Readings for September 2, 2009
- The Power of Story in Social Movements
- To Be An American
Barber, Benjamin ( 1994). “To be an American,” Ch. 2. In Aristocracy for everyone: The politics of education and the future of America. New York: Oxford. - Telling Your Own Story Worksheet
Readings for September 9, 2009
- Liberalism’s Eclipse of Republicanism in American Politics
- Young – Difference One, Two, Three (in three parts)
Readings for September 16, 2009
Readings for September 23, 2009
Readings for September 30, 2009
We will discuss the following three pieces in this session (note that the third reading is in 3 parts):
- hooks, “Democratic Education” and “What happens when White People Change”
- Del Gandio, Rhetoric for Radicals: The Power of Language One, Two, Three
Readings for October 7, 2009
- Boyte & Evans, Free Spaces: Chapter 1 – 1, Chapter 1 – 2, Chapter 1 – 3, Chapter 1 – 4, Chapter 1 – 5, Chapter 1 – 6, Chapter 1 – 7, Chapter 6
- Rorty, “Religion as Conversation-Stopper”
Readings for October 14, 2009
Engaging and Disengaging Citizens: Public and Private Spaces. Read and Blog:
- Bauman, “Secession of the Successful”
- Kahn &Minnich “Don’t fence me in: Private walls and public rights”
- Due: Mid-term blog evaluation.
Readings for October 21, 2009
This week we begin our readings of a well respected local history of recent Greensboro with the theme of The Beginning of the End of Jim Crow. Guest Speaker: Gwendolyn Bookman, Bennett College for Women, on civil rights law and Brown v. Board of Education.
- Read and Blog: Civilities and Civil Rights to p. 70
Readings for October 28, 2009
We will continue our reading of local history with The Struggle Continues: Protest as Democratic Engagement. Guest Speaker: Logie Meachum (tentative).
- Read and Blog: Civilities and Civil Rights to p. 152
- Due: Civic Discourse assignment.
Readings for November 4, 2009
We will continue to read local history with the theme of More Struggle, More Resistance. Guest Speakers: Nelson & Joyce Johnson, Beloved Community Center. Plus video of 1979 Massacre or Documentary. Read and Blog:
- Civilities and Civil Rights to p. 202
- Magarrell & Wesley, Learning from Greensboro: Chapter 1, Chapters 16, & 17 part 1, Chapters 16, & 17 part 2, Chapters 16, & 17 part 3
- Due: Final project plan
Reading for November 11 2009
Here is your assigned reading for this week in addition to finishing Chafe’s book Civilities and Civil Rights:
- Are Profits the Only Business of Business?
- Readings by Randy Johnston on the Progressive Myth (opens in new window)
Go to the site and on the left side you will find the two readings: Understanding Nov 1979 as well as the Letter to Impact Greensboro Participants.
Reading for November 18, 2009
- Elizabeth Minnich: Teaching Thinking, Moral and Political Considerations
- Lost Art of Cooperation
Community Project Plan Assignment
As we wrote on the community project description: “To be successful, your project does not have to succeed in achieving what you had hoped. In fact, we suspect that flexibility and re-shaping are crucial parts of good citizens and good projects. So, you might do and learn something other than you had expected. But you need to have a clear plan, even if it changes.” This is the time to articulate that clear plan of action. As you know, the goal of the project is stated here: “As is articulated in the syllabus, an excellent community project “answers the course questions and satisfies the course goals as stated in the syllabus.” There are innumerable ways to do both, and, of course, you do not have to answer all of the questions or satisfy all of the goals for a successful community project. Quite the contrary. Doing something too large would likely be ineffective, and doing something small (even something very small) can be quite powerful and transformative. We recommend that you work on sub-questions and sub-goals.”* Please describe in detail what your planned project is. [We know that things may continue to be in flux, but having a clear plan, at this late stage in the game, is crucial, even if it changes from now until the end of the project.
Final Course Blog Assignment
Due November 25th
- How many of your blogs, from the weeks of October 21st through November 18th, summarize and comment on a main claim from the readings, and cite author and page number of the relevant reading(s)? Explanation.
- How many of your blogs responding to the readings, from the weeks of October 21st through November 18th, were posted on or before Tuesday each week? Explanation.
- How many of your responses to your fellow students’ blogs from the weeks of October 21st through November 18th were posted on or before Friday each week? Explanation.
- Choose your three best blogs or responses to other students’ blogs from the week of October 21st through November 18th, and cut and paste them below. We will evaluate them based on the quality and depth of your comments and the extent to which they address the course readings.
Final Reflection Guidelines
Stories of Us – Stories of Now (3-4 pages, typed, double-spaced)
We began the semester by writing our individual public stories, making an attempt to draw connections between our own narrative and democracy. For this assignment, you should write an unfolding narrative – a “story of us,” a community with which you have come to identify, and a “story of now” – of your sense of urgency about what needs to happen around a particular issue or issues in that community. This might be the community in which you were raised, but it could also be that portion of the Greensboro community with which you became involved through your group project. Perhaps you identify with the class as a community, or some other group.
Whatever community you choose, be sure to tell its current story with an eye toward its triumphs and/or failures in relationship to democratic processes and institutions. This could be accomplished in several ways: Are the internal dynamics of the community a good example of democracy or not? In what ways does the group engage the democratic structures of the broader community (the city, state or nation)? If it works outside of these structures, can its efforts be construed as an advance of, or a hindrance to, democracy?
Be sure to move beyond the simple claim that something is or is not democratic. Explain why you have drawn your conclusions using what we have learned in class. You might find that your community is not particularly democratic, for instance, but also that there are good reasons for this being the case. Fine. But be sure to articulate those reasons as a part of what moves the community forward. Say something about the possibilities and/or limitations of democracy that your “Story of Us” reveals.
Finally, return the focus to yourself. Reflect on your experiences this semester. How have they changed your attitudes or ideas about democracy? To what standards will you seek to hold yourself as a citizen? Choose a few “moments” from the semester – a reading, a class discussion, a personal encounter, or fact discovered through your research, etc. – and describe in detail how they made this change apparent to you, how they demonstrated or helped you articulate the kind of democratic citizen you wish to be.
This paper will be due at a time to be arranged with your home school instructor, depending on the vagaries of school schedules and final exam periods.