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Title
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Individual In America
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Identifier
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1976-32_ProgramHistories_8D24_09_01
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Source
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1976-32
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8D24
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9
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Date Created
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1971-1972
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extracted text
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THE INDIVIDUAL IN AMERICA
Program Description
The overall focus of the program was the identity cr1s1s among post-adolescent
American youth. An attempt was made to understand a sampling of its many facets
and to explore ways of working through this difficult period to gain a position
of greater self-confidence and personal stability. Particular emphasis was
placed on the self-discipline required for successful group action in pursuit .
of a mutual goal.
Aspects of the identity cr1s1s which received particular attention during the
program included situations involving both physical and emotional stress, the
problems of transi::ory personal and group relationships, societal problems
(including race, poverty, and sex), changing sex roles, and how to cope with
changing value systems.
Background readings were assigned and discussed in the fields of anthropology,
religion, philosophy, literature, sociology, psychology, and social criticism.
An outline of these readings would include:
I.
II.
III.
The Nature and Origins of Man
Individual Psycholcgy
Current Social Problems in America
.;;:
Program activities in addition to the regular book seminars and the many special
interest seminars included: (1) a two-week Wilderness Experience spend working
as trail crew for the U. S. Forest Service, an excellent exposure to the dynamics
of group functioning under stress and the growth of group solidarity; (2) a oneweek Creativity Wo~kshop during which many students experimented in expressing
themselves through various media with which they had previously been unfamiliar;
(3) internships in a variety of fields were carried on by individuals throughout the year. These ranged from elementary school teaching to voter registration.
Seven weeks of the Spring Quarter were devoted to Group and Individual Projects
designed to broaden student experience of the social forces characteristic of
American society. The primary group projects. included an Urban Survival group
which hitched to San Francisco, a community study group analyzing the power
structure of Chehalis, Washington, a Wilderness Project working on preserving
Mt. St. Helens as a national monument, a correctional institutions group, and
an educational projects group·. Individual projects gave even wider scope.
Credit Equivalencies (in quarter credit hours):
FALL
WINTER
SPRING
6 Social Sciences
6 Humanities
3 Outdoor Recreation
9 Social Sciences
3 Humanities
3 General Electives
12 Special Projects
3 Social Sciences
Individual specialties for each student are recorded in their portfolios.
....
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Hope thi s opus answers all possible questions. Know it wont so don't hesitate
to call (206-753-3955) or write or drop in and ask our ne\'i" secretary--Nrso Janice Brand-who comes on duty 15 Septo Can't wait for her arrival so I can stop mashing out
these stencils.
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In the meantime ----
Hang loose.
Individually yours,
~~
William F. Unsoeld
Bill Aldridge
Program Coordinators
Faculty Team Members:
Bill Aldridge -- Social Psychology and Education
Peggy Dicki nson -- Art
Ea rle McNeil -- Sociology
Carol Olexa -- Soci~logy
Pete Sinclair -- Literature
Boy Smith -- Psychology
Willi Unsoeld -- Philosophy and Religion
I
1
THE INDIVIDUAL IN AMERICA
FILM LIST 1971- 72
Fall
Nov. 2-4
Help! My Snowman's Burning Down
Adventures of *
Nov. 9-11
Assembly Line
*The Gorky Trilogy (Nov. 10, 11, 12)
Summerhill
Nov. 16-18
21-87
Leo Beuerman
*The Bicycle Thief
Nov. 23-25
Run
Nov. 30-Dec . 2
The Game
*Shadows
Dec. 7-9
Antonio
*Nun's Story
Dec. 14-16
The Inheritance
School
Christmas in
App~al~i~ ~ . 4 nA~JAA . '
k..AA c~.
~
p~~~
1v~
a;+
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Individual in America
Film List 1971-72
Page 2
·
Winter
Jan. 4-6
Cities in Crisis
*Circle of the Sun
*Exiles
Jan. 11-13
Tenement
Jan. 18-20
Cool World
*Hunger
Jan. 25-27
Hunger in America
*Loves of a Blonde
Feb. 1-3
*Apu Trilogy (Feb. · 2, 3, 4)
Feb. 8-10
How the West Was Won
Feb. 15-17
The Inheritance
,r(Ikiru
Mar. 1-3
Living
The Magi4ian
..
Individual in America
Film List 1971-72
Page 3
Spring
Apr. 4-6
Night and Fog
Apr. 11-13
*The Roundup
Apr. 25-27
Automania 2000
Flavia
May 2-4
*Galia
May 9-11
*Forbidden Games
May 23-25
The Inheritance
*
Feature Films
Individual In America
Week Of January IO
Tenetive reading list
· I Never PrClmised You A R<:rse ·Garderi and One flew·· civer .. the Cuckoo's
Nest
Film:
Tenement __ We<i;:qes<i;ay _,. }: :00
Lec;tu:r:e Ha;l.l III,
with accompaning lecture by Smith
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Calendar-Newsletter
HID-HONTH SUPPLEMENT
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30·------------------------------------------------------------31~------------------------------------------------------------PLEASE USE ABOVE BLANKS TO UPDATE CALENDAR FOR THE BALANCE OF THE 110NTH AND
RETURN QUICKLY TO DICK NICHOLS FOR PUBLICATION OF A SUPPLEHENT.
Program Evaluation
INDIVIDUAL IN AMERICA
1.
We have stayed remarkably close to the original catalogue description of
our program. All the various aspects of the program described there have
been performed according to schedule, although several of them have fallen
somewhat short of our anticipated execution. In particular, the "human
relations workshop" fell short of our design expectations. This was partially
due to the fact that we lacked the necessary funding to provide a longer
period of time with outside consultants and partly due to the fact that the
heavy snowstorm knocked out a major part of the programmed week.
2.
Seminars: Scheduling of seminars varies considerably from one group to
another. Some are meeting in groups of ten three times a week with a
meeting of twenty once a week while others meet only twice a week total,
some divided into ten while others remain in their group of twenty.
Attendance also varies widely. In some groups it seems that there are
segments of the group that fail to show up at all. In others, everyone
shows up eventually during the week, but never on the same day. Still
other groups show only two or three students absent on any one occasion.
It is still quite difficult to assess what is being "learned, accomplished,
improved" in the seminars. Much of the time is still devoted to discussing
and wrestling with what it means to operate as a group. The students are
still highly individualized and have little notion of what sorts of selfdiscipline are required to function together in seminar. There are occasional
glimpses of what it means to follow a topic with corporate concentration,
but, in most cases, their discussion is still pretty fragmented. A great
deal of time has been spent concentrating on how to listen to one another
and some progress is being shown in this respect. Efforts are also being
made to draw out the quiet members of the groups, and there are only
occasional individuals who have not yet responded at least in some measure.
Discussions have been held concerning the usefulness of written work,
essays, papers, etc. Performance in this area has been improving slightly,
but, in the absence of required assignments, many students have found it
difficult to produce written material on their own initiative.
Only two or three seminar periods have been videotaped and little use has
been made of the tapes after they have been filmed.
3.
With some few exceptions, the books chosen for seminar discussions have
been satisfactory. For Fall Quarter the books were selected by the faculty
team. For Winter Quarter, the faculty team proposed a list of books
which was then reviewed by the students of one of the Book Seminars. The
students presented their list of selections (including several which were
not on the original faculty list) and the final selection was made by the
student group in consultation with the faculty team.
The basic theoretical question concerning book selection raised by members of
the faculty team concerns whether the particular book selected makes any difference. One argument runs that the book is simply an occasion for initiating
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a particular topic and that it is what flows from this occasion which is important.
The other view has it that, unless the material dealt '"ith by the book is
hAHic, comprehensive, and appropriate to the topic, the ensuing discussion will
never get off the ground. This issue has not yet been resolved.
4.
There have been some problems with reading speed in the various seminars and
some attempt has been made at using the Learning Resources Group to remedy this
problem. However, after an initial show of enthusiasm on the part of the
students for speed reading training, interest rapidly dropped off, and the
effort has largely collapsed.
We have several special interest seminars going on in creative writing handled
by Pete Sinclair. Interest in them seems to be well-sustained. Our major
and continuing problem in this area seems to be in getting the students to motivate themselves to tackle reading and writing projects which are not specifically
assigned to them by faculty members. This point will be referred to further
below.
5.
Our faculty seminars have been sometime things. At times they have been real
high points when the entire group has kept its eye on the ball and the discussion
has been vivid and searching. Other times have been characterized by long dry
spells when we have had great difficulty in focusing at all. Attendance has been
occasionally spotty and tardiness a real problem. The perennial lateness of
arrival might have been contributed to by the fact that we often have gotten
housekeeping details mixed up in the book discussions. For this reason, desultory talk has preceded the start of the book discussion at many sessions, so
members of the team have been encouraged in counting on coming in late since
they felt that nothing of great significance wo~ld have been happening during
this period anyway.
Faculty seminars have heped us to come together as a working group, but such
assistance has been moderate. We have not been videotaping the seminars, and
it is possible that this device might have improved our performance.
We average about three hours of book discussion each Monday morning. However,
this time has been encroached upon occasionally by housekeeping details until
we made a resolution to stick strictly to the topic at hand and reschedule
housekeeping details for a period from 8:00 to 9:00 Wednesday mornings. We
are still not satisfied with this arrangement since we feel hopelessly pressed
on Wednesday morning (and since many members simply fail to show up at that hour
in the morning), so we have finally rescheduled the Wednesday meeting
for 9:00 Friday morning. This session will be open-ended and can run the entire
day if necessary. The feeling now is that we should have made this move much
earlier in the year, but we look forward to it restoring the group cohesiveness
which has been gradually dissipated under the pressures of the school year.
6.
Teaching methods other than seminars include: films, tapes, workshops in creativity
and human relations, lectures, interviews with townspeople, all-night marathons,
field trips to Seattle and surrounding communities, recreational outings, Saturday soccer games, individual projects, internships, and probably several others
which I have overlooked. Opinions differ on how effective these various methods
have been. Some faculty members have made excellent use of our extensive film
series; others have used them less effectively. In general, the creativity
workshop was quite well-received by students and faculty~ while the interpersonal
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relations session (basically a half-day only) was not. Lectures have ranged from
moderately effective to outright boring. Extra-mural activities have been
extremely useful in bringing seminar groups closer together. One of the most
effective methods so far attempted has been the staging of a faculty book seminar
in a fishbowl situation involving the entire program. More of these are planned
in the future.
7.
The evaluation of students has been carried out by asking for a self-evaluation,
a seminar moderator evaluation, and an evaluation of the program. These written
evaluations have been called for at the end of each quarter and placed in the
students' portfolios. Response has been quite good, and a large percentage have
complied with the request. In addition, each faculty member has written an
evaluation of each member of his book seminar at the end of each quarter.
Faculty evaluations have been contributed by students (as indicated above) and
placed in the pendaflex folder which constitutes each faculty member's portfolio. In addition, the faculty members have undertaken the task of writing
up evaluations of each other. This task has not yet been completed, but
several such statements have already been exchanged.
Evaluation of the total program has, of course, been dealt with by the individual
student as they see it. Considerable discussion has been carried out in the
book seminar and several papers have been submitted to the faculty by individual
students on this particular topic. We have also scheduled a faculty seminar
to be conducted on the topic in a fishbowl arrangement involving all the students.
(This was a shining success which occasioned much favorable comment from students,
faculty, and chance passers-by who happened to be in the lounge.)
8.
Each student has a separate pendaflex folder which constitutes his traveling
portfolio. These are open to the students, and they are invited to place completed materials in them as they wish. We were somewhat apprehensive at the
risk of having material disappear from the folders when leaving them open to
student access in this manner, but so far there have been no confirmed incidents.
If pilferage should occur, we would be forced to go to a greater security
emphasis.
Several discussion sessions have been
to clarify the role and makeup of the
students are still unclear as to just
it seems as if most of them are quite
as the faculty).
9.
held with the entire program in an effort
portfolio system of evaluation. Some
what is expected of them, but on the whole,
well informed (at least as well informed
Individual morale is very difficult to measure. We hear tales of complete
collapse, and I expect it is natural that such stories tend to outweigh the
happy tales. However, in leafing through the individual program evaluations,
there is a heartening number of descriptions of individual victories. An
appreciable proportion of the students seem to be finding in the program
exactly the kind of catalyst they felt the need for when they entered TESC.
At least five students reached the conclusion this term (Winter Quarter) that
Evergreen State is not the place for them. In each of these cases, it appears
that they feel no hard feelings toward the college, but simply feel that they
are better suited for a different sort of academic climate. These are the
students we are glad to see go.
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Seminar morale varies greatly from group to group. Since our changeover at the
end of Fall Quarter, there is only one seminar group about which we really feel
gravely concerned. The reason for the unhappiness expressed by this group seems
to rest on the fact that they were a self-selected collection of psychologically
fragile individuals who have had great difficulty getting it together as a group.
Program morale is again a pretty vague thing. It varies greatly from week to
week. The faculty assessment of it varies even more greatly, and I seriously
doubt the degree of correlation between the two. My own impression is that we
have been through a very low spell during the middle of Winter Quarter--judging
mostly from the fall-off in attendance to large group meetings. However,
attendance was excellent at the faculty seminar held in the midst of the large
group meeting last week, and the general feel within the group at that time was
warm and supportive. We seem to have no serious immediate problem in this regard.
10.
Major student concerns of the program include:
a.
lack of structure. Many of the students are still unaccustomed to the
program format and would prefer to see greater direction given them by
the seminar leaders.
b.
objection to the book-centered emphasis of the program. The maior concern
of many is the lack of an experiential basis upon which to conduct the
academic effort. They feel they have spent two-thirds of their lives with
their noses in books and that the time has come for them to travel, to see,
hear, smell, and react with other human beings. The prospect of spending
further weeks together rapping about books does not appeal to them. We
are fortunate that the program design called for concentration on project
work during Spring Quarter.
c.
concerete objectives. Several complaints have been heard concerning the
vagueness of the overall objective of the program. They would like to see
a tighter focus and a direction in which progress could be more easily
measured.
d.
superficiality. Frequent references are made to the fact that they never
seem to really "get into" the books. Some of the discussions are extremely
stimulating, but they feel a lack of "solid content." The dearth of collateral
written work and outside input into the subject matter of the book is frequently deplored. Then, too, the necessity of moving on to another book
before a particularly meaty one has been adequately dealt with is occasionally objected to. It is felt that some of the books cannot possibly be
dealt with satisfactorily in the time allotted, and, at such times, the
whole program schedule becomes burdensome.
e.
The choice of books is also occasionally a matter for concern. They wish
they were more free to concentrate on the books which have attracted them.
personally. However, on the whole, we have been remarkably free of this
complaint.
f.
There is a small group of students who are concerned about teacher certification. They feel uneasy that there is very little definite information
available to them on this .topic.
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11.
Perhaps our most notable flop was the human relations workshop referenced above.
We had anticipated bringing in a consultant-facilitator for an entire week, but
finally decided to settle for seven graduate students coming in for one day.
This did not really give them time enough to have much effect on the formation
of the new groups. Perhaps the original plan would have worked out better.
Some of the book seminars and some of the special interest seminars can be said
to have worked exceptionally well. The reason has usually been a happy combination of faculty member and particular group temper. If anything, it seems
that it may require more than the regular three month quarter to get a book
seminar group really into gear on successful seminar procedure. At least, we
have come up with several indications that the initial stages are slow, laborious,
and fairly agonizing. We had hoped that the second term would have allowed
us to shortcut some of these development pains, but such has been the case to
only a limited degree. This raises some basic questions about the viability of
the entire book seminar format.
Some of the individual projects have also been working exceptionally well. In
several instances the students have come up with internships which have completely
turned them on with a brand new attitude towards education in general. Such
cases seem to depend upon a rare combination of individual characteristics,
job description, and sympathetic faculty sponsor.
12.
This question has got to be a put on. In no way could the total program be
declared ''a cohesive, coherent and progressive teaching-learning-working
experience." Our faculty team is of at least two minds (and probably several
more) as to what needs to be done to improve the situation. One group feels
that more structure and direction is needed for the bene~it of the students.
The other s~ool feels that less structure and direction would turn the trick.
Our goals turn out to be very similar (i.e., a strongly self-motivated, creative,
imaginative, dedicated, industrious, warm, and supportive human being who spends
a great deal of his time in the process of learning), but the means of attaining
this goal remain in doubt. The basic arguments seem to run like this: "Every
time we make an assignment or in any other way apply an external motivating
factor, to that degree we deny the student the privilege of coping with his own
freedom and to that degree we fail in our overall effort." On the other hand,
it is held with equal vigor that "The student coming right out of high school
simply does not have the necessary background and know-how to put together a
successfully working seminar situation. It therefore become incumbent upon
the faculty member to analyze questions, clarify issues, and outline alternative
lines of action--while carefully leaving final decisions up to the students."
Actual practice by individual faculty falls somewhere between these two extremes
with no one attaining either pure permissiveness nor pure authoritarian stance.
The single greatest need which I feel for the program is for greater time to be
spent together by the faculty team. We have all felt this lack, but have
simply been unable to come up with a solution to it. During the second term we
have been more jealous of our own needs in terms of preparation time and just
plain freedom from the eternal demands made by needy students upon anyone
available. We are therefore counting on spending more time together in order
to focus not only upon our own group interrelationships, but also upon addressing
ourselves more seriously to helping one another progress in this peculiarly
fascinating and continually frustrating game which we all know teaching to be.
rh
March, 1972
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