This "talking paper" is an effort to establish a clear academic vision or sense of direction for the College; and to locate the distinguishing features that might differentiate us from other small liberal arts colleges. We agree that we need to further differentiate ourselves as a College, so that the Development efforts can be more clearly and adequately targeted and so that Admissions efforts can more accurately represent what we can and cannot do. We also need to clearly state our "mission", so that we can structure faculty and staff positions to meet well-defined needs. The Board has proposed a discussion about becoming a "democratic, pubic problem-solving" institution. This paper is an effort to articulate the ways in which we see this as consistent with the mission of the College, and to foster discussion about the steps we might take to further such an effort. It should be considered a "work-in-progress".

What are the elements necessary to become a democratic, problem-solving institution, while remaining true to Goddard's historic, evolving mission? At least five things seem necessary: first, an outlining of our understanding of, and practice of participatory democratic principles; second, an outlining of a curriculum which identify relevant social problems and, in turn, develop problem-solving strategies; third, an articulation of the experimental and radical pedagogical methods which distinguish us as a uniquely progressive liberal arts institution; fourth, a plan which encourages the development of empowered individuals who have both deep self-knowledge and a keen sense of the collective good; and fifth, a vision of the educational outcomes of our academic programs. Each of these elements are addressed separately below:

Participatory Democracy

Participatory democracy has always been an essential part of Goddard College, both in terms of the philosophy that informs our approach to teaching and learning and in terms of our life as a democratic institution. At a time when there is once again a stirring of democratic currents in the society at large, a "quickening of democracy", to use Francis Moore Lappe's term, it is of vital importance that Goddard reaffirm its commitment to both the theory and practice of participatory democracy.

Tim Pitkin, Goddard's founder, understood the importance of a democratic college as an integral element in a student's education, acknowledging the way that the practice of democracy in the college community prepared students for active citizenship in the larger world. Tim Pitkin saw the Vermont Town Meeting as the model for College governance and recognized the experience of participatory democracy as central to the curriculum of a progressive college. Jack Lindquist, who served as Goddard's President for ten years, referred to Goddard as "Democracy's College."

We are witnessing the spread of models of direct, democratic participation in decision making into diverse realms of society. As noted at our 1995 Pitkin conference "Radical Democracy and Our Future: A Call to Action", there is a growing trend toward participation and democracy in the realm of business, where current management theory emphasizes the "empowerment" of workers; in education, where national reform efforts and the demands of local communities are both calling for greater participation in decision

making; and in the realm of environmental policy, where grass-roots, community-based organizations have long practiced participatory democracy and are demanding an expansion of those ideas into the process of policy formation.

These are exciting times for a small progressive college which has long been in the forefront of the movement for participatory democracy. We are in a position, by virtue of our history and experience, to take a leadership role in the further development and expansion of these ideas. But to do so we must further refined our theoretical understanding of participatory democracy, and align our everyday operations with our theory. We must recreate Goddard as an experimental College, a college which places itself on the cutting edge of participatory and democratic modes of problem solving. It is our concern with community democracy which has made Goddard unique and in large part has defined our identity. A self-conscious rededication to these ideals has a crucial role to play in Goddard's renewal.

The Assessment of Problems and Problem-solving Strategies for Pedagogy

Every educational institution could claim to educate people for problem solving. Indeed, higher education is geared toward the development of an expert, managerial class capable of solving the many problems that arise in society: technical problems, social problems, health problems, legal problems etc. What is different about Goddard? Above-all, Goddard is an alternative school, one of the few left in higher education. This manifests itself not only in alternative approaches to learning, but in the emphasis on critiquing the status quo in society with the intent of transforming the world: toward economic and social justice, toward greater equality, toward wider participation in the democratic process by marginalized people, toward greater environmental responsibility, and toward increasing freedom (from oppression, from external and arbitrary authority, from hegemonic cultural forces, etc.)

Renowned curriculum theorist James Macdonald criticized Progressivism of Dewey for its failure to understand why democratic ideals are not fully realized, and he suggested a greater emphasis on the comprehension of environmental structures (such as the dominant economic system and methods of resource allocation). This critical, revisionist strand of Progressivism is a central element of Goddard's pedagogy, and clearly differentiates us from mainstream institutions. Not only do we help students gain a critical and articulate understanding of the structural dimensions of problems, we aim to provide the tools necessary to challenge, negotiate, change, and/or recreate the dominant institutions and structures of our society in the interest of an alternative social vision.

Defining Goddard's Experimental Projects in Education

"The intellectual harm accruing from divorce of work and play, product and process, is evidenced in the proverb, 'All work and no plat, makes Jack a dull boy [and Jill, a dull girl].' That the obverse is true is perhaps sufficiently signalized in the fact that fooling is so near to foolishness. To be playful and serious at the same time is possible, and it defines the ideal mental condition. Absence of dogmatism and prejudice, pretence of intellectual curiosity crud flexibility, are manifest in the free play of the mind upon a topic. To give the mind this free play is not to encourage toying with a subject, but is to be interested in the unfolding of the subject on its own account, apart from its subservience to a preconceived belief or habitual aim. Mental play is open-mindedness, faith in the power of thought to preserve its own integrity without external supports and arbitrary restrictions. Hence free mental play involves seriousness, the earnest following of the development of subject-matter. It is incompatible with carelessness or flippancy, for it exacts accurate noting of every result reached in order that every conclusion may be put to

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farther use. What is termed the interest in truth for its own sake is certainly a serious matter, yet this pare interest in truth coincides With love of the free play of thought." - from John Dewey's How We Think

Goddard has been "experimenting" within and outside its curriculum since its inception as a center for progressive education in the early 1930's. Experimentation has taken place on many levels -- from the structure of its administration (i.e. its push toward a selfgoverning, non-hierarchical, democratic institution) to the formation of its courses as "group studies" (where the authority and direction in the classroom is shared between students and facilitators) to its more recent experimentations with public service learning (with an emphasis on learning outside as well as inside the classroom). Indeed, Goddard is committed to Dewey's principle of supporting the "free play of the mind upon a topic." This is especially illustrated in the concept of the "negotiated curriculum" utilized by a majority of the Goddard faculty in an effort to insure student input in the planning, development, and execution of a particular course idea. This kind of "negotiation" process also occurs at the level of larger curricular questions where students, faculty, and staff collaborate on the content and form of Goddard's overall curriculum offered each semester.

Students and faculty who are attracted to Goddard's mission, are usually people who are interested in pushing the limits of a particular discipline, a pedagogical principle, or a structural question of how a college could be organized. Innovators in the arts like John Cage, Charles Olson, Robert Creely, and David Mamet, to name just a few, have endowed Goddard (either through their visits or attendance of the school itself) with a rich heritage of experimenting with conventional aesthetic forms. Many of the group studies offered in recent years reflect the impulse to challenge conventional artistic and scientific forms, whether it be in non-narrative film (independent film's critical challenge to Hollywood); improvisational music (free jazz, folk ensembles, self-directed choruses, new composing); performance studies (a critique of traditional dramatic theater), or philosophical and literary studies which focus oil material which cuts across the classical canon into lesser known, riskier works or combines contrasting materials from science (i.e. physics) and art or environmentalism and dance, or education and drama, or popular culture and philosophy. Students are encouraged to familiarize themselves with the rich history of experimental work in the sciences, the arts, education, and leadership and many group studies offer introductions or close readings of the Nvork of leading innovators in the arts and sciences.

Moreover, Goddard's campus (its upper gardens, its buildings, its walkways and driveways) as well as the surrounding Vermont communities are utilized as experimental laboratories in and through which to test new pedagogical theories (as in service learning) or try out a particular artistic or environmental project a student or faculty had conceived (as was the case in a recent course proposal to rebuild/improve/re-vision the existing dormitories or a group study which transformed the upper gardens, the Haybarn, and the connecting walkways into an Atomic Cinema of light, sound, film, and performance).

Academic departments, as we have come to know them, do not exist at Goddard. Rather, the notion of transdisciplinary programs fits Goddard's desire to lead undergraduate education away from the tired model of rationalized, quantifiable knowledge and toward a life-learning ethos which affirms the Dewyian principle that knowledge emerges from experience. Dewey, in affirming experiential knowledge, did not mean that knowledge sprung magically as Athena supposedly did from the head of Zeus, but through a

systematic way of registering experience-through organized forms of knowing. As reiterated below in our discussion of Educational Outcomes, students at Goddard selfdesign their educational trajectories through education both utilizing existing Goddard programs (i.e. Teacher Education, Health Arts, Cultural Studies, Studio Arts), and inventing their own (as in the recent case of a student declaring that he is a Superhero major). The process of self-directed learning, though it entails much educational freedom, is imbued with the kind of academic rigor that most undergraduate students are only able to first experience in a graduate-level program. In Goddard's Students' Level Reviews (which come in their third and sixth semesters), they are required to map and defend the focus and depth of their academic programs (this is outlined in more detail below in Educational Outcomes).

To sum, experimentation at Goddard takes place at both an organizational as well as pedagogical level. A strong emphasis is placed on the "participatory" conception of a democratic education -- it stresses public participation as opposed to passive representation, flux as opposed to the status quo. The experimental is closely tied to experience-an ever-changing, challenging dynamic force in people's lives. It is also a method, an approach to learning: it encourages steps towards the unpredictable, the subversive, the new. To experiment is to test, to question, to invent. It is precisely this kind of an experimental ethos which lies at the center of pedagogical practice at Goddard.

The Development of Empowered Individuals

The study of psychology and human development has played a larger part in the development of pedagogical principles at Goddard than at other institutions of higher learning. Many ideas hatched at early educational conferences at Goddard found expression in published works: Carl Roger's On Becoming a Person; Lawrence Kubie's The Neurotic Distortion of the Creative Process; and Dick Jones's Fantasy and Feeling in Education, to name just a few. These ideas also found their place in Goddard's emphasis on the counseling and advising of students (even today, an intensive, dialogical process which is meant to help students become more aware of their needs, intentions, and motivations); in the emphasis on self-knowledge, especially at undergraduate levels 1-3, but also with adult learners in the Off-Campus programs; in the "24-hour curriculum" (in which all aspects of student life are considered opportunities for growth and learning); in the tripartite criteria of knowing, doing and being; in the commitment to the individualized, self-designed curriculum; and in the deliberate utilization of contemporary theories of cognition and human development, such as Multiple Intelligences Theory, in our pedagogy.

Macdonald addressed this critical necessity in his critique of Progressivism, when lie stated that "psychology theory, if there must be such an adjunct to educational ideology, must be seen as a focus upon the question of human being (it) must be grounded in existence and utilize the methods of phenomenology if it hopes to cope with being." This emphasis on depth psychology and/or a spiritual dimension of experience is thought by many curriculum theorists to be the other great revisionist strand of Progressivism. Many experiments have been ongoing at Goddard in this effort to understand and articulate the subtle dimensions of human being, and to draw out the implications for the learning process. Group studies have been taught in Body, Mind, and Spirit, Transpersonal Human Development, Holistic Education, etc., conferences have been held on the topic of Spirituality and Education; and students are encouraged go explore, with rigor, non-traditional forms of knowledge that lie outside the canon of traditional education.

Educational Outcomes: Immediate and Future Goals of a Goddard Education

The College Mission Statement asserts: "At Goddard, students are regarded as unique individuals who will take charge of their learning and collaborate with other students, staff, and faculty to build a strong community. Goddard encourages students to become creative, passionate, lifelong learners, working and living with an earnest concern for others and for the welfare of the earth."

This statement, together with the level review and senior study criteria, suggest that graduates of our program should have developed the capacities needed for:

• Self-directed, lifelong learning

• Collaborative community building and community living

• Active democratic citizenship (both local and global) in pursuit of social and environmental justice

• Effective communication and self-expression (through writing and the visual or performing arts)

• Proficiency (at the BA level) of theory, practice, and theory-practice integration in regard to the problem (i.e. research skills), question or issue addressed in the senior study.

These five general categories or "exit outcomes" each therefore imply a variety of more specific competencies (knowledge, skills, and qualities) through which achievement of that general outcome can be demonstrated. Below are examples of these competencies for each general outcome. (These are offered as illustrations at this point, with further development, refinement, and rephrasing needed.)

The competencies listed under each of the general categories below are drawn from out current level review criteria, senior study criteria, and by implication, from our mission statement.

Self-directed Lifelong Learning:

• connected knowing (ability to learn through connections to personal and interpersonal experience)

• constructivist knowing (ability to construct knowledge through a process of inquiry, action, dialogue, and reflection)

• ability to use, critically evaluate, and make connections between various ways of knowing (including quantitative, qualitative, objective, subjective, scientific, aesthetic, etc...)

• critical thinking

• problem-solving

• ability to initiate, organize, and carry out independent inquiry

• ability to initiate, organize, and carry out collaborative inquiry

• goal-setting, planning, and evaluation of learning

• ability to engage in self-reflection and demonstrate self-knowledge as a learner, ail individual, a community member, and a citizen

Collaborative Community Building and Community Living:

• understanding of the balance and interaction between individual needs and community needs principles and skills for collaborative decision-making

• principles and skills for conflict resolution principles and skills for collaborative leadership

• a demonstrated ethic of empathy, care, and concern for others

• personal integrity and ethical decision-making

• ability to recognize and take responsibility for the consequences of one's actions

• active engagement in the Goddard community

• ability to engage in useful and productive work in the Goddard community

• awareness of one's own cultural background

• awareness of other cultures (in a global context)

  
  

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• awareness of social justice issues, problems, and potential solutions (knowledge of different political systems and their historical and contemporary approaches to issues of justice)

• awareness of environmental and ecological issues, problems, and potential solutions

• demonstrated ability to plan, carry out and evaluate actions in pursuit of social and environmental justice

• ability to engage in public dialogue about controversial issues

• active engagement in the local Vermont community, and the global community

• ability to engage in useful and productive work in the community

• effective expository writing skills

• active exploration or at least one form of creative expression

• active listening skills

• assertive communication skills

• integration of personal voice and vision

• proficiency in an area of study-philosophical, aesthetic, historical, theoretical

• ability to plan and carry out strategies to seek a solution to a defined problem or issue

• ability to research and present findings in a prescribed professional format

• preparation for a profession or for graduate study in a chosen field

• ability to use technology for learning

• ability to demonstrate how a project is personally and socially meaningful

review their cumulative work and defend their chosen study and future focus). As mentioned above, each student is required to complete a senior thesis (mentored intensively by a senior thesis advisor and a second reader) which must reflect a knowledge of one's field (both historical and current debates) and original research (whether it be qualitative, aesthetic, or quantitative).

In addition to preparing students for graduate school in their prospective fields, Goddard also supports students who choose to enter public fields through community service, i.e. many of our students have become important figures in Environmental Projects or Alternative Health Initiatives, Battered Women's Shelters and Services, Adult Education Institutes, Community Radio Programs, Food Bank Projects, Family Centers, Programs for the Aging, Humane Societies, Outward Bound Programs, and many other projects designed to provide outreach and support for local and global communities.

Some have chosen successful careers in business, computer engineering, college administration, leadership (local and national politics), law, and medicine. Others have gone on to pursue careers as novelists, playwrights, poets, musicians, filmmakers, painters, sculptors, new media artists, publishers, arts administrators, and other independent artistic livelihoods.

Goddard alumni (from successful people in business to leading figures in the Arts and Humanities) reflect the diversity and span of what a Goddard education can offer and/or inspire in its students.

[editor's note: this document goes on to describe the various programs that Goddard offers.]
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