Dear Habermas Logo A Jeanne Site
Education as Praxis for Non-Violence Appel's Animated Figurine; see templart.htm.
Original Submission
Update in May 2000

California State University, Dominguez Hills
University of Wisconsin, Parkside
Latest update: May 23, 2000
E-Mail Faculty on the Site.

Educating for Justice
Jeanne Curran and Susan R. Takata
Copyright: Jeanne Curran and Susan R. Takata, May 2000. "Fair Use" enouraged.

Introduction

Our search for authenticity in teaching (Michael Planck's term), for ways of motivating our students to incorporate learning into their lives, and for ways of counseling them into how to do this for a lifetime of learning, led us to focus on issues of public discourse, of the regeneration of hope, of non-violence, of criminal and social justice. And these issues led us to the Dear Habermas Project: an effort shared amongst students, staff, teachers, to live within our educational institution without engaging in structural violence, without too quickly understanding others, without refusing to listen in good faith, without using labels or categories that harm those for whom the categories do not include their uniqueness, without using structural violence done unto us as an excuse to engage in violent responses.

This process text, a set of related files on one site, to which we have all contributed collegially, is our first evaluation report. We are pleased to be able to present it at the Justice Studies Association in May, 2000 at the Albany meetings.

Questions of Exclusion

Our recent Town Hall Forum brought up some interesting questions about our focus on non-violence and our commitment to social change and social justice by non-violent means.

We (jeanne and Susan) believe that violence begets violence, and that violence harms, us, as well as those at whom it is directed. We are not taking a stand on absolute pacifism. We accept that there is gratuitous violence in our social world, that humans have found ways to combat only through violence. But we do believe that we must seek non-violent means to deal with the ever-increasing spread of structural violence, intenalization of that structural violence, and violent responses to perceived structural violence.

This is a report of our 1999-2000 experiment in developing academic discourse to bring ourselves to awareness of violence, in all its forms, and to transform our academic activities into non-violent interaction.

. . . This is where your narratives of how your own awareness and of our collective attempts to be non-violent will go. . . .

What We Mean by Exclusionary

One form of violence is exclusion. By casting an individual as an "outsider," as one who does not belong, we subject that individual to rejection, which may translate into violence. One of the techniques for strengthening solidarity of the ingroup is hostility toward the outgroup in the interest of strong ingroup identity formation. (Citations omitted.)

This section of our research draws attention to the ease with which the internalization of normative patterns leads us into the practice of exclusion, with its attendant violence. The example we use is a recent face-to-face forum for the Dear Habermas community. We created a Town Hall Forum as an inititial follow up to our presentations at the Western Social Science Association meetings in San Diego. In shared discourse at the WSSA meetings, we had concluded that we often engage in academic discourse, feel pleased with our awareness of the need for peacemaking and non-violence, then return home to the same old violence of our academic institutions. We vowed to follow through on our WSSA performance by seeding such efforts on our local campuses.

Although we had no specific agenda in mind, we hoped to re-create the kind of academic discourse we had enjoyed at WSSA, where participants exchanged ideas and theories in a free and open forum. But Town Hall Forum turned out differently. At WSSA all of us were focused on peacemaking, on the creation and flow of academic discourse. In Town Hall forum we discovered that many were focused on specific issues that needed to be addressed on our campus.

This was disappointing to those who wanted to move into concerted and effective action against actual injustices in the local area. And I am sure it was also disappointing to those who wanted to make great strides in welcoming the campus community into a peacemaking forum.

As Lisa noted, I was smiling like a "cheshire cat" throughout. Why wasn't I disappointed? Well, chalk one up to the wisdom of age. I probably didn't have the same "windmill dreams" you did. But also, I got to watch. It was my turn to shut up and listen. When you acquire an evaluator's status, you are less emotionally involved, and you get more of a "fly on the wall" view. Besides, I would have been happy with either concerted action or a genuine peacemaking forum. Both would take us a long way towards public discourse on this campus.

Actually I'd call it a draw between the two outcomes. There was some very real peacemaking. Saundra Davis trying to wriggle O.W. Wilson into "hope," and her near-jumping for joy when she did. There were some very real appeals on issues: a consensus on structural violence of the educational institution, and a formal urging of students to take greater interest in their school.

There was no formal closure. We didn't DO anything. But I, for one, didn't feel the want of doing anything at that point. We did complete a collective painting. We did listen in good faith. We were forty strong, proving that our campus does afford such interest, even two days before the end of classes. And Jaime is already looking to the next Forum, as are, I'm sure, Michael, and Lisa, and Joe, and Cliff, and Marlene, and Susan, and Saundra, and on and on. Public discurse must start with public interest.

. . . No time to write all I 'd like to, but one last comment. Review the meeting, and your reactions, and try to get in touch with how easy it would have been to exclude those who took a warmaking approach instead of a peacemaking approach. Or to exclude those who just want to talk and never do anything. Or those who believe you can leave it all to the ultimate goodness of God. Or to exclude those who want to dream impossible dreams. Or to exclude those who want to dream.

Recall Habermas. The legitimacy of public discourse will depend on the right of each citizen to be heard in good faith. If we exclude citizens, we have already lost the war. Discussion with those who agree with us is good. It gives us practice, confidence, support. But is not public discourse. It is limited discourse. Public discourse will never be any neater than the learning which engenders it. Public discourse is learning, not performance. Performance is neat. Performance is welll-timed. Performance has an opening and a satisfactory end. Public discourse is messy, sometimes cantankerous, sometimes disruptive. But public discourse is the forum in which our most precious dreams must strive to come true.

The Incorporation of Distance Learning

Material on distance education by Michael Cole, of Virtual Faculty. I'll be using this in the Albany paper. jeanne

. . . This is where we will put your narratives of how the Internet helped let us remove some of the structural violence.

  • Shenell Weaver, please share your story on class times spread over four hours of idle time on campus.
  • Qiana Bush, please share your story on ability to take Women and Crime.
  • Valencia Ross, please share your story on how this permitted adaptation to your baby sitting needs.
  • Jerry Gilmore, please share your story on how this permitted you to come into the Internet class late, and to plan for next year.
  • Chandra Robinson, please share your story on how this permitted your students to take part in university discussions.
  • Send in your stories, all of you.

Here's Valencia's contribution, already in on Saturday, May 20:

At 10:29 PM 5/19/2000, you wrote: Note the time!

From Valencia Ross
Hi Jeanne. I saw the message, but I do not know where to start. I have hit the delete key so many times . . . It seems like I could go on and on about distance learning. The internet class has allowed me to cope with being a new mother and a full-time student all at once. When I am too tired to attend class or unable to find the baby-sitter, I do not feel stressed out, or like I am going to miss something. I am always up to date and on task, thanks to a simple click of the mouse. I do not feel left out, and I am actually in contact with you, Jeanne, more than any of my other professors. I can always contact you either via computer, class, or office. Since we do all of our assignments over the computer, I am able to learn computer skills, and I am also being exposed to a wide variety of knowledge. I also love the way that you allow us to be ourselves and express what ever we want to. In other courses, I find myself feeling uncomfortable and unattached because in most cases there is a lot of lecturing, papers, and exams. You provide a lot of different topics and assignments that allow the students to pick what they want to learn, as opposed to other professors who go strictly by the syllabus. Your classes have allowed me to become aware of a lot of political issues as well as art work that I probably would have never known about. I thank you for that, and wish that we could have more like you. I don't know if you were looking for this type of comment but this is how I felt about distance learning. Oh, yeah, I do not think that it should be called distance because we're never really apart.

On Saturday morning, jeanne responded:

Valencia, you never cease to amaze me. You were the one who informed us that lifetime learning meant the whole lifetime, for all of us. And how right you were. Now you remind us that there is nothing distant about our distance learning. Again, I think you're right.

I didn't have any particular kind of comment in mind. I just wanted all of you to be able to add your voices to the presentation for Albany.

love and peace, jeanne

On Wednesday, May 24, Valencia Ross wrote:

Hi, it's Valencia. When are you going to put up the pass or prepared for why we need public art? Can you please put up your course reference numbers for next semester? You should probably have the field trip on June 16th or the 17th since the 18th is a Sunday and, not to mention, Father's Day.

On Wednesday, May 24, jeanne commented:

Valencia, I put up the Fall 2000 Schedule on the main page of Dear Habermas. Reference numbers are there, except for Love and Peace and Undergraduate section of Distributive Justice. I'll have to get those numbers from the Dean when I get back.

Now as to public art. I was planning to discuss murals as a public art form that includes everyone. For that, check out the file on SPARC, California Murals. Look particularly at SPARC's objectives, such as that art is for everyone, and everyone should be able to participate. I have several new books on public art, and I'll put up essays on them when I get back from Albany. The link to our program is the collective art projects we've been doing on field trips. We'll do that with each field trip, and I want you to know the theory behind our approach to public art. More soon. jeanne

On May 25, 2000, jeanne adds a comment:

I'm working on grades and projects, and this paper, and there isn't enough time to do everything. But I stopped this morning to put up Cloyd Barnwell's latest comments on the project, because I can't stop just because the school says classes are over. That's the part of this project that translates into my need for a forum where someone is listening in good faith. Valencia is, Cloyd is, and listening means participating, asking when the next piece will go up, wanting someone to hear, irrespective of artificial categorized constraints on time - like classes being over.

I could throw my hands in the air and shout in exasperation at being over-worked and under-paid. But that isn't what I feel at all. I want to throw my arms in the air and shout "Hallelujah! We have a community!" Just maybe, the goal of the second half of the 20th Century, to let machines work for us, was a cock-eyed goal. Every machine I've ever met gave me more trouble to keep it going, or the key I needed to do more. Why are we still asking how we can let machines teach for teachers, so that teachers won't be overworked? Didn't we learn anything from domestic appliances? Work, if it is structured humanely, provides meaning to life, for it is what we can do for the social world in which we live. But it's time to learn the lesson of the "long wall." (citations omitted) Work must be interdependently defined with the humans who engage in it. The process is as important or more important than that which is produced, for it is the process that gives meaning.

In this small project, in a small, urban, underfunded commuter college, we have found a way to change the categorization of time! At odd hours, without regard to the college's schedule, students are learning, teachers are teaching. And there is meaning to learning, beyond the structural violence of the school's prime beef stamp.

Here's Marlene Veliz' contibution on "distance" learning, on Sunday, May 21:

Comment on Valencia' Ross's comment.

Hi Jeanne, I just wanted to say that Valencia is right about distance learning.  I feel that distance learning is great for us in several ways. I feel that it is a great opportunity for us to learn how to use the computer more efficiently, but overall it is a great way for us to learn to communicate with our professors.  Many us cannot attend school every day for one reason or another, and by having distant learning, it is easier for us to know what has been going on in class while we are not there.

On Sunday, May 21, jeanne responded:

I agree, Marlene. I think one of the greatest advantages we've discovered in this project is the flexibility it gives, and the sense of security that we don't have to miss out on the discussions or the interactions, even if we aren't physically in the same space. Witness this discussion, which began with a random call to five people to whom I knew it mattered. The call went out on the site last Friday. None of us have met since then. Yet the discussion goes on. jeanne

Here's Lisette Garcia's contibution on "distance" learning, on Tuesday, May 23:

Jeanne, after reading Valencia's and Marlene's comments on distance learning I couldn't agree more. Distance learning is convenient, and it really works! I know I have read a lot more through your Love1A and Juvenile Justice class than in any other class I've taken, and the best part is I've really enjoyed what I have read, like Holes and Living, Loving, and Learning. I also agree with Valencia in that it shouldn't be called distant learning because we are never distant from you, the professor. On the contrary it brings us more togethe, and by the time we get together to discuss we don't have to worry about trying to be someone else because you already know the real us! You become familiar with our faces and our personality, unlike other profesors that never even knew we existed. Lisette Garcia

On Tuesday, May 23, jeanne responded:

I think you've made a very good point about my knowing the "real you." I think it was Michael Planck who said that I was trying for authenticity. I think Michael's right. I don't want to be impressed by pomp and circumstance; I want to share the joy in your learning, because I'm sure it's there, if we can just get this project down right. Isn't it strange how much it seems to have mattered to us all that I learned your names and your stories? And you all teased me so about that all semester.

This would seem to be a good example of the importance of social bonding in later socialization processes. We traditionally emphasize the importance of bonding in infancy, but we forget how much it matters to older children, to adolescents, to grown up childen, too.

Here's Elaine's contribution, on Sunday, May 20:

I just had to tell you about the African Graduation Celebration. It was okay, but I was very disappointed. I feel that things could have been a lot better, because certain rules that were placed in the registration form were not implemented. In the registration form it noted that we could only wear a Kinte scarf, but when I arrived just about everyone had on regular scarves.

The most upsetting thing to me was the programs that were printed. I payed $50 and placed an ad, and when I participated in the ceremony, I discovered that my ad was not in the program. Upon discovering that my ad was not in the program, I overheard other students stating that their ad was not placed, also. The program that was put together was put together poorly, and you could tell that it was done at the last minute. There were a lot of mispelled words, and the program was about 4 to 5 pages. Tonya Crenshaw was very upset also because her name was mispelled and it read Tonya Monique Censhaw. We both feel that the African American student body should have informed the students before the ceremony about the discrepancies in the program. There was enough time before hand to let everyone know that their ad was not placed in the program. It was very unfair, and I will never recommend anyone to participate in the ceremony. PLEASE REPLY!!!!!

On Sunday, May 21, jeanne responded:

Elaine, I'm sorry. I am glad that you wrote. Remember that Hal Pepinsky says that before dialog can begin, we need to let the anger out. I know that you and Tonya were hurt. I'm sure the others were, too. And it is important to be able to express that hurt to someone who knows and cares. (Now aren't you glad I insisted on having faces for all the names?) I can see you now, that lovely hair swishing, (You did wear it down, right?), and the hurt that comes nearly to tears, as you realize that it was structural, and there was no perpetrator to blame who meant to hurt you and the others. I remember seeing that hurt not too long ago, as we dealt with another structurally violent situation.

The context: We have a whole set of new administrators. Procedures are not quite set; new ways are replacing old; and bureaucracies adjust slowly.

I wanted to go to the African Graduation Celebration, but with Albany coming up on Friday, I knew I was just too tired. Now I'm sorry I didn't go. I wish I had been there for you. I know that many of you won't be here next year, but there are probably many caring things that we could do to ease the hurt. Is it possible to re-issue the programs, corrected and done to make all of you happy? Not quite the same thing, but your memories could include what you had wanted. With the time constraints over, I'll bet that could be done.

Also, those who put together the celebration need help. Like us all, they are over-worked and under-loved. Would a group of you be willing to be on a committee to help them plan next year, so this won't happen? I'd love to have you, and I have some experience in setting up such things. Then we could be there when next year's group needs help.

Would you like to pursue some non-violent responses that might give you all happy memories and replace the disappointment?

love and peace, jeanne

. . . More to come . . . but Reports of Learning and Grades have to go up first. jeanne