PHI THETA KAPPA

What is the relationship between information and education?

Study Questions

1. How do educators decide what to teach and how to teach it?
2. Is it more important to know, or to know where to look?
3. How do educators prepare students for jobs that don’t yet exist?
4. What have we learned about learning and learning styles that has changed education?
5. To what extent do we all have the potential to be experts now?
6. It has been said that the master’s degree is the new bachelor’s degree and the associate degree is the new high school diploma. Will this trend continue in the current information age – why or why not?
7. What is gained and what is lost in online education?
8. As technological literacy becomes more important in education, who is left behind? What are the ramifications?
9. In what ways can personal technology devices be tools of education rather than distractions? Does technology change the boundaries between students and teachers?
10. To what extent has the expansion of public education in the world been the result of the democratization of information?
11. What is the history of “academic freedom” and how does it differ around the world?
12. How has the democratization of information increased or decreased the level of discourse in scholarly debates?
13. In the information age, to what extent is it realistic to define a “core curriculum”?
14. To what extent is it a good use of resources for scholars to study arguably obsolete subject matter?

Honors in Action

One Hundred Points of Hites

Investigation of the Honors Study Topic (Research): How do community colleges increase access to information? How, when, and why were community colleges established? What is the history of community colleges in your state? What is the history of your community college? What does it cost to attend your college for a year? Investigate the scholarships available to you and fellow chapter members who plan to continue taking community college courses. What scholarships does Phi Theta Kappa have for members? How are each of these things communicated to your student body and fellow Phi Theta Kappa members?

Leadership Role(s): Work with college administrators to gain permission to place a copy of your Hites Booklet in the college president’s office and in the admissions office. Send copies of the booklet to your local newspaper and arrange a meeting with your state representative and senator to share the booklet with them to help them learn more about the impact your community college has had on a wide variety of students.

Leadership Development: Invite your college president to a meeting to help members learn ways to effectively communicate with college administrators and public officials.

Action: Since the Hites Scholarship Fund will support scholarships for community college students, raise funds for the Hites Foundation and donate $1.00 for each member inducted into your chapter this year. To determine the impact your community college has had on students, interview single parents, adults returning to school, traditional and online students, and GED students to gain unique perspectives on how the community college has made a difference in the lives of students. From these interviews, pull out one especially strong quotation from each interviewed student and place the quotes on your “Hites Page.” With the permission of the interviewees, compile a “Hites Booklet” that showcases each student’s photograph and quotation. Have the pages show that a donation has been made to the Hites Scholarship Fund in the interviewee’s name. Finally, create a “One Hundred Points of Hites” kit to give out to other chapters.

Collaboration:

• Chapter members
• Students on your college campus
• Phi Theta Kappa members beyond your chapter
• Community members who are former community college students
• College administrators
• State political leaders

Reflection: Discuss what you learned about community colleges and their role in the democratization of information. How did you grow as scholars, leaders, and community activists? Share what you have learned with other chapters, so they can replicate and expand on it according to the chapter’s needs.

The Banned Book Club

Investigation of the Honors Study Topic (Research): Research the history of book censorship. How often are books challenged? On what basis are they usually challenged? Why do challengers want the books removed from school reading lists … classrooms … libraries? How do various communities respond to calls for censorship? Host a panel discussion on censorship at your campus. Invite individuals such as authors, publishers, and school administrators to serve on the panel. Other participants could include school board members, parents, or students. Encourage an honest discussion surrounding issues of censorship, working hard to ensure that, in your setting, divergent voices are heard.

Leadership Role(s): Meet with your college president, the chair of your local school board, or your mayor and discuss your concerns regarding censorship. Write letters to the editor of your local newspaper or to your state representatives expressing your opposition to censorship.

Leadership Development: Conduct a workshop on developing a personal philosophy of leadership. Use what you have learned to guide your exploration of the impact censorship has on the democratization of information.

Action: Organize a book club on your campus. The club’s major rule will be that all of the books on the club’s list will have appeared on American Library Association’s Top 100 List of Banned Books. Read one banned book every month and meet to discuss the text. Why was the book challenged? Do your group members agree or disagree with the challenge to the book? Is it ever appropriate for a book to be censored in one setting but supported in another? Is there a difference between removing a book from a reading list versus a library?

Sponsor a “Read-In” where students, faculty members, and community members will gather and read “objectionable” passages from banned books. Discuss why the passages were deemed by some to be objectionable and how the passages could have merit.

Sponsor a “Self-Censored” day when students will refuse to speak for the entire day to show solidarity with censored artists. (Students could even consider taping their mouths shut for visual effect.) After the “Self-Censored” day, record your experiences and share them through your chapter’s website or blog.

Collaboration:

• Chapter members
• Students on your campus
• College administrators on your campus
• Local public officials

Reflection: Discuss what you learned about censorship and how it affects your lives as students and community activists. What were the challenges you faced while working on the various aspects of your project? How did you overcome those challenges? How did you grow as scholars and leaders?

Bibliography

Battles, Matthew. Library: An Unquiet History. 2003.
Battles explores how libraries have accumulated, preserved, shaped, inspired, and obliterated knowledge. The author reveals how the library has been the battleground of competing notions of what books mean to us and how throughout its many changes, the library has served two contradictory impulses: the urge to exalt canons of literature – to secure and worship the best and most beautiful words – and the desire to contain and control all forms of human knowledge.

Bloom, Allan. The Closing of the American Mind: How Higher Education Has Failed Democracy and Impoverished the Souls of Today’s Students. 1987.
Bloom discusses concerns that Americans have become too narrow in their focus and worldview. As higher education moved toward increased specialization in the 20th century, Americans were ill-served. He believes every student should read the works of the great philosophers who asked the question, “What is man?” in preparation for living philosophical lives.

Gruwell, Erin. Teach With Your Heart: Lessons I Learned From the Freedom Writers. 2008.
Gruwell updates her work with Long Beach, California, students and discusses the lessons she learned about America’s educational system and about life while working with the Freedom Writers.

Ravitch, Diane. The Language Police: How Pressure Groups Restrict What Students Learn. 2003.
Ravitch offers an analysis of the causes of censorship. She suggests solutions for ending it, which will improve the quality of books for students.

Ravitch, Diane. Left Back: A Century of Battles over School Reform. 2000.
Ravitch describes the ongoing battle of ideas and explains why school reform has so often disappointed. She recounts efforts that diminished the schools’ ability to provide a high-quality education for all children.