Public Service and Education

I was delighted to learn that the Huffington Post would be collecting examples of public service to help inspire more commitment across the USA. I am fortunate to be part of a university that has a long tradition of this kind of work, and I am pleased to commit personally to contributing to it.

For generations, Wesleyan students, faculty, staff and alumni have connected their educational work to making positive contributions to the world around them. Here we have long believed in the power of a liberal arts education, not only to help one to live a more reflective and considered life as an individual, but also to enable one to engage with one's community in effective and generous ways. Our student volunteers at our Green Street Art Center, our tutors at Traverse Square Housing Project, and our teachers in prison programs in Central Connecticut are just a few examples of public service at Wesleyan. I have no doubt that students, faculty and staff will continue to join with our partners, our neighbors and our friends to connect our efforts at Wesleyan to productive work beyond the campus. My commitment will be to spend hours each month volunteering in the community arts center in Middletown.

In his Commencement Address at Wesleyan in the spring of 2007, President-elect Obama spoke to our students about the dignity, power and joy of public service. He told our graduates that their service can "shape the collective destiny of their generation," and help form the future of our nation. The time to engage is now.

Comments

[americanideal]

How very fitting it is that this type of column would receive such scant response activity.

One of our highest priorities going forward should we hope to correct our problems and address our biggest challenges is to re-establish a culture of respect and aspiration for achievements in public service, philanthropy and community activism in America. Without it, we will continue to ramble aimlessly through the annals of history with very little hope of emerging from the culture of "me" and the endless pursuit of individual prestige, wealth and status that is creating the growing divide between us.

It is impossible to imagine what drives us to revere multi-million dollar celebrities and highly compensated athletes, CEO's and radio hosts while we ignore and overlook the achievements of inner-city school teachers, non-profit health care workers, missionaries and volunteers in the poorest and most unsafe of countries (and even cities within the US). We frequently neglect the needs of our neighbors, our responsibility to our towns and communities, and the growing challenges to funding and supporting education of our children. Sure, we'll drop $100 in an envelope after Katrina if it makes us feel good, but we'll spend hours in front of our Wii or debating meaningless political agendas before we get out and get involved.

Please keep this issue in the forefront, even if it continues to attract such limited attention. Eventually, we will soften our hearts - whether by choice or by necessity.

[rocketman69]

How is serving food to the homeless or cleaning elderly people going to teach math or science or reading? I'd be happy if those obedient workers COULD read and write at all.

[JesseChanley]

All of the colleges and universities that encourage their students, faculty, and staff to actively use their educations to give back to their communities are to be commended. In addition to direct service to individual people and organizations, we also need to commit to changing public policies so that our public servants are also able to do more for us. One of the major policy changes needed is in the focus of K-12 education.

Currently, the focus of K-12 education is on producing obedient workers, not active citizens. We can make education more rigorous, better prepare students for work, and move toward a vibrant democracy, if we make public issues, public policy, and active citizenship the focus of 5th-12th grade education.

Students should develop their reading, writing, speaking, math, and science skills by putting them to work in helping improve public policy and the performance of public agencies and non-profits. We should not have separate reading, writing, math, and science courses. All of the knowledge and skills of the now-separate academic disciplines should be integrated in student-directed, teacher-mentored projects. We can still have clear, high standards for students to meet. We should be able to directly connect those standards to public issues.

As we work for our communites, let's not forget the critical need for reform of our social systems.