Civic Reflection News Update — April 2008

News & Notes

Civic Reflection with The LEAGUE / Learning to Give

This winter The LEAGUE launched a civic reflection series with teachers and students at public high schools in Newark, NJ. The LEAGUE is a school and web-based system for service learning whose mission is to "build character and empower young people to 'do good' in their community, the nation and the world."

Barbara Dillbeck, curriculum director for The LEAGUE / Learning to Give, attended a Project on Civic Reflection facilitation training workshop in 2007. Early in 2008, she introduced 14 Newark Public High School teachers ("coaches") to civic reflection. Using readings by Langston Hughes, John Reed, and Robert Frost, she facilitated model conversations both with the teachers and with groups of student "captains" at two high schools. The sessions were videotaped, and this summer an edited version will be posted on The LEAGUE website as a training tool for new coaches.

Civic Reflection at Campus Compact

On April 4, 2008, Minnesota Campus Compact hosted a one-day conference, "Civic Leadership: Building a Vibrant Democracy" at Inver Hills Community College. The conference centered on new ways of engaging students, campuses and communities in the context of the 2008 election.

Civic engagement leaders, including presidents, deans, students, faculty, civic engagement advocates and practitioners, convened to ask how campuses can develop leadership to support a vibrant democracy in which all can participate. Presenters included Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie and former Governor Al Quie. Project on Civic Reflection senior research associate Adam Davis co-facilitated a discussion, attended by service-learning faculty, staff, students and partner organizations, of Langston Hughes's Theme for English B.

Civic Reflection and State Humanities Councils

In recent years, state humanities councils have been increasingly drawn to the potential of humanities-based discussion for fostering civic conversation on topics of importance to our common life. Leaders from five state humanities councils (Georgia, Maine, New York, Washington and Wisconsin) attended the Project on Civic Reflection's winter facilitation training workshop in Chicago in February 2008.

At the request of the Maryland Humanities Council, in June 2008 the Project will train facilitators in the state library system to lead discussions for Maryland's "One Book, One State" reading initiative.

Also in June 2008, the Project will lead civic reflection discussions with the board of Humanities Washington and with family literacy facilitators in the Motheread/Fatheread program.

Program Spotlight

Chicago Service Agency Staff Reflects on Health

Erie Neighborhood House, a community service agency that has served Chicago's immigrant communities since 1870, launched a civic reflection program with members of its staff in the fall of 2007. Erie House's mission is to strengthen low-income, primarily Latino families through a range of educational programs for all ages. The 16 staff members who participated in the series work with groups throughout Erie's service area to encourage initiatives for better health.

These "health promoters" reflected on their own attitudes toward heath, the attitudes of those whose health they aim to improve, and civic values related to health in mainstream American culture.

Erie House fosters a bilingual and bicultural environment in all its programs, and the readings for the series were made available both in English and in Spanish. Readings included Ana Castillo's novel So Far from God, poems from Trochemoche by Luis Rodriguez, and Octavio Paz's essay "Mexico and the United States" from The Labyrinth of Solitude. Participants also viewed and discussed two films, Alfonso Arau's Like Water for Chocolate (1992) and Michael Moore's Sicko (2007).

Dr. Patricia Novick, a clinical psychologist specializing in holistic health, trained the series' facilitators. Among them was Jose-Luis Mosqueda, who, in keeping with the importance of shared meals and hospitality in Mexican-American culture, provided the group with home-cooked, healthy meals from the region. Describing the discussions as "both painful and powerful," Dr. Novick says that she was struck by participants' depth of connection, both with one another and with the readings. Erie House plans to continue with civic reflection as a staff training and development tool in the coming year.

Poetry & Service

Why Poetry Matters to Service Programs

In honor of National Poetry Month, we'd like to share the reflections of a Meaning of Service facilitator, Lowell Jaeger. Recently Lowell wrote a short essay about his experience leading a discussion of Robert Frost's Mending Wall with a Montana Conservation Corps trail crew near Kalispell, Montana.

Friends ask me what I did last summer, and I tell them I worked for the Meaning of Service—it was my job to hike into the wild, track down a trail crew, sit with them in the middle of their workday… and read them a poem. This raises eyebrows. Indeed. A poem? What good might that do?

For Lowell's thoughts on why poetry matters, even "when your back aches and swarms of black flies are feasting on your sweaty earlobes," click here.

New on Our Website

…in the Facilitators' Forum

In a recent discussion summary, the facilitator describes how participants in a university service-learning program grappled with the subtleties and ambiguities of race in Toni Morrison's story "Recitatif".

Have you led a civic reflection discussion lately? Please share your experience with us!

… in the Resource Library

"Bilingual/Bilingüe" by Rhina P. Espaillat

• What makes someone a citizen?
• What does one give up or gain in joining a group?
• What is the value of dissent? How should dissent be expressed?

"The Same Inside" by Anna Swir

• How do we respond to strangers?
• How does interaction with others help us see ourselves?
• What do those who give or serve receive?

"Where I Lived and What I Lived For" by Henry David Thoreau

• How are we connected to others?
• What does it mean to be alone?
• What is our responsibility to the natural world?

Have you led or taken part in a civic reflection discussion of a reading that's not in our library? Please use the Suggest a Reading feature to tell us about it!

Reader Feedback

What interests you most in our newsletter? How can we improve it? We'd like to hear what you think. Please share your feedback with us!