Top 10 reasons to avoid CSL

10 cent Euro coin, 2007. from Wikimedia.

[ added August 10th:  What is CSL? Community Service Learning.  It's a partnership between a teacher, the students in his/her course, and a community organization.  They combine a course's learning goals with specific goals and activities that enhance communities.  For example, students may create a new brochure for a local health organization.  For more information please see the website of the Canadian Alliance for Community Service Learning (CACSL). ]

Okay, so I admit I’m a real supporter of Community Service-Learning. But you also know I’m a rhetorician from the context of this blog, so you will likely be resistant to my direct persuasion!

So I take a negative psychology approach to persuasion in this post. By reflecting on these 10 reasons NOT to do CSL and the social conditions under which it might NOT be wise to try it, you might actually find yourself considering the very good reasons for going ahead and doing it.

 

Gender and Organizational Communication

clip from Marten de Vos: Geometry and Mathematics work together

Here is a short handout on “Gender and Collaboration in Professional Communication” that I provided to participants of a business breakfast in 2007.  It has my findings from research and experience boiled down into tips for women and men.

Context:  Last year, March 2007, I was invited to speak on a panel at a Deloitte & Touche women’s network breakfast at the posh Palliser Hotel in Calgary. What an experience, sitting next to some important women leaders, Shelley Youngblut (editor of Swerve magazine) and Bonnie DuPont (VP of Enbridge; on the Bank of Canada board of directors).

Despite being quite intimidated, it went very well; I made several important contacts and hopefully inspired people to work and learn collaboratively.

 

Community Liberal Arts Salons

Abraham Bosse "Salon des Dames" from Wikipedia commons

A Proposal for a “Community Liberal Arts Salon Society (CLASS)”

VISION –

The Calgary Community Liberal Arts Salon Society (CLASS) will provide a salon-style learning opportunity and social engagement activity for diverse adults with at least grade 12 literacy skills and an interest in the broad liberal arts (literature, language, culture, fine arts, history, philosophy, politics, law, etc.).

The CLASS “salon” draws on the precedent of Humanities 101 which has been successful at the University of British Columbia and several other Universities.

It is also based on the model of the conversational Salon in early modern Europe in which literate adults gathered to discuss and apply historical and contemporary literature and culture in an entertaining and socially engaging manner.

 

Sustainable Service-Learning

Calgary Downtown, 2006, from Wikimedia Commons

Q: What is the basic unit of Community Service Learning (CSL) in the university-community context? — What is the smallest social unit that contains all its necessary ingredients for its success and sustainability?

A: The basic unit of CSL is not a course or a student project, as teachers and administrators might think it is. … The basic unit of CSL is a “partnership” between one or more teachers, people in the community, and the students/citizens they currently mentor and work with.