Kill It to Save It: An Autopsy of Capitalism's Triumph over Democracy<\/a><\/em> that traces the corrosive effects of recent (read post-Vietnam) political discourse and the public policy that flows from it regarding the civic institutions that uphold democracy, and thus on the common well-being of the citizenry. Such concerns, such considerations, may or may not play a part of any given service-learning course, depending on the discipline and academic level of the course. A capstone course in environmental sociology may well include as primary this type of far-reaching discussion, while a 1000-level English course designed to improve writing ability while engaging with community elementary schools may include such theoretical material in a limited, introductory amount, if at all. Yet whatever the service-learning course, the social disparities, deficiencies, and injustices addressed by community action are likely created or exacerbated by these larger forces operating just beyond our view. While teachers often internalize these realities, while they may inform our work in very close, almost second-nature ways, students may be only first learning about such broad historical contexts. Part of what we teach then in service-learning is not only course content or even the value and necessity of civic engagement, but also a larger awareness of, and a questioning of, the very real series of human choices that led to the situations the class addresses.<\/p>\nKill It to Save It\u00a0<\/em>takes apart several myths of modern American life that have allowed public policy to work against the public good. The first to go is the idea of the rugged individual, free to succeed on his own terms without need of governmental assistance. As policies purport individual freedom and economic opportunity, the vast amount of economic gains go to a smaller and smaller few. At the same time, the sacrifices required to make this upward wealth transfer possible are to public education, public health care, and public resources. The public is sold a bill of goods about the boundlessness of upward mobility in this country, while the shrinking of public resources needed to support such mobility make it less and less likely. All investments in the public good are cast as socialistic handouts to the lazy, while the holders of wealth need only to keep the policy-setting system rigged in their favor to keep the subsidies, negative actual tax rates, and other forms of corporate welfare flowing their way.<\/p>\nWe needn't look further than our own communities to see the damaging effects of years and years of such neoliberal policies. The homeless people on our streets are permanent communities within communities, structurally forever shut out of integration. Our poorest neighbors are crammed into the least funded schools, almost ensuring by design their failure. Entire neighborhoods bear the marks of years of redlining, employment discrimination, and racist law enforcement policy, from the war on drugs to stop-and-frisk. Professor Dolgon traces these situations back to the public discourse and propagandized ideologies that shaped the policies that created them.<\/p>\n
No matter what aspect of social injustice our service-learning course seeks to address, it's worth remembering that no form of injustice is naturally occurring. Our society was made by us, and can be changed by us as well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Last year I had the pleasure of interviewing for this blog professor, author, and social critic Corey Dolgon. I had heard Professor Dolgon speak at an IARSLCE conference, the International Association for Research on Service-Learning, and I was intrigued by his critique of certain universities' historic and ongoing actions that have disenfranchised or otherwise harmed ...continue reading \"Lessons from an Autopsy\"<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10],"tags":[64,227,282,290],"class_list":{"0":"post-11273","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-service","7":"tag-civil-society","8":"tag-new-orleans","9":"tag-service-learning","10":"tag-social-justice","11":"h-entry","12":"hentry","13":"h-as-article"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p82MQk-2VP","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":10308,"url":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/conversation-50\/","url_meta":{"origin":11273,"position":0},"title":"Conversation #50: Corey Dolgon on the Declawing of Service Learning","author":"Bart Everson","date":"October 18, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Download Conversation #50 A conversation with Dr. Corey Dolgon of Stonehill College on the \"declawing\" of service learning. Links for this episode: Corey Dolgon at Stonehill College","rel":"","context":"In "Old Podcast Archive (\u22642018)"","block_context":{"text":"Old Podcast Archive (\u22642018)","link":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/topic\/podcast\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/background-313415.jpg?fit=1200%2C480&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/background-313415.jpg?fit=1200%2C480&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/background-313415.jpg?fit=1200%2C480&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/background-313415.jpg?fit=1200%2C480&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/background-313415.jpg?fit=1200%2C480&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":11044,"url":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/a-critique-of-service-learning\/","url_meta":{"origin":11273,"position":1},"title":"A Critique of Service Learning","author":"Jeremy Tuman","date":"September 19, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"A 2016 book by University of Wisconsin at Madison professor Randy Stoecker makes an interesting critique of service-learning at universities, one that I've heard before, particularly in an interview I conducted with professor and activist Corey Dolgon. The critique is basically this: service-learning does a poor job of helping communities,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Service Learning Lynx"","block_context":{"text":"Service Learning Lynx","link":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/topic\/service\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Liberating-Service-Learning_sm.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":11278,"url":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/conversation-63\/","url_meta":{"origin":11273,"position":2},"title":"Conversation #63: Randy Stoecker on Liberating Service Learning","author":"Bart Everson","date":"October 24, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Download Conversation #63 A conversation with\u00a0Randy Stoecker of University of Wisconsin-Madison on liberating service learning. Randy Stoecker is a Professor in the Department of Community and Environmental Sociology at the University of Wisconsin, with a joint appointment in the Center for Community and Economic Development. This position has taken him\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Old Podcast Archive (\u22642018)"","block_context":{"text":"Old Podcast Archive (\u22642018)","link":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/topic\/podcast\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/stoecker.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":19481,"url":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/new-members-of-the-catfd-team\/","url_meta":{"origin":11273,"position":3},"title":"New Members of the CAT+FD Team","author":"Bart Everson","date":"June 16, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"We are delighted to announce our new Faculty-in-Residence. Faculty-in-Residence for New Faculty Support Raven Jackson is a Clinical Associate Professor in the College of Pharmacy. She has served the university for 7 years as a faculty member within the College, a member and leader on several committees, and a strong\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General Housekeeping"","block_context":{"text":"General Housekeeping","link":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/topic\/housekeeping\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Raven-Jackson.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4818,"url":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/conversation-27\/","url_meta":{"origin":11273,"position":4},"title":"Conversation #27: Civic Engagement","author":"Bart Everson","date":"November 21, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Download Conversation #27 A conversation with Amy Koritz of Drew University on teaching, learning and civic engagement. Saying to somebody there's a 20% poverty rate is very different from introducing them to somebody who is in poverty and hearing their story. Amy Koritz is the director for the Center for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Old Podcast Archive (\u22642018)"","block_context":{"text":"Old Podcast Archive (\u22642018)","link":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/topic\/podcast\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12553,"url":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/sotl-webinar\/","url_meta":{"origin":11273,"position":5},"title":"SoTL Webinar","author":"Bart Everson","date":"August 20, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"What does it mean to bring a contemplative approach to the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning? That's the subject of an upcoming webinar from the Association for Contemplative Mind in Higher Education. Contemplative Practices in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning A webinar with Patricia Owen-Smith Professor of Psychology and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Transformative Banquet"","block_context":{"text":"Transformative Banquet","link":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/topic\/integrative\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Patti Owen-Smith","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.contemplativemind.org\/admin\/wp-content\/uploads\/pos-web.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11273"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11273\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11327,"href":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11273\/revisions\/11327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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<\/p>\n