• how a financial payout does not compensate the social and emotional harm done through such racist actions;
• how it will not impact the thinking of many Americans who at the beginning of the financial crisis just assumed the housing collapse was the fault of the individuals for jumping into loans they couldn’t afford as opposed to being steered to such.

Our closely held beliefs determine how we see the world, how we understand what we read, how we interpret the behaviors of others.  This makes breaking the bonds of false beliefs extraordinarily hard.  So I wonder, what would things look like if we discarded the belief that ours is a country founded on the ideals of merit-based advancement?  What if we came to appreciate racism in a wide variety of forms still exists?

I believe this is more than a thought experiment; our communities and individuals within those communities cannot be whole and wholly who we were meant to be until we restore the harm done to people of color and to whites, to the economically poor and economically rich.  As a start, we should go out and find someone who was bilked by Countrywide and apologize for our racist thinking.

Another news report also struck me badly.  Yesterday during Mitt Romney’s campaign in New Hampshire, he stated the importance of returning to our founding principles of merit, not welfare.  In hearing that statement, visions of slaves, and the attempted and largely successful genocide of native Americans came to mind as but two examples of the fallacy for many of merit as a founding principle in deed, not just word. Later I also thought of the robber barrens and their deplorable treatment of workers as a later anti-example of merit-based advancement.  But so too we can think about the victims of Countrywide and realize merit-based advancement is still a fallacy for many in the United States, particularly for those of the wrong skin color.

ACU Library Photo Caption: Computer pods are the central feature of our social learning floor. The design is custom created to support group work. Tables are in a boomerang shape clustered around a central pillar with four computers. The pillar is furred out to create a hollow space to conceal wiring. The shape of the curve on each side of the pods is such that three to four people can work inside the curve and still have an unobstructed view of the computer screen.

Each pod accommodates 12-16 people. There are 6 of these pods on the main floor.

Power, data, and mobile outlets on the pillar let one connect laptops and mobile devices. The arms of the tables are approximately 4 feet by 2.5 feet wide, allowing plenty of room to spread out books and papers.

I’ve been on a quest to reconsider how we put computers into public spaces. Too often I fear what we do is disrupt the community nature of community spaces by setting up computers in a way that primarily facilitates individual activities. I love this library’s approach and I think it begins by their defining the space as the “Social Learning” floor. They then sought to create furniture that supports that vision of work. Fantastic!

UPDATE: Here’s a presentation by Laura Baker in which she walks us through the reasoning in the design.  While directed towards a library audience, the design process is well worth a listen for anyone supporting social learning spaces.

Individualism, Desire, and the Christian Self by Matt Anslow

TEDx Talk by Chuck Collins:

• Undergraduate mentors
• Family
• Faith-based teachers and mentors
• Students
• Theoretical influences

Each of these is an example of the many communities that have significantly influenced my intellectual development and are part of my intellectual genealogy.  If you’ve glanced through these, you may be picking up a theme that is at a core of my thinking: everything happens in community.  People do not pull themselves up by their own bootstraps.  I do think personal choice and responsibility are important, but individual development happens within community, being both influenced by and subsequently impacting community.  My Teacher of the Year award doesn’t happen because of my individual efforts alone or even in large part, but instead happens because of the rich communities within which I’ve been fortunate to find myself.

In that vein, it is important to mention the deep education I’ve received because of the East St. Louis community.  My early work in the community leading a service-learning project to bring computer labs into the community was framed within the context of consultation.  Prior to integrating service-learning into my Introduction to Networked Information Systems course, the final project consisted of a hypothetical library and students as consultants recommending a course of action integrating technology.  I kept the consultation metaphor when during that first semester in 2000 half the students did the traditional hypothetical final project while the other half worked to setup two computer labs in East St. Louis.

Several years in a team of students were having a problem clarifying specific goals and expected outputs with their particular site coordinator in East St. Louis.  I made an additional trip out to meet with the site coordinator and the pastor of the church to consider whether this was still a good fit for them and for our class.  During the conversation it seemed the pastor was being a bit rude, but after a bit I came to wonder if this was more an attempt at friendly throwing down of smack.  So I responded in kind and his face lit up and he said “Now we’re talking!  Now we’re getting somewhere!!”  He taught me that what he (and I subsequently came to find out others) in the community wanted wasn’t outside consultants but real partners.  He wanted more academic practitioners who followed the lead of the early East St. Louis Action Research Project who built much more participatory relationships, and in some cases even friendships, within the community (for background on the project and a review of it’s early days see Ken Reardon’s article “An Experiential Approach to Creating an Effective Community-University Partnership: The East St. Louis Action Research Project” in Cityscape: A Journal of Policy Development and Research (V5 (1), p59-74, 2000)).

That lesson has been transformational in the way I work in East St. Louis and also in the way I try to help students engage in the community.  In their recent article, Randy Stoecker and Mary Beckman describe the critical importance of building these participatory relationships, then finding ways to integrate students into specific projects that are part of a much larger community development initiative that arises from discussions that occur within these relationships, that is, a more project-based service-learning approach.

Over the last couple of years research has brought me into the East St. Louis community much more often.  At one point I took up the owner of the local ice cream shop, Mr. Pirtle, to learn his favorite card game, Conquain.  These days, any chance I get I’m at the shop on a stool playing Conquain and hanging out. That relationship with Mr. Pirtle means an awful lot to me just as a friendship.  But from that relationship has also come a much deeper understanding of the issues within the community and the seeds of a number of initiatives to address those issues.I find, too, that even choices like where I stay when in East St. Louis makes a huge difference.  For most of the first decade working in the community, I would leave each evening to stay at a hotel in one of the communities near East St. Louis.  But that changed with the opening of the Hubbard House, a Catholic Worker House in East St. Louis.  Whenever possible now, I stay there instead of the outlying hotels.  It’s hard to describe the many subtle differences in thinking when you invite community partners to join you in a dinner you help to prepare in a home-based kitchen just down the street from their house as opposed to having them join you at a restaurant near your hotel up the hill from their community. Plus, I prize my conversations with Sister Marge, and the way she has created a space for community building and reflection, all aimed at supporting and fostering work for justice.

My work with Lessie Bates Davis Neighborhood House has also been key to working in community.  I can’t make connections with the many different communities that exist within the larger East St. Louis community.  But this social service agency has built participatory relationships with many of them.  Over time I developed working relationships and even friendships with Brad Watkins, Bill Kreeb, Vera Jones and others.  They have taught me much about building participatory relationships as well as about specific issues working with different populations.

What has been so critical is that in each case these relationships are built on mutual respect, trust, and open communication.  They are not afraid to point out the many warts in my thinking.  I’m embarrassed to think how many times I came to town excited by a new idea on how to address a community issue because of some new research or theory I’ve found, only to have them point out how they’ve known about that for years and have even tried out the approach, only to find it lacking in many ways.  Or they may point out that the problem I thought existed wasn’t really a problem at all, or a problem that should not be identified for the harm to the community that would result.  How many times I came unintentionally as the “savior” to the community championing a specific approach only to find that they were very capably dealing with the issues already, thank you very much!  Or if they weren’t it was either by choice, or more likely because of systemic injustice that continues to oppress.

I now realize I really can’t know how to approach issues like hunger, poverty, poor education outcomes, or the many other challenges faced by marginalized communities unless I first build a participatory relationship with one or more people from those specific communities, or at least with those who have.  I thank my many partners and friends in East St. Louis who have extended such grace and patience to help me learn this valuable lesson.  And I thank those at GSLIS who have allowed me the time and provided the encouragement for me to invest in the time consuming process of relationship building even thought it’s not readily billable within grants and other budgets.

Community Inquiry

First introduced to me by Chip Bruce and Ann Bishop and summarized in their Pattern Card in the Public Sphere Project:

The challenges for constructive communities are as old as humanity and there will never be an absolute or universal solution to them. One reason is that every member of a community has unique experiences in life and thus unique perspectives, beliefs, and values. This diversity can be a source of strength within communities, but it can also lead to frustration, disappointment, conflict, and even violence. Diverse institutions have been created to address community challenges, including public libraries, public schooling, procedures for democratic governance, and venues for free expression. Often, however, these institutions are reduced from their idealized conception. With community inquiry, diversity becomes a resource and institutions are knit together productively.

…

Community inquiry provides a theoretical and action framework for people to come together to develop shared capacity and work on common problems in an experimental and critical manner. The word community signals support for collaborative activity and for creating knowledge that is connected to people’s values, history, and lived experiences. Inquiry points to support for open-ended, democratic, participatory engagement.

For a great introduction to Communities of Inquiry, see Patricia M. Shields “The Community of Inquiry: Insights for Public Administration from Jane Addams, John Dewey and Charles S. Peirce” available at: http://ecommons.txstate.edu/polsfacp/3

Participatory Action Research

In 1999, residents of East St. Louis asked their University partners in the East St. Louis Action Research Project to help address the digital divide in their community.  The director at that time, Varkki George, knew of the work Prairienet had been doing in East Central Illinois and asked us to join their efforts.  An excerpted version of a book chapter about the value of the service-learning project that resulted from this opportunity can be found online at: http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/4696d0a9#/4696d0a9/30.  Beyond the service-learning aspect, which has been a monumentally important learning moment for me, this engagement also introduced me to the foundations of Participatory Action Research (PAR).  There are many different permutations of PAR, but an essential aspect is that scholarly work in community is applied, it engages all stakeholders in the process as deeply as possible, and it is the cyclical process of research that leads to action that leads to research.  The work is heavily influenced by Paolo Friere, captured in his book “Pedagogy of the Oppressed”.  A good overview of PAR can be found in Bud Hall’s article “In From the Cold? Reflection on Particpatory Research From 1970 – 2005″ in Convergence, (v38(1), p5-24, 2005) and of ESLARP in “An Experiential Approach to Creating an Effective Community-University Partnership: The East St. Louis
Action Research Project” in Cityscape: A Journal of Policy Development and Research (V5 (1), p59-74, 2000).

Community Based Research

Ann Bishop introduced me to the work of Randy Stoecker and his concepts of Community Based Research through his 2005 book, Research Methods for Community Change:  A Project-Based Approach.  Stoecker clarifies that we are all part of communities and that communities are constantly changing.  He considers research an integral part of a process of diagnosing a community’s current condition, prescribing interventions for improvements within the community, implementing that prescription, and evaluating its impact.  He also considers the work of researchers and higher education to be the equipping of community members themselves to directly participate in the process of research whenever possible.  His recent article “Making 
Higher
 Education
 Civic 
Engagement
 Matter
 in
 the 
Community“, co-authored with Mary Beckman, emphasizes the importance of participatory relationships in the strategic design and the measurement of impact of community development efforts.

Beyond course feedback, however, I have had the opportunity, particularly as supervisor for practicum and independent study projects along with grant-funded work, to collaborate more closely with various students.  I can’t imagine the lost opportunities if I had seen students merely as empty vessels awaiting my erudite illumination!  I am so glad my mentors had helped me recognize the great value in engaging students as co-explorers working to tackle my latest opportunity or challenge.  They have challenged my thinking and helped me to constantly move outside my limited understanding of the situation and to see creative new solutions.  It would be very hard to reliably manage to name every one of these collaborators in the problem-based learning environments that bridge class and real world.  But as many of the faces dance across my mind’s eye right now I tip my hat to each of you.  Thanks so much!

I would like to especially recognize my teaching assistants throughout the years.  They have often served as co-teachers bringing fresh perspectives and ideas to my courses.  Most recently Dinesh Rathi, Beth Ruane, Chris Ritzo, Ethan Henderson, Walker Weyerhauser, Fiona Griswold and for a wonderful 5 semester period Adam Kehoe have helped craft a constant set of refinements of my courses, taking my wild ideas and making them practical, but also providing their own unique and exciting twists to help provide an ever-improved learning environment for the students.  In some cases, my TA’s and some dear students have confronted inconsistencies in my philosophies and practices that have proven to be especially challenging for me to come to terms with.  I recognize and value that in some cases students have had to slowly, patiently help me to overcome my own biases and shortcomings to appreciate the gift of insight they hold out for me.  At other times, their patient discourse has helped me uncover and strengthen core parts of my own philosophy, albeit different from their own, so as to better give voice to those philosophies and to help others situate what I present as my understanding of how things work.  Thank-you!

I can’t think of anything more remarkable than to have created a course that is deemed worthy of study as a doctoral dissertation case study.  Well, perhaps the only thing more remarkable is that two students found it a worthy case study.  I so appreciate Muzghan Nazarova’s insights into the value of service-learning as used in my course on the career development of master’s students in her 2007 dissertation “SERVICE LEARNING AND CAREER DEVELOPMENT: A CASE STUDY IN LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SCIENCE.”  By having students refurbish and network computers which they then customize and install on behalf of community organizations serving marginalized communities, the students found they learned almost as much about leadership, teamwork, working with not-for-profit organizations, communication, and thinking about the LIS profession more generally as they did about technology.  Given I strongly believe effective use of technology is more a social problem than a technical problem, I am so pleased to have confirmation that this teaching strategy is proving of value.

I found the results of Junghyun An’s 2007 dissertation, ” SERVICE LEARNING IN POSTSECONDARY TECHNOLOGY EDUCATION: EDUCATIONAL PROMISES AND CHALLENGES IN STUDENT VALUES DEVELOPMENT”, to be more of a challenge as it did a wonderful job of pointing out how my personal philosophy of technology and what I was teaching students was often at odds.  From Dr. An’s introduction:

The case shows a student practice of technology from a pragmatic perspective, emphasizing the importance of understanding the user sphere for designing and building technology. However, in the specific course design and implementation, I also discover some limitations, in terms of creating a holistic praxis of technology education to foster critical and responsible social agents.

In describing the value of this dissertation to a new PhD student recently, he was quick to point out that there are many things that I was doing right as well.  My response was that learning about the things I do wrong is really more helpful: I’d probably keep doing the things I do well anyway since I do them specifically because I think they are right.  Confirmation of that doesn’t help me change.  Learning where I am not doing things right, especially in a case like this when I thought I was providing a more holistic learning environment, serves as a solid point of reflection from which I can begin to reform.  My thanks to both Drs. Navarova and An!

I return once again to the consideration that we cannot live as individuals, but only as individual representations of one facet of our rich communities past and present from which we come.  And so it is difficult to know who has been impacted more because of our interactions, my students or I.  I am humbled that a group of students chose to nominate me as Library Journal magazine’s Teacher of the Year, but it reflects in large part the quality of student that has helped me learn, do, and be who I am.

But in googling around I came across the site Inequality.org and their report on inequality and health that I suspect was the basis for Bell’s claims (see http://inequality.org/inequality-health/).  The report is itself based on the work of The Equality Trust, an organization based in the United Kingdom that has been compiling comparisons of health and inequality for the 22 richest nations.  The ratio of wealth for the top 20% compared to the bottom 20% is 8.5 for the United States, compared to a ratio under 5 for Japan, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, and Austria, and closely followed by Germany and the Netherlands at 5.2 and 5.3 respectively. By contrast we have the highest infant mortality rate by some margin of the same richest 22 nations and an overall lower life expectancy than all but Singapore.  This is not just a reflection of deaths by the poorest Americans, as these trends exist across all socio-economic strata in a given metropolitan area of the United States.

NEW: Here’s a great Ted Talk by Richard Wilkinson that does a great job describing the impact of economic inequality on health and social problems.

I highly recommend checking out both the sermon and the report!

I have always found the teachings of Jesus as captured in the gospels to be much more revolutionary than is practiced in most churches. This past week during one of my workouts I listened to a teaching by Rob Bell at Mars Hill Church in Grand Rapids, MI.  He taught about Acts 2: 42-47 (see http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=acts%202:42-47&version=CEV for the Bible verses and http://marshill.org/teaching/2011/10/09/how-it-works-in-our-house-acts-2v42-47/ for the sermon).  To summarize, the first converts to the Way (it wasn’t called Christianity until later) became as family to each other, they often ate together and prayed together.  But they also sold their possessions and gave to those in need.  They shared happily and freely and no one was in need. How far from the way so many of us live as Christians today, especially in the United States where our wealth gap is notably high compared to many of the other industrially developed nations but our Health and Social Index is comparably low.  We espouse to be one nation under God, but the evidence condemns us!

Growing up I  found the songs of Keith Green to be a call towards that radically changed life that cries for the poor and the oppressed above all else.  I learned of Francis of Assissi through the songs of John Michael Talbot and was inspired by the way Francis put aside all material goods to live in close harmony with the Earth and to spend his life serving the most forgotten in his society.  I was challenged by the many works of Tony Campolo, who I still follow regularly through his blogs and podcasts (see in particular http://www.tonycampolo.org/media.php and http://www.redletterchristians.org/).  The Sojourners’ movement and the work of Jim Wallis and friends has also been a significant influence through the years (see http://sojo.net/), particularly as they champion a return to the core of the call to sell all and to give to anyone who has need.  Wallis and Campolo have pressed the point that God is always playing the class card — He forever sides with the poor and oppressed and holds in question the motives and choices of the rich. I also have found inspiration in the works of Martin Luther King, Jr. and how he put faith into action.  More recently I have found similar inspiration from the works of Paulo Freire (an article at http://www.ngoleader.org/articles/paulo-freire.html does a great job of laying out the ways in which Freire’s intellectual and praxis in popular education was an outgrowth of his faith).

A defining Bible verse since my youth has been Galatians 5:22: “But the fruit of the Spirit is Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, and Self Control.”  It is my understanding that to evidence these in all circumstances is to reflect the way in which we have taken on the mind and life of Christ.  In my last post I mentioned how I cannot even fully consider how my life is influenced by my wife’s because we have become one.  As great as it is, I also believe that my life with Angie is but a poor earthly reflection of what it means to slowly become one with Christ and what it will be upon His return.  I once had a fellow graduate student in my lab who was from Israel ask to what extent I felt my faith walk with Jesus was responsible for the joy I often express in everything.  I believe it is the very core of why I can express a joy that is not born of the things I have or the situations I find myself in, but it is a reflection of who I am when I live in Christ.  So too the Love, Peace, Patience…

I do not believe in the rapture, a time to come when Jesus returns and evacuates us from the earth, leaving behind all the unfaithful.  I like how Allen Wakabayashi put it recently in his teaching entitled “Our Comforting Hope” and more fully in his book “Kingdom Come“.  I believe in a resurrection not rapture, restoration not departure.  Since Jesus was first on this earth, there has been a new work that is bringing about a completion of God’s restoration of the earth.  At Jesus’ return, that restoration will be made complete and we will once again see God’s justice done on earth as it is in heaven.  This justice is not one of retribution but of restored relationships with Him, with each other, and with all of creation.  Material wealth is not a reflection of God’s vote that you are doing the right thing in His sight, nor is suffering here an indication that He thinks you are doing wrongly and must be punished or corrected like a teacher hitting you on the hand with a ruler.  Instead He weeps, mourns, and suffers with those who suffer.  He recognizes that much of that suffering is because others take what He has given us to steward in ways that oppresses and disadvantages others, and he calls us to live more justly ourselves and to champion justice in our laws, systems, and social structures.  But ultimately we cannot see all that is at work, for  “Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.” (1 Corinthians 13:12b).

I believe that God created the world, but I don’t know how he did it.  I find the idea that He did so in six literal days rather uninspiring and boring.  On the other hand, I find evolution a much more satisfactory way for God to carry out His vision of a mechanism for the creation to occur.  I’ve got no problem with the big bang as the starting point for that creation, but I don’t buy theories that insist this must have all happened on its own without a Creator who conceived of, initiated, and oversees the process.

This belief in a Creator leads me to logically consider I am but a steward of that creation.  We should all be in the business of caring for all of creation, recognizing the importance of being environmentally conscious.  But this also includes the care of our fellow human beings.  That we are stewards also means that no one can truly own a defined portion of that creation.  This extends to our talents, since they are but a reflection of the creation put in place and from which we were raised both physically and intellectually.  I am challenged by concepts like patents and copyrights because I don’t think any individual is the sole creator or proprietor.  Indeed, I am challenged by the idea of awards for much the same.  First and foremost everything is just an ongoing reflection of the creative process of God. That we were created in His image, we too are creators.  But even then we only do so through the support of His creation, including the many mentors and teachers in our paths.

And so my Teacher of the Year award is but an award to recognize God and my community past and present.

My mom was born in Russia in 1936, spent a childhood fleeing war and eventually living during the time of recovery in Germany after WWII.  She came begrudgingly to the United States in 1956 but ultimately came to love it here and stayed even when her mom decided to return to Germany.  Her stories from her childhood leave me in awe of what it meant to live as a non-combatant during a war: the struggle to survive famine and disease as well as the harrowing escapes as the war comes to your hometown.  I also came to appreciate that there was something different in the way the allies treated those non-combatants.  These stories significantly shaped my thoughts on just how evil war is and how much it should be avoided if at all possible.  I can’t look at any military action and not think of the non-combatants, of how the squabbling of a few have such long, negative impacts on so many who pay the real costs.  I also learned that if we do engage in military action, it will only be worth it if we do so with a standard that is better than the evil that is being overcome through violence.  My mom’s life in the States has by many of our traditional measures not been an easy one.  She has sacrificed many of her personal dreams and aspirations in service to husband and children.  But through her I’ve come to see that if this is done as a choice, as a call to be a true disciple of Christ and not just by partaking of the opiate that organized religion can be, that it can bring a deep peace and satisfaction to life.  Her life has stood as a testimony to the rich meaning that comes from a walk of faith in a risen Lord, from a simple life lived in harmony with the Earth and with community, in service to others who serve in return.  She steered me away from majoring in Forestry, arguing that I was too good with people, and towards a career working with people.

I met my wife, Angie, at Anderson University.  Our roommates dated for a time and she and I would often join them. But when I once asked Angie if she wanted to start formally dating, she said she was happy with our relationship as it was.  She doesn’t remember me asking her that, but she does remember finding my choice to let me hair (head and face) grow out as somewhat off-putting.  When I returned for a friend’s graduation the year after I graduated, though, she was impressed with how I had cleaned up for graduate school and realized that maybe I was the one.  She took me up on a standing offer I had for all my friends to visit the New York area (I attended Rutgers for grad school) and we had our first date going to the Macy’s Thanksgiving parade.  She graduated mid-year and took a nanny position outside Philadelphia to be nearer to me.  We married a year later. Angie has continued to help me keep from getting too far out there, but she also helps keep me from becoming too mainstream.  Our approach to home remodeling has been our approach to all of life.  One of us will get an idea, the other may shoot it down but come up with a related idea that is a better fit to the situation because of that initial strawman thought.  We’ll run through variations, play with a few things to see what it might look like if we took it one direction or another, and before we know it we’ve dug ourselves a sometimes physical hole (in the wall, in the lawn, etc) that means there’s no turning back.  But far from being a blind or reckless process, it represents a wonderful process of rich brainstorming, rapid prototyping, and applied research that has resulted in both a wonderful restoration and remodel of our physical house, and what I believe has been a successful raising of our two children and work within our communities.  It is hard to find words to explain the ways in which she shapes and supports me; indeed it is hard to even fully process this in my own mind because I believe we are continually living out the statement from Mark 10:8 that “He becomes like one person with his wife. Then they are no longer two people, but one.”

In writing this I realize why some write a book to capture their memories and document their influences, for the above is but a brief summary of ways in which family has served as teachers and mentors to me.

————————- Begin Forward ——————————

As I finish another semester as an instructor for the Graduate School of
Library and Information Science (GSLIS) at the University of Illinois,
I’ve found myself reflecting again on what worked well this semester and
what needs improving.  Each semester I gain a further appreciation for the
skills I gained during my years at Anderson and how well they serve me
today.  Many of the same skills that served me well as I went on to obtain
my Masters and Doctoral degrees in Behavioral Neuroscience at Rutgers and
as I did postdoctoral work at the Beckman Institute, University of
Illinois, serve me well now as I manage computer systems and teach
computer skills to graduate students at the University.

The course I am currently teaching for GSLIS is a hands-on introduction to
technology systems for use in information environments. Most students
taking the course have little more experience working with computers than
as an end-user.  As an important part of solidifying the knowledge they
gain in working with computer hardware, operating systems, and networks,
students are required to participate in a service-learning final project
that provides a practical application of that knowledge. Two-thirds of the
way into the semester, students travel to East St. Louis to perform site
surveys at various churches and not-for-profit organizations.  They then
spend the remainder of the semester recycling donated computers,
installing operating systems, and networking computers together.  These
computers are then delivered by the students to their selected sites at
the end of the semester.  The resulting Community Technology Centers are
being used to serve the surrounding community as one tool to help
revitalize the area.

While the passion to serve those around me arose from the teaching of my
parents and home church, it was at Anderson that I developed many of the
skills that have proved critical to accomplishing the introduction and
management of such a service-learning project in my class.  For instance,
some of the strategies used within the final project come directly from
the Tri-S trip I took with Don Collins to New York and Washington, D.C.
But many of the other aspects of my teaching style and techniques come
directly from my mentors in the psychology department at Anderson.

From Curt Leech I learned not only how to methodically approach a problem
using the scientific method, but also the value of an open door policy
that invites students to come and share both their academic and personal
problems.  As he became involved in our lives in school and play he used a
holistic approach to foster a richer learning environment for the students.
Curt also helped me to gain a healthy respect for the scientific method
and technology more generally as a tool, but also to understand that it is
only a tool and not a solution.

From Bill Farmen I learned the value of teaching concepts and addressing
the root of a given problem.  Whether in learning ANOVAs by writing a
spreadsheet template to do the calculations or by handing me a book to
learn how to read philosophy texts when I struggled in his Philosophy of
Psychology course, his training methods helped me to develop skills that
have served me well whatever duties I’m assigned.  Bill also helped me
gain an appreciation for philosophy as another tool to study questions
that face us daily.

From Lee Griffith I have modeled many of my teaching techniques, such as
the use of outlines provided to the students prior to class and then
presented on overhead to help facilitate the learning process when many
new concepts and terms are introduced each week.  But I also learned the
value of mentoring students to think logically and clearly about problems
and then to strategically work to address those problems.  Lee helped me
to understand that the scientific method could be a valuable tool for
personal and social change, that this is a skill to be learned, and that
it is more effective to teach these skills than it is to criticize
students for being undisciplined.

In my class, I try to teach not only the basics of computers and
networking.  I also try to teach students the value of using these skills
to serve others and the techniques needed to accomplish such service.  I
try to teach them a healthy respect for technology, but also to understand
that technology is only a tool and only one tool of many.  I try to teach
the students the concepts that will allow them to take on duties beyond
those covered in class.  I try to keep an open door policy that allows me
to serve the student holistically.  These are just a few of the skills I
learned at Anderson.  (A danger of writing such an acknowledgement is that
it leaves out so many more positive influences that should also be
mentioned.)  Because there were skilled, caring faculty at Anderson to
teach and model these lessons, my students now receive a far richer
education than they would have had I not been taught these lessons.
Thank-you.

– Martin Wolske, Bachelor of Arts, 1987, major Psychology