This is the Year to Make
the Commitment!
Early
Bird Rate l Save $200
per person for both Institutes!
through Nov. 20th learn more
CWI's Summer WEST
Institute on Service-Learning
July 29-August 2,
2013
Los Angeles,
California
at Loyola Marymount University
register online
l more info
tel: 909-480-3966 l email
CWI's Summer EAST
Institute on
Service-Learning
July 15-19, 2013
at Shelburne Farms,
Vermont
register online
l more info
tel: 909-480-3966 l email
TRAINING & PLANNING
CURRICULUM TOOLS
REFLECTION & INSPIRATION
CONNECTIONS
ALUMNI TESTIMONIALS
“I can't over state the importance
of this event to my vision and
enthusiasm.”
Julie Metzler, Director
Community Arts and
Service-Learning
Kansas City Art
Institute
“I loved the week! CWI’s Institute
allows for personal and professional
growth...."
Dan Gaudiano
High School Science
Teacher
Punahou School,
Hawaii
“You make the five day
commitment worth it!
Leitzel Schoen,
S-L Coordinator
Westminster School
Atlanta, Georgia
“I feel empowered! Thank you!
Kathleen Harte, Teacher
The Gillispie School
La Jolla, California
Earliest Bird Rate Saves $200
per person for both Institutes!
through Nov. 20th learn
more
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NEW! from Community
Works Journal
Online Magazine for
K-16 and Community Educators
Learning to Love Education Again read full version online
Single
Handing It: Finding Our Way In An Age Of Fear
By STUART GRAUER, Ed.D.
 I was trying to become a teacher
in those years, not at all sure of my “real” path, and single-handing gave
me a sense, or the illusion, of independence and control over my destiny.
My favorite book became Joshua Slocum's Sailing Alone Around the World , a book I would give anything
for our students to want to read. My weekend retreats from teacher
education became beautiful destinations and landings all over the Sound,
although I never landed on Fishers Island then. With barely a post office
and just nine miles long, Fishers Island always seemed a mystery, with a
bit of an Alfred Hitchcock aura about it.
I loved the life. When we sail away, gone are
the straight lines and fences, gone are the rules imposed mainly to control
and rarely to free, gone is the status quo. There is still fear at
sea, but this fear is not of the limits and regulators imposed by education
and social life, but of the limitless.
We replace “what”
with “what if?” Gone are many questions with answers.
Single-handing through wind, tide, and
current, gone is the schooling. But the study and practice of seamanship
leaves out no essential facet of education, progressive or traditional;
discovery and curiosity are reborn as basic skills (Jameson et al., 1996).
As educators and parents, can we reclaim the courage to pursue these
equally timeworn and forward-leaning values? This would be real work for
teachers.
Educators from at least as far back as
Socrates have speculated about how to engage curiosity and
discovery—Socratic Inquiry—in the classroom, and how to develop these
faculties, faculties which are so akin to entrepreneurship and our
country’s heritage. Can we commit to a penetrating line of thought rather
than be tossed about by the sea of standards and disparate agendas that we
face? The “multitasked” life? Coming of age in the new millennium,
“millennial” students and teachers look to technology to enhance the level
or classroom inquiry, since today’s school sizes make Socratic methods seem
impractical, unsustainable, and unusual. In Student Centered Learning in
Experiential Education , Cheryl
Estes (2004) echoes educator and philosopher John Dewey saying “the goal of
education was for the student to be able to understand and use
experience...and to examine their experiences .”
Class size is at a historic high in the United
States making it hard to access each student individually. Can we reclaim
the time to listen to our students honestly as they find their course? Can
we reclaim the courage we’ll need to take that kind of time, time for true
inquiry?
....continued
read full article online
 New! Join
CWI's ONLINE COMMUNITY NETWORK
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Be sure to join
Community Works Institute's new
online Community
Network. A great way to connect with educators around the
world who share your passion for place,
service, and community
focused learning! learn more
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