does the role of education in a democracy manifest in the colleges we have examined thus far?

VII. In Against the Current: Reform and Experimentation in Higher Education, J. Peter Euben
writes, “..alternative education has a special obligation to be both radical and conservative. It needs to be both because the modern state promotes cultural homogenization and personal fragmentation. We must be radical in resisting the homogenization not only in what we teach, but in how we teach it, to whom and where. But we also need to be conservative and traditional. We need, I think, to resist the blandishments of the here and now; and to nurture ideas, relationships and educational forms whose very persistence would be exemplary. (pp. 38-40)

Discuss Euben’s belief that alternative education ought to be both radical and conservative. How has this manifested in the campuses we have studied thus far?

Framing Questions for readings on October 18

Framing questions for “Reform Meets the Sixties” readings for 10/18


I. Several of the texts assert that economics play a significant role in the success or failure of experimenting colleges. While some experimental campuses closed in times of economic downturns, others were spurred to innovation out of financial hardship. What do you understand the role of economic confidence or uncertainty to be? (Consider how this may play out for students, faculty, parents as well as institutions.)

II. Clearly a cultural moment like the Sixties plays a large role in students’ (and parents’) responsiveness to experimentation. What qualities of that cultural moment foster or deter innovation? How does this compare to the cultural moment we are currently in?

III. What are the pitfalls and/or advantages of the Communal-Expressive telic institutions?

IV. In The Perpetual Dream Grant and Reisman write, “And when [Microbiologist Robert Edgar, founding provost of Kresge College] consciously tried to open up and relate more directly to students, he found they were afraid of him. As he thought about it, maybe he had been afraid of them, afraid of being attacked or put down; perhaps he had “poured it on” in order to silence them.”(p. 79)

What is the role of fears, anxieties and hierarchy in Communal-Expressive campuses? How is this different than or similar to faculty/student relationships in other kinds of campuses (i.e. conventional, neo-classical, popular reforms)?

Discussion/Decisions/Ideas Generated by “Innovating the Curriculum”

Discussion/Decisions/Ideas Generated by “Innovating the Curriculum”


Thank you for the thinking and initiative in composing “Innovating the Curriculum.” It is a thoughtful manifestation of student-initiated learning, innovation and the importance of process to Johnston (contrary to Grant/Riesman!)

Thanks as well to Mr. Kramer and Ms. Cornell for serving as our St. John’s tutors.

Here are our recollections of the discussion and determinations. If there are things we didn’t get right, please improve upon our memories.

Decisions/Ideas:
• Joy and Patricia will add framing questions for the reading on the blog.
• We will reproduce 3 copies of texts that are difficult to get hold of and leave them for exchange in the Johnston office.
• Students will meet weekly (Sunday nights) to discuss/reflect on readings. This meeting with result in a weekly shared reflection paper to guide each Monday’s discussion.
• We will meet in the Bekins lounge (let’s check in re: distractions—was it preferable to the classroom even with various people walking in and out of the building and occasionally needing to be let in?) We can also check again to see if the Browsing Room can be made available.
• Joy will check into a visit to Pitzer and find out who to be in touch with for a visit to Deep Springs.
• With regard to writing, there will be two mid-semester papers in addition to a cumulative paper/research project at the end of the semester. The first, due October 25, will be approximately five pages, addressing what we have learned so far and using a framing question, if desired. While we didn’t discuss further dates, Joy and Patricia propose that the second paper be turned in by November 29 so we are prepared for a robust discussion with the Deep Springs president(s) and can take the lead in a public forum to share innovative/distinctive education issues.
• For October 18, Joy will offer a mini-lecture on her chapter on the history of the innovative higher education movement of the sixties and early 1970s. Students will share on or before Sunday, Oct. 17, how they wish to structure the rest of the class (determining which participants will teach the other assigned readings and what else they’d like to explore).
• We will “divide and teach” some readings. For October 25, Mary will read and teach us from Paulo Freire’s “Pedagogy of the Oppressed” and Eli will read and teach us about Prescott College. The rest of the week’s readings will be read by all.
• Students will facilitate class sessions, using different pedagogical styles.
• We will determine facilitation and clarify subject matter for future classes in the next few weeks.





Note: we didn’t discuss directly the learning outcomes; they can serve partly as framing questions and touchstones; Let’s check in about them

Check out stumbleupon.com. It is a website that shows you websites according to your interests. I have made an account for this class and the account information will be provided bellow. I have set the interests as education and university/college, which so far has given very interesting articles. If you want something to blog about or just some interesting information regarding education or perhaps hunt for a connection to the readings, please check out the favorites and feel free to stumble as much as you like (the slogan of the site is "The more you stumble, the better it gets"). If you stumble upon something that doesn't seem to have any relevance to the class or education, please "thumbs down" it, so we can keep the account focused on the class. So far, I have found an intriguing high school in which there are no teachers and no classes and a few TED talks, which are usually very good (check favorites). Have fun.

User name: JohnstonExpEdu
Password: 13uffalo

P.S. Careful, it is addicting.

Constructive Questions/Reflections by Anne and Alana : )

At what point does an institution or community determine certain practices or pedagogical approaches to be conserved and a permanent part of the structure rather than experimental? How is this seen in the readings corresponding to Black Mountain and St John's?

In Racing Odysseus, how does Roger's lack of participation in classes effect his research, and his immersion at St. John's?

It is evident throughout the memoir that the St. John's curriculum is beneficial in other aspects of life other than in the classroom in terms of Roger's experience. Do you think that this holds true for the majority of passionate and motivated students?

Educational Autobiography by Anne DaSilva

Educational Autobiography

When examining my childhood and now through adolescence, educational experiences have been extremely prevalent. Throughout my life, and for many others my age, the schooling experience has shaped and occupied a significant part of childhood and play. Sifting through memories and past experiences I cannot imagine my life without school. School determined what time I would get up each morning, where I would be sitting long hours over the course of the day, my meals, how much time I would spend with my family and friends, when family vacations took place, and any other activities that would be available as a resource. I get frustrated thinking about time that was potentially wasted for most of my school life behind concrete walls and conventional settings and teaching methods. However, if one is constantly thinking about what went wrong, growth is limited, and options are clouded. It is important to be aware of experiences and how they shape our perspectives and decisions concerning education.

Pre school through primary and junior high school consisted of intensive socialization processes and experiences that although did not ever pertain to content “taught” it helped me understand conventional systems. Until the day I graduated high school, I had to recite the Pledge of Allegiance everyday (additionally prayer, in high school). We never had discourse about what the words meant or why we said them every single day, just that it was our duty to recognize our country through saying these words, whatever the hell they meant. The experience of reciting words automatically without thought is a lot how we learned most things in grade school; knowing what we had to know to take a test, or regurgitate to the rest of the class during presentations, but not evolving anything further.

Socially, I learned how to be accepted by the “cool” crowd, without being committed or put on the spot light. I learned to follow, stay under the radar, and not cause attention that would potentially hinder my social status. I was a floater, friends with everyone, close enough to sit anywhere and talk to anyone, but not close enough to have consistent “play dates” or even a best friend. I was very happy, and although enjoying groups and teams, preferred to go solo most of the time. I valued unstructured play, through art projects, gardening and music with my dad. I liked making decisions about what I would be participating, and if my older sister enjoyed it, I most definitely wanted to do the same.

While applying to college, I took the little sister role, the follower rout, of basically walking in my sisters footsteps and finding a place at the University of Redlands as well. I was very comfortable in this space, considering my acquaintance over the past three years while visiting my sister Julia, I knew Johnston and CAS students alike. I was a floater yet again in my first year at Redlands, spending time with both communities, often bringing together both groups of people into a larger and diverse community. I had a neutral sense between both worlds, but found that academically Johnston was finally the educational “plan” that I wanted to stick to and put forth not only my time and work, but heart and soul. Finding a community that I feel I cannot float away from finally feel safe, and not constrained. I am able to finally take responsibility and make decisions pertaining to my education, and not just extracurricular or unstructured.

Mary and Ariel's Questions for the Class

These are some questions that we thought of while doing the reading last week. We added some from the Perpetual Dream. Feel free to respond or bring up some of the points in discussion.
- Ariel and Mary

Can you find community at larger schools or does the presence of various sub-communities make it impossible to create a cohesive university culture?

Do small schools inherently have a sense of community because you know everyone?

Is it justifiable for smaller schools to have specific sub-communities that aren’t inclusive?

In order to guide students towards their ultimate course of study, do you need to require certain subjects?

Should higher education be focused on preparing/giving students a degree centered on making them a more valuable and competitive job applicant?

Is a Johnston education as valuable without the living learning, community aspect of the overall education? (What about people who live off complex or aren’t involved in the community at all- how did their experiences compare?)

If a Johnston style of education was required of students would the program still thrive as it does?

Exclusivity vs. intentionality

“Perhaps both groups [of educational reform] do share one common failing, again characteristically American: namely, to overestimate what education itself can do. Their hope was either to change the general culture….or, a bit more modestly, to produce a new generation of self-motivated, deeply interested students, not only in the selective colleges but also in the exploding institutions of near-universal higher education….” (The Perpetual Dream, 7).

What are the potential repercussions of the above statement? If education cannot spark change in the general culture (or individuals who can shape the general culture), what force can? Does the authors’ perception of what an education is play into this statement?

Innovating the Curriculum

Innovating the Curriculum:

A Student Reflection on Outdated or Underrated

By Eli Kramer, Mary Krome, Ariel Glazer, Alaina Cornell, and Anne Desilva

This paper is the summation of a discussion that occurred on October 4, 2010. Below are problems, ideas, and stipulations that we feel are of vital importance for the continued development of the class. Please read below and be ready to discuss this at some point during the next class.

Frustrations:

• Some of us feel we have a lack of guidance about course material

-is it possible to have discussion questions?

• Some of us also are having difficulty putting the course material into context

-skimming the surface, hard to see where we’re supposed to go with it all

--Agenda building is on us, though

• Many students feel the availability of course readings is inadequate

-Have Amazon and other sites (for out of print readings) available two weeks before the class in addition to other options?

Ideas:

• We would like hands-on activities.

-teach classes according to different pedagogical approaches (For October 4, we would like to do a St. Johns style seminar!)

• We (the students) would like to meet once a week to discuss the class.

• We would like to use the Browsing room or Johnston itself as our classroom.

• Can we go to Deep Springs, and other schools!?

--In place of two separate classes, visit Deep Springs and Pitzer

--can still have readings, discussions while we visit, and reflection paper as well.

--8 classes left

Learning Outcomes:

• Learn more about innovative education and success stories in order to be more confidant of our own educations.
• Learning about, and identifying with, Johnston History and Innovative Institutional histories in general.
• Pedagogical approaches-what does it mean to be part of a living/learning community?

--What does it mean to be a professor in a living/learning community?

--What did early professors think of it all?

Topics to Cover in the Next 8 classes:

• Close to Home: Innovating into the future. (from syllabus)
• What can experimental campuses teach conventional schools? (from syllabus)
• Creative Pedagogy and Learning Communities. (from syllabus)

Stipulations:

1. We will have two designated classes to visit other experimental campuses if at all possible. One trip to Pitzer, and One to Deep Springs
2. Students will facilitate during classes and use innovative pedagogical approaches. (For example on October 4, Alaina and Eli would like use the St. Johns seminar pedagogy)
3. We will work as a class to have readings easily accessible for students.
4. In leu of a reflective paper, students can meet in weekly meeting to discuss the readings and create a shared reflection paper. This is a quintessential example of living learning, and will be another approach to reflecting on the reading. Students can also do a classical reflection paper.

Tentative Syllabus and Facilitation Dates:

(Note: dates will change according to if and when we have time to go to Pitzer and or Deep Springs)

October 4-The Neoclassical

October 18-Reform Meets the Sixties?????

October 25- Telic Reform?????

November 1- Pitzer (Could be weekend of)

November 15- Deep Springs (Could be weekend of)

November 22- Celebration (N/A)

November 29- Guest Speaker (N/A)

Monday, December 13- Seminar Research Presentations (N/A?

Notes from classes 9/13,20,27

Contract conversation ideas for class
Sit in on a Pitzer class
Field trip to Deep Springs
Students attending CIEL conference

Notes from board on 9/20/10
Agenda Building on the early experiments

Issues that arose:

Learning vs. tangible goals (practical learning)
Strong leader vs. ground up initiative
Strong leader vs. sustainable growth
Role of ideology
Vision vs. practice
Primary vs. secondary sources
Bubble vs. real world
History
Faculty vs. students
World vs. America
Liberal Arts: What does it mean?

Notes on board: 9/27/10
Dewey v. Hutchins
Dewey
Empiricist
Individual essential
Student Centered
Creating effective individual
Trial and error
Experience
Embedded
Democracy
Critique “silly” progressivism
Hutchins
Critical thinking from books
Elitism/democracy/who determines the content
True books
Religious/truth
Everywhere the same
Romantic

What’s in common?
Teacher focused
Something wrong
Critics of not connecting the dots

Telic Vs. Popular Reforms

In re-reading Grant & Riesman's book, The Perpetual Dream, I am intrigued by their differentiation between "telic" and "popular" reforms, which they presented in 1978. I'm interested to know what you think are the differences between these two types of educational reforms and whether this model holds true of today's institutions of higher learning.

I also found enjoyable and interesting their comment on how "room must be left for the 'miraculous' (which often means recognition of the significance of a particular person) even at the cost, in some instances, of catastrophe. One should also have an invisible net under the high-wire act of bold experiments to salvage both students and faculty who would otherwise be traumatized." (p. 8) How is this description of visionary leaders exemplified at Johnston? What are your thoughts on the concept of "miraculous" colleges and their visionary leaders -- it seems that some sense of the mystery, of the dreaming and vision must be present in both our educational models and our leaders for experimental or innovative (as I like to call them) campuses to come into being and to flourish.

Your thoughts?

Epistemological Issues of Empiricism and its Implications for Education

John Dewey is a remarkable scholar but is fundamentally an empiricists.

He thinks that all truth comes from experience. Even more so, he seems to have an unquestioning faith in the scientific method. A method of trail and error, what works is what comes from experience.

There are many epistemological issues relating to this worldview. Needless to say it leaves many questions to be answered. Is experience the same as truth? Can't ones experiences lead one astray from certain types of knowledge? Isn't there anything outside of subjective experience?

I'm sure Dewey would give us a valid defense of many of the classical critiques of empiricism. Nevertheless, I think we should be careful and think about the implications of claims built around empiricists epistemological claims.

This post is designed to be brought up as a discussion in class. It's less of a reflection and more of a starting point for a discussion.

Educational History

Sorry for posting this so late!

Educational history

In the third grade I found out I was dyslectic and had several other minor learning disabilities. From then on it became my mission to “catch-up” to everyone else because I always felt left behind academically. I started working harder for everything and was rewarded with the fruits of my labor. I started in a arts magnet elementary and continued to an arts focused middle school. Both were wonderful, but by the middle of seventh grade I was already burning out.

For high school, I went to a fine public high school with an outstanding IB (International Baccauloreate) program. I didn't take full IB, but I did take all the IB classes. Some of them like, Theory of Knowledge, and History of the Americas, changed how I look at, and understand, the world. These classes helped me come to the realization that people had different worldviews, and that rationality was not the peak of human conciseness. I developed a coherence theory of truth for myself. This is that as long as it makes sense within the logic of its own worldview, then at it is “true.” I still feel there might be some universal truths, but I care little about these and want to know more about how we all think and understand the world differently.

Although this new way of thinking was wonderful, I graduated early from high school exhausted and shattered from the pressure of grades, the quantitative environment, large classes, and not feeling like I belonged. I graduated as a junior and spent a year getting to know myself. The first step happened right after school ended. I tested for my fIrst degree black belt in Poekoelan Tjimindie Tulen. The test is forty-eight hours without sleep. Half is physical: forms, sparring, selfless service, the other half was meditation. That was a transformative learning experience that changed my life. When you sit with yourself that long you learn a lot.

After the test, I put the finishing touches on my own program to Indonesia. I used the resources of a college program without going on one of their trips. I did this because at that period there were no high school programs going to Indonesia and all the college programs would not except students who were not undergraduates.

I created a self made language program in Yogyakarta, Indonesia and had a life altering experience. This experience didn’t come from the external world of Indonesia per se, but from my own internal development. I learned a lot journeying by myself. Not to say the external experience of Indonesia wasn’t wonderful, the people in Java are kind and Indonesia is one of the few places I truly have felt at home.

When I returned from Indonesia, I knew I wanted to go to an alternative college and I visited many of the famous ones besides Johnston. These schools were New College of Florida, Naropa, Marlboro, Bennington, and Global College of Long Island University. My brother had gone to Prescott but his second choice was Johnston, so I decided to look there too as an afterthought. I visited, and though it was a wonderful place, I still wasn't sure where I would end up. Finally, after much deliberation (and looking at funding) I decided to go to Johnston. Since then I have blossomed as my truth self. I’m very happy here. I took my second degree black belt test last summer and I finally feel like I’m in a happy and healed place in my life because of the second degree test and my time in Johnston.

My story really has three phases. There was the era of satisfaction with school. This was when the urge to challenge myself and “catch-up” was in it’s infancy. This period lasted through an arts magnet elementary and middle school, that is until seventh grade. From that point on, I moved into the next phase which I would describe as rather misanthropic, at least in my educational life. I had been competing and had excelled in reading, and I had more or less caught up in every other subject. It meant nothing though. Who was I competing with? No one seemed to care as much as I did. For everyone else it seemed to be about the grade, not really learning. Finally, through graduating early from high school and taking a year to soul search, I entered the next era which I’m still in. This phase is truly the golden era in my education, I’ve never been happier.

I want to give other people the opportunities to challenge and grow as I have, as well as have the opportunity to find their own worldview like I have. This balance has made me who I am today and thats why my emphasis focuses on it.

syllabus updates for September 27

Please note: I've added the pages for Dewey and the correct information for the Reynolds piece. I'm not sure if the Reynolds piece has made it onto electronic reserve as of Wed. I gave to Kerry a hard copy on Monday, so perhaps Alana can check on it

If there is difficulty to link to the online editions of the books, try putting the titles in Google.

Best wishes, Patricia

Monday, September 27—An In-Depth Look at Three Early Experiments

Preparation for Class on September 27:

Negotiate Individual Contracts

Readings:

Experience and Education, John Dewey, pp. 25-50, 67-72, 89-91

“The Need of a Theory of Experience”; “Criteria of Experience”; “The Meaning of

Purpose”; “Experience: The Means and Goals of Education”

Progressive Ideals and Experimental Higher Education: The Example of John Dewey and Black Mountain College Katherine Reynolds in Education and Culture, Spring 1997 Vol. XIV. No.1 (E)

Dewey versus Hutchins: The Next Round, Thomas Ehrlich in Education and Democracy: Reimagining Liberal Learning in America, ed. Robert Orrill (E)

Robert Maynard Hutchins short essay, The Autobiography of an Uneducated Man http://www.cooperativeindividualism.org/hutchins_robert_autobiography.html

Additional readings: To be divided up among seminar participants

Everyone should read ONE of the following books:

Black Mountain College: An Exploration in Community

Martin Duberman (Northwestern University Press, 1972) (P)

The Experimental College, Alexander Meiklejohn

http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/UW/UW-idx?id=UW.MeikExpColl

Higher Learning in America Robert Maynard Hutchins

http://www.ditext.com/hutchins/hutch0.html

Be prepared to teach your book to the rest of the seminar. Then we will discuss the various experiments and the intellectual ancestry of each.

According to my notes, these are the assignments:

Black Mountain: Eli, Ariel and Anne

Higher Learning in America: Alec and Jake

The Experimental College: Mary and Alana

The Rally ‘Round the Flag Syndrome and its use in cultivating a Community

At the onset of the 2009-2010 academic year at the University of Redlands, the Johnston Community was struck with the news that the director of two years, Dr. Greg Salyer, had been removed from his position. The news came along with the sad news that Johnston’s beloved administrative assistant, Tabetha Johnson, an alum of the center, had been terminated as well. Less than a week before the new students were to arrive the community was devastated. The community was divided, and would continue to be divided, in their opinions of Salyer’s termination.

Enter Professor Emeritus William “Bill” McDonald. Along with the termination of Salyer and Johnson came the suggestion from the office of Dean Barbara Morris that McDonald, a 40-year veteran and founder of the center, be instated as Interim-Director of the center while a proper search for Salyer’s replacement could be conducted.

McDonald’s appointment was a well-crafted one, one of the few universally popular moves Morris and President Stewart Dorsey made in the process of removing Salyer from office. Bill was a figure many in the community held in great regard. Along with Professor Kevin O’Neill, Bill was one of two remaining of the Johnston founders, a physical representation of the mystical ideals that Johnston was founded on.

The respect that McDonald commanded allowed for Johnston’s own Rally ‘Round The Flag Syndrome, a concept used in political science and international relations to explain increased short run popular support of the President of the United States during periods of crisis or war, to take hold. The Johnston community stayed united because Bill demanded of the community that it stay united.

It’s a technique used often to develop communities in times of crisis. We see it in the case of Antioch College where Arthur Morgan successfully used the ideals of founder Horace Mann to unite the campus community and help it rise out of near obscurity into an era of prosperity. We also see it at Deep Springs College, where a copy of the letter founder L.L. Nunn sent to the college’s first class is sent to every successive incoming student to the college. Strong leadership is important in all communities, even egalitarian ones. A human incarnation of the ideals of an institution is necessary to give a community something to rally around in moments of crisis; otherwise it fails.