Inspired by @JackieWoodson in a Philosophy Course - A Collaborative Art Project By Undergrads

Yesterday was the Service Learning Appreciation & Celebration Event at Fairfield University, where I watched many faculty and community partners share their service-learning projects, and had the pleasure of seeing awards given and a new cohort of service-minded faculty being announced for next year.

For the last 3-years I've worked almost weekly with Columbus K-8 School in Bridgeport, Connecticut, working on building a writing community and supporting literacy initiatives. The work began with my graduate courses, but when I was asked to take over the undergraduate version of Philosophy of Education, I quickly asked, "Can I make it a service-learning course?"

There really wasn't a choice.

We read Freire, Rizga, Dewey, Addams, Greene, Noddings, Ladson-Billings and many more. Unique to our approach this semester, however, was pairing the Educational Philosophers with writer Jacqueline Woodson, who was selected for Fairfield Public Library's One Book, One Town. I was able to purchase copies of The Day You Begin for all the teachers at Columbus, and donate a class set of Harbor Me to the 6th grade team ((it quickly became a hit, especially for several of the teachers who felt like the book was written for their students).

Throughout the semester, the undergraduates had opportunities to mentor the 6th graders as they came to campus for various activities. The one-on-one discussion about the purpose of education, the philosophers we were reading, the curriculum in the middle school, and passages from Harbor Me was fantastic. Colleagues asked me how I did this and I simply responded, "I taught to the undergrads by modeling what the philosophers were saying. The 6th graders would read passages from the college books I assigned and we'd apply knowledge together. No one seemed to have difficulty. In fact, they thought it was quite cool."

Of course, Jacqueline Woodson's writing helped us to link much of the conversation. Her books talked to the kids and they were engaged. They modeled the philosophical thinking that academics have expressed for 100 years.

Yesterday, the last day, I had my undergraduates come with art pieces I assigned by giving them triangles to trace onto something else with the directions, "Respond artistically in the shape you were given to the following questions: Why education? Why knowledge? Why School?" The result was 26 different triangles that I new would create a frame for the words UBUNTU - the S. African philosophy of humble togetherness, community, listening and responding. My students read articles from S. African scholars so were familiar with the humanitarian belief.

In 30-minutes of sharing, we created a gift - referencing Alan Luke's writing on Pedagogy as Gift....teaching is providing the gift of knowledge and thinking to the next generation. None of us can do this alone, and we all need to be in it together. We're crafty as individuals, but look at the art we make when we are part of a larger community creating together.

I will give the present to the 6th graders and their school at their end-of-the-year celebration. Every student in this course this semester is a better individual because of how much they were touched by learning from and with the Columbus School students.

Who would you have harbored? Ms. Lavern asked us.
I thought of this as Amari left the classroom with his knapsack on his shoulder and Ashton looked down at his hands. (p. 76, Harbor Me)

For a semester, we were lucky to harbor one another, but also have guidance from a great writer. We are all thankful.