Thanks for sharing this very interesting message. I forwarded it to Shirley
Brice Heath who I think is leading scholar on studying and support on Youth
Based Organizations. Her presentation in Germany suggest that it's a
growing phenomenon in US.
Eugene
------------------------------------
Eugene Matusov
Willard Hall#206G
Department of Educational Studies
University of Delaware
Newark, DE 19716, USA
phone: (302) 831-1266
fax: (302) 831-4445
email: ematusov who-is-at UDel.edu
web: http://www.ematusov.com
------------------------------------
-----Original Message-----
From: Gordon Wells <gwells who-is-at oise.utoronto.ca>
To: xmca who-is-at weber.ucsd.edu <xmca@weber.ucsd.edu>
Date: Monday, November 24, 1997 7:19 PM
Subject: popular education for youth (fwd)
>I am forwwarding this in case anybody on this list has suggestions to
offer.
>Gordon Wells
>---------- Forwarded message ----------
>Date: Mon, 24 Nov 1997 14:59:55 -0500 (EST)
>From: Curtis Ogden <cwo2 who-is-at cornell.edu>
>To: Announcement to PARtalk-L <PAR-ANNOUNCE-L who-is-at cornell.edu>
>Subject: popular education for youth
>
>
>To Whom It May Concern (or Interest):
>
>For the past two years I have subscribed to this network and read many
>exchanges without participating. The other day, however, it dawned on me
>how this might be a good forum in which to make an inquiry related to my
>work and ideas for the future.
>
>I am currently with an organization called The Learning Web which, until
>last January, had been affiliated with Cornell University through the
>Center for Religion, Ethics, and Social Policy. After twenty-four years,
>we are now an independent agency. The Learning Web is a youth service
>organization which offers experiential learning opportunities to local
>middle and high school youth through a variety of programs. Our work is
>rooted in the philosophies of Paulo Freire and Ivan Illich with a view
>toward providing liberating and empowering education to young people. Our
>self-directed apprenticeship program presents the opportunity for youth to
>engage in hands-on exploration of different areas of interest with
>community-based mentors. The reflective component of this program has
>participants not only looking at what they are learning, but how they are
>learning and how it all fits in to the bigger picture of life (and not
>simply making a living). We see critical consciousness as an important
>framework for skill development.
>
>The program that I have been working on for the last year incorporates this
>reflection component into a group setting as teams of young people engage
>in taking action in their communties through participatory research and
>service and/or activism. The program is called ImPACT (the Importance of
>Participating, Acting, and Coming Together) and makes use of aspects of the
>Training for Transformation methodology which I learned while working in
>Zimbabwe a few years ago. Locally, I recruit teams of youth in high
>schools and then guide them through a process of self and community
>exploration, group building, decision-making, and action. Ultimately it is
>the youth themselves that determine which projects are undertaken as they
>are encouraged to develop their own definitions of service and community,
>applying their experiences and interests, the input of other community
>members, and perceived needs. Projects play themselves out in many
>different forms and in the end, ideally each group has developed the
>contacts and resources to keep themselves going if they so choose. The
>individual and social transformation I have witnessed over the past three
>years has been fascinating. Despite the recognized success of this
>approach, there is always some tension with established institutions. Now
>we find ourselves faced with a crisis as the program's main support, the
>State Education Department, looks to move all funded programs under school
>auspices. I am fearful that such a move might squash the potential of our
>holistic approach. I feel that programs such as ImPACT should remain in
>the community where they can maintain a certain kind of vitality and still
>link up in various ways with schools. This leaves me with questions about
>other interested parties in terms of potential funders, partners, and
>kindred philosophers and practitioners. Very selfishly, what I am asking
>for from anyone who is still reading this are suggestions of individuals
>and organizations with whom I might connect to share ideas, visions,
>experiences, etc. Is there a viable future for popular education with
>youth in this country that is not strictly research-based or dependent on
>seed money or pilot approaches? If you have any comments about any of
>this, please send them along. Thank you for listening.
>
>Curtis Ogden
>The Learning Web
>515 W. Seneca St.
>Ithaca, NY 14850
>(607) 275-0122
>
>